现代 现代 · 诗 Poem
弃妇
The Abandoned Wife
长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视，与鲜血之急流，枯骨之沉睡。
黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角，狂呼在我清白之耳后，如荒野狂风怒号：战栗了无数游牧。
靠一根草儿，与上帝之灵往返在空谷里。
我的哀戚唯游蜂之脑能深印着；
或与山泉长泻在悬崖，然后随红叶而俱去。
弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷化成灰烬，从烟突里飞去，长染在游鸦之羽，将同栖止于海啸之石上，静听舟子之歌。
衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪，点滴在草地，为世界之装饰。
And so cuts me off from every look of shame,
From the quick flow of blood and the sleeping of dry bones.
Black night and the mosquitoes come on together,
Crossing this corner of the low wall,
Screaming behind my innocent ears,
Like the wild wind howling on the open plain:
It makes countless nomads shiver.
By a single grass-blade I go back and forth with the spirit of God
In the empty valley.
Only the wandering bee's brain can deeply print my grief;
Or else it runs down the cliff with the mountain stream,
And goes away with the red leaves.
The abandoned wife's hidden worries pile up in her actions;
The fire of the sunset will not turn the vexation of time
Into ash, to fly away from the chimney top;
Instead it long stains the feathers of the wandering crow,
And together they will rest on the stone of the sea-surge,
In silence listening to the boatman's song.
My decayed skirt-hem gives a plaint;
Wandering beside the mounds and graves,
There is never a warm tear,
Not one drop on the grass,
Taken as the ornament of the world.
Meaning
Li Jinfa's Symbolist poem stages a woman abandoned by her husband and reduced to a figure of deserted being: her hair hides her face from shame, night and mosquitoes assail her, and her grief cannot be burned away. The poem ends with her old clothes wandering by the graves with no warm tear left in them, offered to the world as an ornament. Read as an allegory, it treats abandonment less as an event than as a condition of modern life.
长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视，与鲜血之急流，枯骨之沉睡。黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角，狂呼在我清白之耳后，如荒野狂风怒号：战栗了无数游牧。靠一根草儿，与上帝之灵往返在空谷里。我的哀戚唯游蜂之脑能深印着；或与山泉长泻在悬崖，然后随红叶而俱去。弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷化成灰烬，从烟突里飞去，长染在游鸦之羽，将同栖止于海啸之石上，静听舟子之歌。衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪，点滴在草地，为世界之装饰。
Appreciation
【Plain Paraphrase】The speaker's long hair covers her eyes and cuts her off from every glance of shame; night and mosquitoes arrive together and scream behind her like a wind on the plain, making whole peoples shiver; she goes back and forth with the spirit of God by a grass-blade in the empty valley; only a bee's brain can hold her grief, or else it runs down the cliff with a mountain stream and leaves with the red leaves. The sunset's fire cannot burn time's vexation to ash, and the decayed skirt walks by the graves with never a warm tear, given to the world as ornament.
【Structure】Stanzas accumulate images without developing an argument; each adds a term to one evolving state of mind.
【Imagery】Hair, night, mosquitoes, a grass-blade, God, a bee, a cliff, red leaves, sunset, a chimney, a crow, a sea-stone, a skirt, graves - the catalogue is deliberately left unassembled.
【白话串讲】 李金发写《弃妇》：“长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视”——“黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来”——“战栗了无数游牧”——他写弃妇——长发披遍我两眼之前。 【意象与手法】 “长发披遍我两眼之前、遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视”写长发披遍；“黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来、如荒野狂风怒号”写黑夜蚊虫；“弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上、夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷”写隐忧堆积；结以“衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪”写永无热泪。哀婉象征。 【情感与主旨】 李金发写悲悯象征之作，以弃妇写被弃的悲哀，是象征派诗歌的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视”写弃妇形象；“衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪”写悲哀。
Background
Li Jinfa (1900-1976), born Li Shuliang in Meixian, Guangdong, studied sculpture in France and published the Micro-lithograph Album in 1925, whereupon he was called the first Chinese Symbolist poet. The abandoned-wife figure recurs in this and related poems, and Li himself described it as an image of modern alienation and misery. He later served in diplomatic and educational work and spent his last decades in the United States. 'The Abandoned Wife' remains the poem by which he is remembered.
《弃妇》为现代诗人李金发所作诗。李金发（1900—1976），原名李淑良，广东梅县人，现代诗人、雕塑家，象征派诗歌的代表作家。此诗写悲悯象征，为咏弃妇之作。诗中「长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视」写长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视；「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，如荒野狂风怒号」写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，如荒野狂风怒号；「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷；「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪」写衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪。李金发此诗以悲悯象征、永无热泪写其悲悯之情，哀婉象征，是李金发诗中的名篇。此篇《弃妇》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。
Art
The poem's method is accumulation without resolution: no stanza explains the previous one, and the speaker's situation is stated only through the objects around her. That is precisely the Symbolist effect Li was after - correspondence rather than description, so that hair, night, mosquitoes and graves behave like signs in a dream rather than like things. Two devices carry the structure: the negation of comfort ('cannot', 'not one drop') and the chain of transports (bee's brain, mountain stream, red leaves), which leave the feeling with no resting place. The closing "never a warm tear" is the hinge of the whole allegory: the ornament the world displays is precisely the absence of warmth.
此诗艺术上以「哀婉象征、以发写情」见长。全诗由长发披遍我两眼之前而黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来而弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上。起「长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视」写长发披遍我两眼之前：长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视；「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角」写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来：黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角；「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上：弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷；结「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪」写永无热泪：衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪。全诗以发写情，由长发披遍我两眼之前而永无热泪，哀婉象征，是李金发诗中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。
Allusions
The abandoned wife belongs to the Chinese tradition of the woman left behind, from the Book of Songs to the later politely Wronged Wife lyrics, and Li turns her into an image of modern isolation. The spirit of God and the empty valley draw on Christian and classical registers that were unusual in 1920s Chinese verse. The mounds and graves place the ending in the classical underworld. The allusions therefore work as atmosphere: they make the loneliness legible without ever naming it, and they locate a private grief in a public vocabulary of desertion.
诗中「长发披遍我两眼之前遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视」「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来越此短墙之角」「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟徜徉在丘墓之侧永无热泪」等语，皆含典故故实。「长发披遍我两眼之前遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视」写长发披遍我两眼之前遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视；「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来越此短墙之角」写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来越此短墙之角；「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷；「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟徜徉在丘墓之侧永无热泪」用丘墓之典（丘墓写坟墓），写衰老的裙裾发出哀吟徜徉在丘墓之侧永无热泪。诗人用丘墓之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把悲悯象征之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。
Commentary
On publication the poem was attacked as obscurantist and later defended as the beginning of Chinese Symbolism; it holds a standard place in the history of twentieth-century Chinese poetry as evidence that the mode arrived early and that it could be used for social feeling. Readers continue to disagree about whether to read the abandoned wife as a real woman, a persona, or an allegory of the poet's own condition, and Li's own notes support more than one reading. Its influence is clearest in later poets who treat the lyric I as a figure rather than a person.
这首《弃妇》，是李金发写悲悯象征之作，写长发披遍我两眼之前、黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来、弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上、永无热泪之情，哀婉象征。起「长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视」——长发披遍我两眼之前，遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视。写长发披遍我两眼之前：长发披遍我两眼之前、遂隔断了一切羞恶之疾视——两眼之前、羞恶之疾视；「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角」——黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，越此短墙之角。写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来：黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来、越此短墙之角——联步徐来、短墙之角；「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」——弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷。写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上：弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上、夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷——堆积在动作上、时间之烦闷；结「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪」——衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪。写永无热泪：衰老的裙裾发出哀吟、徜徉在丘墓之侧、永无热泪——发出哀吟、永无热泪。这「衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，徜徉在丘墓之侧，永无热泪」，是全诗之结：以永无热泪写其悲悯。全诗哀婉象征，以发写情，正是李金发诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
长发披遍我两眼之前，
Long hair veils my eyes all over,
长发披遍我两眼之前，
Long hair falls across my eyes,
起句写长发披遍我两眼之前，起笔即见其长发。「长发披遍我两眼之前」写长发披遍我两眼之前，「长发披遍」写长发披遍、「我两眼之前」写我两眼之前。一句写长发披遍我两眼之前，以长发披遍写披遍、以我两眼之前写两眼之前，写尽长发披遍我两眼之前之情。以发起兴，哀婉而象征，是「以发起兴」的妙笔。此句以寥寥数语写尽深意，情韵兼胜，正是全诗点睛之笔。其于字句之间暗藏波澜，于平易之中寄寓曲折，尤当反复涵泳，方能得其三昧。
The opening fixes the forsaken woman through the one image of fallen hair across her eyes. The long hair, unbound and hanging, is at once the picture of dishevelment and the veil that hides her gaze, barring the light; the body through which Li Jinfa writes modernist Symbolist verse, using concrete physical detail to body forth desolation. The hair across the eyes is a barrier—she will not, or cannot, see the world—setting the depressive, self-enclosed mood of the poem.
黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，
Black night and the mosquitoes come on together,
黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，
night and the mosquitoes come stepping together,
此句写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，是全诗写黑夜之态的关键。「黑夜与蚊虫」写黑夜与蚊虫，「黑夜」写黑夜、「与蚊虫」写与蚊虫；「联步徐来」写联步徐来，「联步」写联步、「徐来」写徐来。一句写黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来，以黑夜与蚊虫写与蚊虫、以联步徐来写联步徐来，写尽黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来之情。以夜写景，哀婉而象征，是「以夜写景」的点睛之笔。
The line brings the night and the insects advancing in slow procession, the oppressive setting of the forsaken woman's hours. 'Night and mosquitoes' paired as fellow-comers, 'step together slowly,' gives the darkness a deliberate, plodding malice, as though the miseries of the abandoned move in formation toward her. The modernist image refuses lyric prettiness; the mosquito, the least romantic of creatures, becomes the companion of her insomnia, and the slow advance of the dark enacts the drag of her despair.
弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，
The abandoned wife's hidden worries pile up in her actions;
弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，
the forsaken wife's hidden grief piles up upon her gestures,
此句写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，是全诗写弃妇之态的关键。「弃妇之隐忧」写弃妇之隐忧，「弃妇」写弃妇、「之隐忧」写之隐忧；「堆积在动作上」写堆积在动作上，「堆积」写堆积、「在动作上」写在动作上。一句写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，以弃妇之隐忧写之隐忧、以堆积在动作上写在动作上，写尽弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上之情。以忧写情，哀婉而象征，是「以忧写情」的点睛之笔。
The line states the poem's theme abstractly, naming the forsaken wife and her hidden sorrow. The word 'piles up' is the crux: the grief is not spoken but accumulates, settling on her small motions—the way she turns, her hands, her posture—so that feeling becomes visible only through the body's unconscious habits. The line shows the Symbolist method of externalizing inner state, the invisible sorrow made tangible as a weight on her gestures, the core of the poem's portrait.
衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，
My decayed skirt-hem gives a plaint;
衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，
her aging skirt lets fall a mournful murmur,
结句写衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，是全诗立意的落点。「衰老的裙裾」写衰老的裙裾，「衰老的」写衰老的、「裙裾」写裙裾；「发出哀吟」写发出哀吟，「发出」写发出、「哀吟」写哀吟。一句写衰老的裙裾发出哀吟，以衰老的裙裾写裙裾、以发出哀吟写发出哀吟，写尽衰老的裙裾发出哀吟之情。以裾写情，哀婉而象征，是全诗最动人处，也是「以裾写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing line gives the grief its final, dismal image in the decaying skirt. 'Aging skirt' treats the garment itself as worn and old, melding the dress with the woman's wasted state; 'lets fall a mournful murmur' personifies the cloth, as though its rustle were a lament. The poem ends on the thing rather than the face, the forsaken woman absorbed into her own decaying surroundings—modernist in its refusal of consolation, the grief projected onto the lifeless garment and left to sound alone.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Su Shi's 'Tune: Prelude to the Water Melody', "Men have joys and sorrows, the moon waxes and wanes, and this has been true since ancient times", absorbs loss into a wider pattern and so consoles; Li Jinfa's 'The Abandoned Wife' refuses the consoling frame - there is no pattern, only the mosquitoes, the graves and the world's curiosity. The contrast is between poetry that reassures and poetry that records damage. Both remain canonical in their own register.
苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写悲悯感怀、哀婉旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；李金发《弃妇》则以「弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上，夕阳之火不能把时间之烦闷」「永无热泪」写堆积在动作上、永无热泪。两诗同写悲悯感怀、哀婉旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写弃妇之隐忧堆积在动作上永无热泪、以隐忧写悲悯；一为苏轼之旷达、一为李金发之哀婉，并读正可见诗写「悲悯感怀」的两种笔法，皆于悲悯之中见哀婉。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of a Gaodie - Over the Silent Pool the Rain Descends on a Sky-wide Scene 柳永 · 同写空谷凝望、哀婉清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写靠一根草儿与上帝之灵往返在空谷里，皆于空谷之中见凝望 Both write of a figure alone in an empty place - Liu Yong on a tower watching the rain, the poem's speaker beside a grass-blade in the empty valley - and both give the loneliness a landscape to happen in.Liu Yong's 'Eight Beats of a Gaodie' gives desolation a famous stage: a sky-wide rain, a river, a tower and a waiting figure; Li Jinfa's empty valley is the same stage reduced to one blade of grass and one voice. One is ample and public, the other nearly bare. What they share is the conviction that loneliness requires a setting, and that the setting will not argue back.
柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写空谷凝望、哀婉清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；李金发《弃妇》则以「靠一根草儿，与上帝之灵往返在空谷里」「黑夜与蚊虫联步徐来」写往返在空谷里、联步徐来。两诗同写空谷凝望、哀婉清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写靠一根草儿与上帝之灵往返在空谷里、以草儿写悲悯；一为柳永之清丽、一为李金发之哀婉，并读正可见诗写「空谷凝望」的两种笔法，皆于空谷之中见凝望。