唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
溪居
Dwelling by the Stream
久为簪组累，幸此南夷谪。
闲依农圃邻，偶似山林客。
晓耕翻露草，夜榜响溪石。
来往不逢人，长歌楚天碧。
I count it luck to be banished among the southern tribes.
At leisure I live neighbour to the farmers' plots,
and now and then seem a guest of hills and woods.
At dawn I plough and turn the dew-wet grass;
at night my oar strikes and the stream-stones ring.
Coming and going I meet no one I know—
I sing aloud to the blue sky of Chu.
Meaning
For a long time I was worn out by office and its emoluments, and now I am almost glad to have been banished to the wild country of the south. In idleness I live beside the farmers' vegetable plots, and at times I look almost like a hermit of the hills and woods. At dawn I plough and turn the dew-covered grass; at night the oar sounds knock against the stones of the stream. Going and coming I meet not one acquaintance, so I sing aloud, facing the blue sky of the land of Chu.
长久以来被官场禄位所牵累，反倒庆幸这一回被贬谪到了南方的蛮荒之地。闲时与农家菜圃为邻，偶尔倒像是个山林隐士。清晨耕田翻动带露的野草，夜里划船桨声惊响溪石。来来往往遇不到一个相识的人，便放声长歌，面对楚地碧蓝的长空。全诗貌似写溪居闲适之乐，实则「幸此南夷谪」乃愤激反语，于闲淡中深藏政治失意之痛。
Appreciation
The poem is built on the word 'luck', and looks open-hearted while carrying irony inside. The first two lines say that the poet was long worn out by office and therefore counts his banishment a piece of good fortune—words spoken in bitterness. The middle lines write his idle life: he lives next to garden plots, seems a man of hills and woods, ploughs at dawn and rows at night, and the picture is clear and quiet. The two words 'now and then seem' are the most telling, for they admit that he only looks like a recluse and is in truth forcing consolation upon himself. The closing lines, 'coming and going I meet no one I know, I sing aloud to the blue sky of Chu', shut the poem with an empty, open scene, and the loneliness sounds beyond the words. Writing grief through apparent joy, the poem is implicit and deeply moving.
【白话串讲】 柳宗元被贬永州，却写：“久为簪组累，幸此南夷谪”——久被官场拖累，幸好被贬到南方。“晓耕翻露草，夜榜响溪石”——他种地、行船，把流放地过成了自己的桃花源。 【意象与手法】 诗以「幸」字立骨，貌似旷达，实含反讽。前二句言久为官职所累，反以贬谪为幸，语带愤激；中二联写闲居的耕钓生活，画面清幽，「偶似」二字最耐寻味，点明本非真隐，不过强自排遣；尾联「来往不逢人，长歌楚天碧」以空阔之景收束，孤寂之情见于言外。 【情感与主旨】 柳宗元参与永贞革新失败，于唐宪宗永贞元年（805）被贬为永州（今湖南零陵）司马，在贬所十年。此诗作于永州，写其溪居生活。诗人身处蛮荒，孤寂无侣，借耕钓自遣，诗句闲淡中深藏政治失意之痛，与《江雪》《渔翁》同一孤峭情怀。 【名句点睛】 考点：①情感主旨——把握「幸此南夷谪」的反语之妙与孤寂自守的情怀；②「偶似山林客」的深意；③白描手法与以乐写哀的含蓄笔法。
Background
Liu Zongyuan took part in the Yongzhen reform, and when it failed he was demoted in 805, the first year of the Yongzhen era under Emperor Xianzong, to be Marshal of Yongzhou (present-day Lingling in Hunan), where he remained for ten years. This poem was written at Yongzhou and describes his life beside the stream. On the surface it says that banishment has brought him the pleasure of leisure; in fact 'I count it luck to be banished among the southern tribes' is bitter irony. In that wild country the poet had no companion, and diverted himself with ploughing and fishing; the calm, plain lines hide a deep pain of political failure, the same lonely and severe feeling that runs through River Snow and The Old Fisherman.
柳宗元为唐代古文运动领袖，与韩愈并称「韩柳」。唐顺宗永贞元年（805），柳宗元参与王叔文领导的永贞革新，欲除宦官、削藩镇、革新政治，然革新仅百余日即告失败，顺宗被迫退位，王叔文赐死，柳宗元等八人被贬远州司马，史称「二王八司马事件」。柳宗元被贬永州（今湖南零陵）司马，一居十年，其《永州八记》等传世名篇皆作于此时。此诗作于永州贬所，写其谪居溪畔的日常生活。永州地处湖南南部，古属楚地，在当时是蛮荒瘴疠之乡，柳宗元身处其间，政治理想破灭，亲友隔绝，孤寂无侣，遂借耕钓、读书、山水以自遣，其《溪居》《渔翁》《江雪》皆写此境。诗题《溪居》，写久困官场之后反以贬谪为幸的闲居生活，字面旷达，实则「幸」字之下深藏二十余年贬谪生涯的愤激与无奈。柳宗元后来量移柳州，卒于任所，一生未得北归，此诗正是其贬谪生涯中期的代表作。柳宗元在永州除诗文自遣外，更潜心著述，其《封建论》《天说》等政论皆成于贬所，可见其虽处穷厄而未尝放弃经世之思，读《溪居》当知「闲」字背后尚有这样一副用世心肠。
Art
The poem takes the word 'luck' for its backbone: it seems broad-minded and in fact holds irony. The first two lines say that long weariness of office makes him count banishment a piece of luck, and the words carry indignation. The middle two couplets write his idle life—neighbour to the garden plots, like a man of the hills, ploughing at dawn and rowing at night—in pictures clear and quiet; the words 'now and then seem' repay the closest reading, for to 'seem' a recluse is to declare that he is none, only a man forcing consolation on himself. The closing couplet, 'coming and going I meet no one I know, I sing aloud to the blue sky of Chu', gathers all in an empty and open scene, and loneliness stands outside the words. Grief written through joy: implicit, deep and delicate.
诗以「幸」字立骨，貌似旷达，实含反讽，章法上先议后写、由情入景。前二句「久为簪组累，幸此南夷谪」开门见山：「簪组」代指官场禄位，「累」字道尽为官的羁绊与厌倦，以「幸」字反说贬谪，表面庆幸脱离官场，实则饱含政治失意的愤激与自嘲，是全诗立骨之笔。中二联写谪居生活：「闲依农圃邻，偶似山林客」写与农圃为邻的闲适，「偶似」二字最耐寻味——好像是隐士，正点明本非真隐，不过是贬谪之余的强自排遣，逐臣不得已之态尽在其中；「晓耕翻露草，夜榜响溪石」以「晓」「夜」对举写耕钓之勤，「翻」「响」两个动词写出动景，露草、溪石皆实景白描，画面清幽而人迹罕至。尾联「来往不逢人，长歌楚天碧」笔势拓开：「不逢人」写尽贬所之孤寂，「长歌」是排遣也是悲鸣，「楚天碧」以碧空之旷远反衬独行之渺小，孤寂之情见于言外。全诗以乐写哀、以旷写愤，语淡而味浓，含蓄深婉，是柳宗元谪居诗外枯而中膏的典范。此诗八句，前二句议论、中四句叙事写景、末二句抒情，层次井然；而「幸」「偶似」「不逢人」三处虚词递转，将愤激、自嘲、孤寂层层化开，正是柳诗以意运笔的章法特点。
Allusions
The poem uses elegant substitutes throughout. 'Cap-pin and seal-ribbon' means the pin of the official cap and the cord of the seal, standing for office and its emoluments, as in Du Fu's phrase about shaking off the burden of cap-pin and seal. 'Southern tribes' means the wild land in the south of the old state of Chu, and Yongzhou anciently belonged to Chu, hence the name; 'the sky of Chu' follows from it and fixes the region. The character for rowing here means to pole or row a boat. The diction is elegant yet natural, piling up no learned matter, and in plain words the poet's rank and situation are seen—exactly the 'dry and bland' manner for which Liu's poetry is known.
诗中多用雅言代称，取径含蓄而不堆砌故实。「簪组」即冠簪与印绶，代指官场禄位，杜甫诗有「脱略簪组累」之语，柳宗元用之而更见厌倦之情；「南夷」指楚国南部蛮荒之地，永州古属楚地，故称，字面是自嘲贬地荒僻，实含不遇之怨；「楚天」承「南夷」而来，点明地域，兼有楚材晋用的用世传统之暗影。「榜」通「搒」，划船之意，「夜榜」即夜航，用词典雅而自然。全诗不着僻典，纯以寻常字面写贬所实况，正合柳诗枯淡之风；「偶似山林客」五字尤见匠心，暗用陶渊明归隐田园的意象而反其意，自道非真隐，与陶之真隐形成微妙对照。诗中「农圃」「耕」「榜」诸字，又暗承《诗经·豳风·七月》以来农事诗的底色，将逐臣的贬所生活纳入田园书写的传统。「长歌」暗用《论语》楚狂接舆歌而过孔子的楚地歌者传统，兼采《楚辞·九章》长啸以自明的抒愤方式，歌向楚天碧空，正见逐臣以歌代哭、欲说还休的深衷。
Commentary
Su Shi said of Liu's poetry that it 'brings out delicacy and richness from what is simple and antique, and lodges the fullest savour in what is plain and bland'; this piece is the very type of that praise. The Qing critic He Shang said it 'looks like ease, but taste it closely and you find grievance and lonely indignation'. The five words 'now and then seem a guest of hills and woods' say all there is to say of a banished official forcing an air of detachment, and students of Liu Zongyuan have long held them the key to his state of mind in exile, and to the sorrow that lies outside his lines.
苏轼评柳诗「发纤秾于简古，寄至味于淡泊」，此篇尤为代表：语言简古枯淡，而其间所寄的政治失意、孤寂自守之味，须细味方得。清人贺裳谓其「看似闲适，细味之乃见其牢骚孤愤」，直揭「幸」字反语之下的真实心境。「偶似山林客」五字，道尽逐臣强作达观之态，历来为论柳诗者所重，以为读懂柳宗元贬谪心态之关键。柳宗元与《江雪》《渔翁》同写贬所孤峭情怀，而此诗以闲居面目出之，最为隐蔽难察，论者遂以此为柳诗以乐写哀的标本。其诗外之哀、言外之愤，与韩愈不平则鸣之说相印证；此诗亦与屈原《离骚》之进不入以离尤兮、退将复修吾初服的失意自处一脉相承，可见贬谪文学从楚辞到唐宋的深厚传统，而柳宗元以极淡之笔写极深之痛，尤为其中独造之境。此诗向为高中教材及多种选本收录，为理解唐代贬谪文学的重要篇目；读者若能由「幸」字反语、由「偶似」二字切入，便能登堂入室，把握柳宗元诗淡泊其表、郁结其里的真精神。
Prosody
Line by line
久为簪组累，幸此南夷谪
Long worn out by office and its emoluments, I count it luck instead to be banished among the southern tribes.
长久以来被官场禄位所牵累，反倒庆幸这一回被贬谪到了南方蛮荒之地。
Long fettered by official cap and girdle, I count myself lucky for this exile to the southern wilds.
全诗立骨之笔。「簪组」代指官场禄位，「累」字写尽为官的羁绊厌倦，久经宦海之疲态毕现；「幸」字乃愤激反语，表面庆幸贬谪南夷、脱离官场，实则暗藏政治失意之痛与对朝廷的怨愤。以「幸」说「贬」，正话反说，愈见其不得已与自嘲；而「南夷」二字自贬荒僻，又见逐臣处境之凄凉。此联也为下文「偶似山林客」的强作达观埋下伏笔，是理解全诗情感基调的总开关。此联一「累」一「幸」，先抑后扬而扬中藏抑，是全诗情感张力的总源头。
The poem's bone-setting line. Official cap and girdle stands for office; fettered exhausts the bondage and weariness of office, the long fatigue of official life fully present. Lucky is indignant irony: on the surface congratulating himself on exile to the southern wilds and escape from office, within hiding the pain of political disappointment and resentment at the court. Writing exile as lucky, saying yes through no, shows all the more the helplessness and self-mockery; and southern wilds, self-deprecating in its remoteness, shows the exile's desolation. This couplet also plants the伏笔 for the forced equanimity of at times a traveler in the hills below - the master switch for understanding the poem's emotional keynote. One fettered one lucky in this couplet: first depreciating then exalting, yet exaltation hiding depreciation - the total source of the poem's emotional tension.
晓耕翻露草，夜榜响溪石
At dawn I plough and turn the dew-wet grass; at night my oar strikes and the stream-stones ring.
清晨耕田翻动带露的野草，夜里划船桨声惊响溪石。
At dawn I plough, turning dew-wet grass; at night I pole my boat, oars clashing on the stream stones.
白描闲居的动景，「晓」「夜」对举写昼夜劳作之勤，「翻」「响」两个动词使画面有声有色：晨耕翻起草上露珠，夜航桨声惊动溪石。景物清幽而境界孤寂——耕者唯与露草溪石为伍，不见人烟，正是贬所独处之态；以动写寂，动静相生。日耕夜钓本是隐士生涯的常景，此处却透着无人问津的凄凉，闲适的外表下是政治失意的孤寂，以乐景写哀情，含蓄深婉，最见柳诗淡中藏苦的特色。
Plain drawing of the idle life's motion: dawn and night set against, writing the diligence of day and night labor; turn and clash two verbs give the picture sound and color - dawn ploughing turning up dew-wet grass, night boating startling the stream stones. The scenery is quiet yet the realm solitary: the ploughman has only dew-grass and stream-stones for company, no human trace - precisely the exile's solitude; writing silence through motion, motion and stillness born together. Day-ploughing, night-fishing was the recluse's common lot; yet here it breathes the desolation of being unknown by anyone - beneath the leisurely surface, the solitude of political disappointment; writing grief through joyful scenery, reserved and deep, most showing Liu's verse's bitterness hidden in plainness.
闲依农圃邻，偶似山林客
Idle, I dwell by neighbors' garden plots; at times I seem a traveler in the hills.
闲时与农家菜圃为邻，偶尔倒像是个山林隐士。
In idleness I live among farming neighbors; at times I seem a recluse of the hills.
此联写谪居之闲，是全诗由愤激转旷达的过渡。「闲依农圃邻」写与农人为邻的日常，一「闲」一「依」，平实中见自适；「偶似山林客」则以「偶似」二字自我解嘲——好像是个山林隐士，正点明本非真隐，不过是贬谪之余的强自排遣。陶渊明之隐是主动的选择，柳宗元之闲是被动的安置，形似而神异；「偶」字更含偶然、暂借之意，道尽逐臣不得已之态，为尾联「不逢人」的孤寂预作铺垫。
This couplet writes the exile's idleness, the poem's turn from indignation to equanimity. In idleness I live among farming neighbors writes the daily life beside farmers; one idle one dwells, self-content within plainness. At times I seem a recluse of the hills uses at times to mock himself - seeming a hillside recluse, precisely marking he is no true recluse, only forced diversion after exile. Tao Yuanming's reclusion was a chosen act; Liu Zongyuan's idleness is a forced placement - same in form, different in spirit. At times further carries the sense of chance, temporary lending, exhausting the exile's helpless state, preparing the loneliness of meeting no one in the closing.
来往不逢人，长歌楚天碧
Coming and going I meet no one I know, so I sing aloud, facing the blue sky of Chu.
来来往往遇不到一个相识的人，便放声长歌，面对楚地碧蓝的长空。
Coming and going, I meet no one; I sing aloud under the azure Chu sky.
以空阔之景收束孤寂之情。「不逢人」直写贬所人迹罕至、友朋断绝的处境，三字写尽十年谪居的孤独；「长歌」既是排遣愁怀的自我慰藉，也是无人可语时的悲鸣，歌向碧空而空谷无应；「楚天碧」以碧空之澄澈辽阔反衬独行之渺小，天地愈空，孤怀愈显。碧空万里正见天地之浩大，长歌独啸愈显身影之孤单，以乐景写哀、以旷写愤，含不尽之意见于言外，是柳诗淡泊中见至味的绝佳收束。
Closing the lonely feeling in vast scenery. Meeting no one directly writes the exile place's lack of human trace, friends cut off; three characters exhaust ten years of exile solitude. Long singing is at once self-comfort for dispelling sorrow and a lament with no one to speak to; singing to the blue sky, yet the empty valley answers not. Azure Chu sky uses the sky's limpid vastness to set off the lone walker's smallness - the emptier the world, the more marked the lonely heart. A thousand li of blue sky shows the world's vastness; the long song alone shows the figure's solitude - writing grief through joyful scenery, indignation through openness, holding inexhaustible meaning beyond words; the superb close of Liu's poetry where plainness yields its deepest flavor.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Wang's poem writes the ease of a genuine recluse, Liu's the loneliness of an exile forcing himself to live at leisure; compare the truth or falsity of 'reclusion' and the different emotional ground beneath.
王维《终南山》写隐逸之悠然得真，以「太乙近天都」的雄浑之景写归隐山水之乐，出于本心；柳宗元《溪居》写逐臣强作闲居之孤，以溪畔耕钓写贬所生活，出于无奈。一真隐一假隐、一乐一哀，可比较隐之真伪与情感底色，见盛唐山水田园诗与中唐贬谪诗的根本差异。同为山水，一为得志之隐、一为失意之居，读者可由此辨盛唐气象与中唐心境之别。
辋川闲居 Living at Leisure at Wangchuan 王维 · 同写闲居山水 Different (both write leisure among hills and streams)Wang's leisure comes from his own heart, Liu's from banishment, and 'now and then seem a guest of hills and woods' shows how little choice he had; compare the states of mind behind the two kinds of ease.
王维辋川闲居出自归隐本心，其诗平和冲淡，是真正的仕而隐；柳宗元溪居出于贬谪，其闲字之下藏着牢骚孤愤，「偶似山林客」正见其不得已。二者闲适背后的心境判然有别，并读恰可体会同一题材在不同人生境遇中的不同面目，也是理解隐逸与贬谪两种书写传统的入门。两诗并读，正可见「闲居」二字在不同境遇中的不同重量，是理解唐代文人精神世界的绝佳对读材料。