唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
赠卫八处士
To the Retired Scholar Wei the Eighth
人生不相见，动如参与商。
今夕复何夕，共此灯烛光。
少壮能几时，鬓发各已苍。
访旧半为鬼，惊呼热中肠。
焉知二十载，重上君子堂。
昔别君未婚，儿女忽成行。
怡然敬父执，问我来何方。
问答乃未已，儿女罗酒浆。
夜雨翦春韭，新炊间黄粱。
主称会面难，一举累十觞。
十觞亦不醉，感子故意长。
明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫。
Moving apart like the stars Shen and Shang.
What evening is this evening,
That we share this candlelight together?
How long will youth and prime remain?
Our temples are both already grey.
Of the friends of old, half are ghosts;
In consternation we cry out, our hearts burning within.
Who would have thought, twenty years,
That I would again ascend your honored hall?
When we parted, you were not yet married;
Now your sons and daughters stand in a row.
Gladly they greet their father's old friend,
Asking me from where I come.
Before the questions and answers are done,
The children spread out the wine and dishes.
In the night rain they cut the spring chives,
Freshly cooked, mingled with yellow millet.
The host says that meeting is hard,
And in one go we drink ten cups.
Ten cups do not make me drunk,
So moved am I by the depth of your old friendship.
Tomorrow we shall be parted by the mountains;
The affairs of the world are two vast unknowns.
Meaning
Du Fu's famous poem on friendship and reunion in troubled times, written in the spring of the second year of Qianyuan (759). Demoted from the court for his frank remonstrance and passing through Puzhou on his way to Huazhou, Du Fu met Wei the Eighth, a friend of his youth. Twenty years after their parting, in the midst of the An Lushan Rebellion, half of the friends of old are dead; the two grey-haired men meet again by candlelight, and Wei entertains him with spring chives cut in the night rain and freshly cooked yellow millet, and the ten cups of wine that do not make the guest drunk. The poem moves from 'in life we seldom meet, moving apart like the stars Shen and Shang,' through the reunion's surprise and the sorrow of the dead friends, to the parting of 'tomorrow we shall be parted by the mountains; the affairs of the world are two vast unknowns'—the deep friendship of the old friends and the boundless world of the troubled times.
人生在世难以相见，彼此动辄如参星与商星，此出彼没、难得相逢。今夜是什么好日子，竟能与你共对这一盏灯烛之光。少壮的年华能有多少时候，如今你我鬓发都已斑白。探访旧友，多半已经成了鬼魂，令人惊呼痛心、热泪回肠。哪知一别二十载，我竟能重新登上你这位君子的厅堂。当年分别时你尚未成婚，如今儿女忽然成行。他们怡然自得地敬重父亲的挚友，问我从哪里来。问答还未结束，儿女们已张罗好酒菜。夜雨里剪来春天的韭菜，新煮的米饭里掺着黄粱。主人说会面实在难得，一连举杯饮了十觞。饮了十觞也不曾醉，感念你对故人的情意深长。明日一别便隔着山岳，世事茫茫难料，再见不知何期。
Appreciation
The most striking feature of the poem is the oneness of narration and feeling. The whole poem is twenty-four lines, the reunion the thread, unfolded in the order of time: it opens with 'in life we seldom meet, moving apart like the stars Shen and Shang,' writing the difficulty of meeting and parting and setting the tone of the whole; the middle recounts in order the surprise of the reunion, the death of the old friends, and the entertainment of the host; it closes with 'tomorrow we shall be parted by the mountains,' echoing the beginning in a circling lament. In structure the first and last answer each other, thread by thread: 'how long will youth and prime remain' answers 'our temples are both already grey,' writing the passage of time; 'of the friends of old, half are ghosts' answers 'in consternation we cry out, our hearts burning within,' writing the grief of the troubled times; 'when we parted, you were not yet married' answers 'now your sons and daughters stand in a row,' writing the change of the world; 'the host says that meeting is hard' answers 'in one go we drink ten cups,' writing the depth of the old friendship. In language the poem uses the speech of everyday, 'before the questions and answers are done,' 'in the night rain they cut the spring chives,' every word of the household, no trace of carving, yet in the plainness the deep feeling.
【白话串讲】 杜甫见到分别二十年的老友卫八：“人生不相见，动如参与商”——参星商星难相见。“少壮能几时，鬓发各已苍。访旧半为鬼，惊呼热中肠”——老朋友一半成了鬼。“昔别君未婚，儿女忽成行”——“夜雨剪春韭，新炊间黄粱”——“明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫”——他写乱世中的重逢。 【意象与手法】 全诗以叙事为主，间以抒情，选取灯烛、参商、鬓发、春韭、黄粱、十觞等意象，将久别重逢的悲喜写得真切动人。手法上最突出的是对比：少壮能几时与儿女忽成行相对，往日的青春与今日的苍老相对，今夕灯烛之乐与明日山岳之隔相对，悲喜交织，波澜起伏。语言质朴自然，如话家常，却字字含情，是杜甫以口语入诗、以平实写深情的典范。 【情感与主旨】 诗写战乱年代里故人重逢的悲喜交集，主旨在一情字：既为重逢而喜，又为沧桑而悲；既感故人情意之深，又叹世事茫茫之远。安史之乱使生灵涂炭，故人半为鬼，重逢便格外珍贵，而匆匆一别、后会难期，又使欢聚蒙上悲剧色彩。全诗于寻常家宴中写出时代的苦难与人情的温暖，以小见大。 【名句点睛】 人生不相见，动如参与商写人生聚散之难，已成千古名句；夜雨翦春韭，新炊间黄粱写故人款待之诚，家常中见深情；明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫以苍茫之叹收束全篇，余韵悠长，令人低回。
Background
This poem was written in the spring of the second year of Qianyuan (759). Du Fu, angering Emperor Suzong by his frank remonstrance, was demoted to the position of Military Adjutant of Huazhou; leaving the court, he passed through Puzhou (present-day Yongji, Shanxi) and met Wei the Eighth, a friend of his youth. Wei the Eighth was a recluse, hence the 'Retired Scholar.' The An Lushan Rebellion had by then lasted four years; Luoyang and Chang'an had fallen and been recovered in turn, the flames of war not yet extinguished, the people impoverished, and the poet had witnessed with his own eyes the devastation of the war. In the winter of the first year of Qianyuan, returning from Luoyang to Huazhou, he passed the dwelling of Wei the Eighth; the old friends met, and the poet, moved to deep reflection, wrote this poem. The words 'of the friends of old, half are ghosts' are the true picture of the troubled times: half of the poet's old friends had died in the war and the famine. Twenty years of separation covered the great transition of the Tang from prosperity to decline; the splendor of Kaiyuan and Tianbao was past, and the poet and his friend were both grey-haired. Du Fu had not yet entered Sichuan, and his style was in the transition from the magnificent to the somber; this poem, writing the feeling of the troubled times in the language of the household, plain and profound, is the typical work of this period.
《赠卫八处士》作于唐肃宗乾元二年（759年）春天。当时杜甫因直言进谏触怒肃宗，被贬为华州司功参军，离开朝廷，途经蒲州（今山西永济）时与少年时代的好友卫八重逢。卫八是隐士，行八，故称处士。此时安史之乱已持续四年，洛阳、长安相继沦陷又收复，战火未息，民生凋敝，诗人亲眼目睹了战争造成的生灵涂炭。乾元元年冬，杜甫自洛阳归华州，途中经过卫八居处，故人相逢，感慨万千，遂作此诗。诗中访旧半为鬼一语，正是乱离年代的真实写照：诗人旧日的朋友，一半已死于战乱与饥馑。二十年的分别，正值唐王朝由盛转衰的剧变时期，开元天宝的繁华已成往事，诗人与故人都已鬓发苍苍。此时杜甫尚未入蜀，正值其诗风由雄浑转向沉郁的过渡阶段，此诗以家常语写乱世情，质朴而深挚，正是这一时期诗风的典型体现。此诗写于行役途中，故人情重而世事茫茫，遂成此一篇乱世重逢的深情之作。
Art
The oneness of narration and feeling: the whole poem, with the reunion as the thread, unfolds in the order of time, the opening setting the tone, the middle recounting the surprise, the sorrow, and the entertainment, the close echoing the beginning in a circling lament. The structure answers thread by thread: the passage of time, the grief of the troubled times, the change of the world, the depth of the old friendship. The language of the everyday, 'before the questions and answers are done,' 'in the night rain they cut the spring chives,' every word of the household, no trace of carving, yet in the plainness the deep feeling. The whole poem, from the difficulty of meeting to the surprise of the reunion to the sorrow of the dead to the depth of the wine to the vastness of the parting, in one flow of the plain language, the deepest friendship and the troubled times written without a trace of the artful.
此诗在艺术上最显著的特点是叙事与抒情的浑然一体。全诗二十四句，以重逢为线索，按时间顺序展开：起笔以人生不相见，动如参与商写聚散之难，定下全诗基调；中间历叙相逢之惊喜、旧友之凋零、故人之款待；末以明日隔山岳作结，回环照应，一唱三叹。章法上前后呼应，丝丝入扣：少壮能几时与鬓发各已苍相承，写时光流逝；访旧半为鬼与惊呼热中肠相承，写乱世哀伤；昔别君未婚与儿女忽成行相对，写世事变迁；主称会面难与一举累十觞相对，写故人情深。语言上以口语入诗，如问答乃未已、夜雨翦春韭，语语家常，毫无雕琢之痕，却于平淡中见深情。最妙的是中间一段生活场景的描写：怡然敬父执，问我来何方，问答乃未已，儿女罗酒浆，寥寥数笔，画出故人一家待客的真诚与热闹，以乐景写哀情，愈见其悲。全诗不事藻饰而情味醇厚，是杜甫以叙事见长的代表作。
Allusions
The allusions are few and all apt and natural. 'Moving apart like the stars Shen and Shang' uses the allusion of the two stars: the stars Shen and Shang rise and set in turn and never meet, and legend says that the two sons of the high sovereign of antiquity, at odds, were sent to different places to rule the two stars; later 'Shen and Shang' came to mean the separation of kin and friends. 'Of the friends of old, half are ghosts' carries the pain of the troubled times: written in the An Lushan Rebellion, half of the old friends dead in the war, no mere sigh but words of blood and tears. 'In the night rain they cut the spring chives, freshly cooked, mingled with yellow millet' writes the host's sincerity: spring chives and yellow millet, all things of the household, and the actions of cutting the chives and cooking the millet show his care.
此诗用典不多而皆贴切自然。动如参与商用参商二星之典：参星与商星此出彼没，永不相见，传说上古高辛氏二子不睦，帝迁之两处，使分主参商二星，后世以参商喻亲友隔绝、难以相见，此句写人生聚少离多，开门见山，定下全诗基调。访旧半为鬼一语暗含乱世之痛：杜甫此诗作于安史之乱中，旧友半数死于战乱，非泛泛的感叹，而是血泪之辞。夜雨翦春韭、新炊间黄粱写故人款待之诚：春韭、黄粱皆家常之物，翦（剪）韭、炊粱的动作更见其用心，与主称会面难相呼应，写乱世中一餐饭的珍贵。一举累十觞写主人劝酒之殷，以酒量写情谊，杜甫不善饮而强饮十觞，正是故人情重的表现。全诗用典皆融化于叙事之中，不露痕迹，唯以参商一典点题，其余皆以白描出之，可见杜甫晚年诗风的洗练。全诗以参商一典立骨，余皆白描，朴质中见深挚，正是杜诗晚年入神之境。
Commentary
'To the Retired Scholar Wei the Eighth' is a masterpiece of Du Fu's poems on friendship and reunion in troubled times. The critics have always rated it most highly; the Ming critic Wang Sixiao, in his Interpretation of Du Fu, says: 'written at will, the meaning exhausted and then it stops, empty and spiraling and tender—when poetry reaches this, it is divine!' The Qing critic Pu Qilong, in his Reading Du Fu's Heart, also says it is 'warm and tender, reading it one's heart is moved.' The most moving thing in the poem is the deep feeling written in the things of the household: no earthshaking event, no gorgeous diction, only a lamp, a row of spring chives, a pot of yellow millet, ten cups of plain wine—yet the joy and the grief of the old friends' reunion in the troubled times written to the full.
《赠卫八处士》是杜甫诗中写友情与乱世重逢的千古名篇。此诗历来评价极高，明人王嗣奭《杜臆》评曰：信手写去，意尽而止，空灵婉转，诗至此，神矣！清人浦起龙《读杜心解》亦谓其温厚缠绵，读之恻恻动人。诗中最动人处在以家常事写深挚情：没有惊天动地的事件，没有华丽的辞藻，只有一盏灯、一畦春韭、一锅黄粱、十杯浊酒，却把乱世中故人重逢的悲喜写得淋漓尽致。少壮能几时，鬓发各已苍与访旧半为鬼，惊呼热中肠，写尽乱离时代的哀伤；明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫，更将个人的重逢置于茫茫世事的背景之下，使全诗由一己之悲升华为时代之叹。此诗与《羌村三首》《月夜忆舍弟》等同为安史之乱后杜甫写人间情事的杰作，其以家常语写大悲欢的手法，直接启发了后世白居易、张籍等新乐府诗人，在中国诗歌史上占有重要地位。其以家常语写大悲欢的手法，于中国诗史开一新境，沾溉后人，至为深远。
Prosody
Line by line
人生不相见，动如参与商。今夕复何夕，共此灯烛光。
In life we seldom meet, moving apart like the stars Shen and Shang. What evening is this evening, that we share this candlelight together? (The opening writes the difficulty of meeting and parting with the allusion of the stars Shen and Shang and sets the tone of the whole; 'what evening is this evening' the wonder and the joy of the reunion by candlelight.)
人生在世难以相见，彼此动辄像参星与商星一样此出彼没。今夜是什么好日子，竟能与你共对这一盏灯烛之光。
Life rarely lets us meet; often we are like Shen and Shang stars, one rising as the other sets. What evening is this, that we share this candlelight?
开篇四句为全诗定调，写久别重逢的难得与惊喜。起句人生不相见，动如参与商，以参商二星喻人生聚散：参星居西方，商星居东方，此出彼没，永不相见，诗人以此极言人生聚少离多，语调苍凉，如一声长叹。第三句今夕复何夕，语出《诗经·唐风·绸缪》今夕何夕，见此良人，诗人反用其意而益深：今夜不知是什么好日子，竟能有此良会，惊喜之情溢于言表。共此灯烛光一句，是全诗最温暖的一笔：战乱年代，一灯如豆，故人相对，灯烛之光虽微弱，却是乱世中难得的安宁与温存。四句由叹难聚到喜相逢，一抑一扬，情感的起伏尽在其中，复何夕三字尤见惊喜，为全诗定下了悲喜交集的基调。
The opening four lines set the poem's tone, writing the long-parted reunion's rarity and surprise. The opening life rarely lets us meet; often we are like Shen and Shang stars uses Shen and Shang two stars to metaphorize life's gathering-and-scattering: Shen star in the west, Shang star in the east, one rising as the other sets, never meeting; the poet uses it to exhaust life's more parting than meeting, tone bleak, like a long sigh. The third line what evening is this evening comes from the Book of Songs's what evening, what evening, I see this good man; the poet adapts the meaning yet deepens it: tonight not knowing what good evening, actually having this good gathering, surprise overflows the words. Sharing this candlelight one line is the poem's warmest stroke: in the war years, one lamp like a bean, old friends facing each other; the candlelight though faint, is the troubled times' rare peace and warmth. The four lines turn from sighing hard-to-gather to joy at meeting, one press one lift; emotion's rise and fall all within; what evening is this evening three characters especially show surprise, setting the poem's grief-joy-interwoven keynote.
访旧半为鬼，惊呼热中肠。
Of the friends of old, half are ghosts; in consternation we cry out, our hearts burning within. (The sorrow of the troubled times: half of the old friends dead in the war and the famine, the words of blood and tears, the consternation and the burning hearts.)
探访旧日的朋友，一半已经成了鬼魂，令人惊呼痛心、热泪回肠。
Asking after old friends, half are ghosts already; I cry out in alarm, my heart burning within.
此二句是全诗情感的转折点，由重逢的欣喜陡转入乱世的哀痛。访旧半为鬼，写诗人探访故旧，竟有一半已经死去，一个半字，看似平淡，实则惊心动魄——不是一两个，而是半数，足见战乱与饥馑吞噬生命之惨烈。惊呼热中肠，写诗人闻讯后的反应：惊呼是声音的迸发，热中肠是内心的灼痛，声音与血脉俱动，悲愤之情不可遏制。这两句是安史之乱后社会现实的真实写照，杜甫《羌村三首》中亦有邻人满墙头，感叹亦歔欷之语，可与此互证。妙在诗人不写自己如何悲哀，而通过惊呼这一动作、热中肠这一感受，让读者直抵诗人内心，语短情长。此二句与少壮能几时相承，一写自身之老，一写故旧之亡，个体生命在乱世中的脆弱与无常，尽在其中。
These two lines are the poem's emotional turning point, abruptly turning from reunion joy into the troubled times' grief. I ask of old friends - half are ghosts already writes the poet visiting old friends, actually half already dead; one half, seemingly plain, actually terrifying - not one or two, but half, enough to see war and famine's cruelty in swallowing life. I cry out in alarm, my heart burning within writes the poet's reaction on hearing: cry out is the voice's burst, heart burning within is the heart's scorching pain; voice and blood both moving, grief and anger irrepressible. These two lines are the real portrait of post-An Lushan social reality; Du Fu's Qiangcun, Three Poems also has neighbors filling the wall, sighing and sobbing, mutually corroborating. The subtlety lies in the poet not writing his own grief, but through the cry-out action and heart-burning-within feeling, letting the reader reach the poet's heart directly; words short, feeling long. These two lines carry on from how few are the strong years: one writes the self's aging, one the old friends' deaths; the individual life's fragility and无常 in the troubled times all within.
夜雨翦春韭，新炊间黄粱。
In the night rain they cut the spring chives, freshly cooked, mingled with yellow millet. (The host's sincerity: spring chives and yellow millet, things of the household, and the actions of cutting the chives and cooking the millet showing his care, the deepest friendship in the plainest things.)
夜雨里剪来春天的韭菜，新煮的米饭里掺着黄粱，故人尽其所能地款待我。
In night rain you cut spring leeks; the new-cooked rice is mixed with yellow millet.
此二句写故人卫八的款待，是全诗最富生活气息也最见深情的笔墨。夜雨翦春韭，写主人在夜雨中冒雨剪韭，春韭是初春新发的嫩韭，最是鲜美的时令之物；新炊间黄粱，写主人新煮米饭，还特意掺上黄粱，以示珍重。翦（剪）与炊两个动词，写出主人待客的用心与殷勤：为了这一顿饭，他冒雨剪韭、添柴炊饭，倾其所有。在安史之乱的岁月里，粮食匮乏，这一畦春韭、一锅黄粱，已是寻常人家所能拿出的最好食物，其中包含的，是乱世中倾囊相待的至诚。诗人不写感激之语，而这一餐饭本身，已胜过千言万语。这两句与主称会面难，一举累十觞相承接，一写食之诚，一写酒之殷，将故人之情写得具体而温暖，是杜诗中写人间温情的千古名句。
These two lines write the friend Wei Ba's hospitality, the poem's most life-filled brush, most showing deep feeling. In night rain you cut spring leeks writes the host cutting leeks in the night rain; spring leeks are early spring's newly sprouted tender leeks, the season's freshest thing. The new-cooked rice is mixed with yellow millet writes the host newly cooking rice, deliberately mixing in yellow millet to show treasuring. Cut and cook two verbs write the host's care and hospitality: for this one meal, he braved the rain to cut leeks, added firewood to cook rice, giving all he had. In the An Lushan years, grain scarce; this bed of spring leeks, this pot of yellow millet, was already the best food an ordinary family could offer; what it contains is the troubled times' whole-purse hospitality's utmost sincerity. The poet does not write words of gratitude, yet this meal itself already surpasses ten thousand words. These two lines carry on from the host says meeting is hard, one cup after ten: one writes the food's sincerity, one the wine's earnestness, writing the old friend's feeling concrete and warm - among Du Fu's poems writing human warmth, an age-famous line.
明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫。
Tomorrow we shall be parted by the mountains; the affairs of the world are two vast unknowns. (The close echoes the opening: parted again by the mountains, the world two vast unknowns, the difficulty of meeting and the boundlessness of the troubled times, the lament circling to the end.)
明日一别便隔着重重山岳，世事茫茫难料，再见不知何期。
Tomorrow the mountains part us; the world's affairs, for both of us, are vast and unknown.
末二句是全诗的收束，以苍茫之叹写后会难期，余韵悠长。明日隔山岳，写相逢之短暂：今夜共烛，明日便天各一方，中间隔着重重山岳；世事两茫茫，写分别后之渺茫：乱世之中，生死难料，行止无常，你我皆不知明日飘向何方，更难说重逢之日。两茫茫一语，将个人的别离置于茫茫世事的背景之下，由一己之悲升华为时代之叹。这两句与开篇人生不相见，动如参与商遥相呼应：开篇叹人生聚少离多，结句叹后会之期渺茫，首尾环合，情感一以贯之。全诗由灯烛之乐写到山岳之隔，由温暖写到苍凉，一收一放之间，把乱世重逢的悲喜交织写到了极致。千年之后读之，仍能感到诗人立在夜雨中、灯烛下的苍茫身影。
The last two lines are the poem's close, writing the future's rarity through vast sigh, aftertaste long. Tomorrow the mountains part us writes the meeting's brevity: tonight sharing candles, tomorrow already heaven and earth apart, between them layer upon layer of mountains. The world's affairs, for both of us, are vast and unknown writes the post-parting vagueness: in the troubled times, life and death hard to predict, movements无常; you and I both not knowing where tomorrow drifts, much less the reunion's day. Vast and unknown one phrase places the individual parting against the background of vast world affairs, sublimating from personal grief to the age's sigh. These two lines echo the opening's life rarely lets us meet; often we are like Shen and Shang: the opening sighs life's more parting than meeting, the closing sighs the future meeting's vagueness; head and tail roundly closed, emotion consistent. The whole poem from the candle's joy to the mountains' barrier, from warmth to bleakness; between one close one open, writing the troubled-times reunion's grief-joy interweaving to the extreme. A thousand years on reading it, one can still feel the poet standing in the night rain, below the candlelight, vast figure.
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Li Bai's 'To Wang Lun'—'the Peach Blossom Pool is a thousand feet deep, yet not as deep as Wang Lun's sending me off'—writes the parting feeling directly in hyperbole, free and bright. Du Fu's 'To the Retired Scholar Wei the Eighth' writes the old friendship too, yet in the household scenes of cutting the chives in the night rain and talking by the candlelight, in the depth of the plain and the grief of the troubled times. One the bright hyperbole of Li Bai, one the plain profundity of Du Fu; one the direct cry, one the circling lament—the two great styles of the Tang poem of parting.
李白《赠汪伦》写桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪伦送我情，以夸张之笔直抒别情，豪放明快。杜甫《赠卫八处士》亦写故人情谊，却以夜雨剪韭、共烛话旧的家常场景出之，质朴深挚。二诗同以赠为题，风格迥异：李白诗是盛唐的豪迈，桃花潭水皆可喻情，一泻千里；杜甫诗是乱世的沉郁，一盏灯烛、一畦春韭皆含深情，吞吐含蓄。李诗以水喻情，是虚写；杜诗以事写情，是实写。李诗之别在舟中岸上，转瞬即发；杜诗之别在故人重逢，饱经沧桑。二诗对读，可见盛唐与安史之乱后赠别诗的不同风貌：一为飞扬的青春之歌，一为沉痛的乱世之叹。
江南逢李龟年 Meeting Li Guinian in Jiangnan · 同写乱世重逢与今昔之悲 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
杜甫《江南逢李龟年》写岐王宅里寻常见，崔九堂前几度闻，正是江南好风景，落花时节又逢君，以昔盛今衰的对比写故人重逢之悲。此诗与《赠卫八处士》同为杜甫写乱世重逢的杰作，而笔法不同：江南逢李龟年仅四句，以昔日的繁华反衬今日的飘零，含蓄空灵，意在言外；赠卫八处士则铺叙二十载的重逢过程，以家宴的温暖反衬世事的苍凉，具体而深挚。二诗一简一繁，一含蓄一直白，却同写乱离中重逢的悲喜：李龟年诗重时代的沧桑，卫八诗重人情的温暖。合观二诗，可见杜甫晚年诗艺的炉火纯青，亦可见安史之乱后唐人重逢诗的共同底色。
别董大 Farewell to Dong Da · 同写赠别故人而情调迥异 Related readingCompare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
高适《别董大》写莫愁前路无知己，天下谁人不识君，以豪壮之语慰别离之人，昂扬乐观。杜甫《赠卫八处士》亦为赠别之作，却写明日隔山岳，世事两茫茫，以苍茫之叹写后会难期，沉郁悲凉。二诗同写别离，情调截然相反：高适诗时当盛唐，士人前程远大，故别而不悲，勉励中见豪情；杜甫诗时当乱世，故人半为鬼，重逢即是告别，故悲而难解，叹息中见无奈。高诗以理慰情，杜诗以情写情；高诗面向未来，杜诗回望过去。二诗对读，可见时代精神对诗歌风貌的深刻影响：同一题材，盛唐写出昂扬，乱世写出苍凉，唐诗气象的变迁尽在其中。