当代 当代 · 诗 Poem
理想
Ideal (Ideals)
理想是石，敲出星星之火；
理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；
理想是灯，照亮夜行的路；
理想是路，引你走到黎明。
饥寒的年代里，理想是温饱；
温饱的年代里，理想是文明。
离乱的年代里，理想是安定；
安定的年代里，理想是繁荣。
Show full original poem
理想是石，敲出星星之火；
理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；
理想是灯，照亮夜行的路；
理想是路，引你走到黎明。
饥寒的年代里，理想是温饱；
温饱的年代里，理想是文明。
离乱的年代里，理想是安定；
安定的年代里，理想是繁荣。
理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗，贯古今，串未来，莹莹光无尽。
美丽的珍珠链，历史的脊梁骨，古照今，今照来，先辈照子孙。
理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向；
理想是船舶，载着你出海远行。
但理想有时候又是海天相吻的弧线，可望不可即，折磨着你那进取的心。
理想使你微笑地观察着生活；
理想使你倔强地反抗着命运。
理想使你忘记鬓发早白；
理想使你头白仍然天真。
理想是闹钟，敲碎你的黄金梦；
理想是肥皂，洗濯你的自私心。
理想既是一种获得，理想又是一种牺牲。
平凡的人因有理想而伟大；
有理想者就是一个"大写的人"。
世界上总有人抛弃了理想，理想却从来不抛弃任何人。
给罪人新生，理想是还魂的仙草；
唤浪子回头，理想是慈爱的母亲。
理想被玷污了，不必怨恨，那是妖魔在考验你的坚贞；
理想被扒窃了，不必哭泣，快去找回来，以后要当心！
英雄失去理想，蜕作庸人，可厌地夸耀着当年的功勋；
庸人失去理想，碌碌终生，可笑地诅咒着眼前的环境。
理想开花，桃李要结甜果；
理想抽芽，榆杨会有浓阴。
请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。
Ideal is fire that lights a lamp gone out;
Ideal is a lamp that lights the road of a night journey;
Ideal is a road that brings you to the dawn.
In an age of hunger and cold, ideal means enough to eat and wear;
In an age of plenty, ideal means civilisation.
In an age of disorder, ideal means peace;
In an age of peace, ideal means prosperity.
Ideal is like a pearl, one strung to another,
threading the past and the future, with light without end.
The beautiful string of pearls, the spine of history,
the ancients lighting the present, the present the future, our elders lighting their children.
Ideal is a compass that steers the ship;
Ideal is the ship that carries you out to sea.
But sometimes ideal is the arc where sea and sky kiss,
visible but unreachable, tormenting your aspiring heart.
Ideal makes you look at life with a smile;
Ideal makes you resist fate stubbornly.
Ideal makes you forget your temple turning grey;
Ideal keeps you white-haired and yet still childlike.
Ideal is an alarm clock that shatters your golden dream;
Ideal is soap that washes your selfish heart.
Ideal is both a gain,
and ideal is also a sacrifice.
An ordinary man becomes great because he has an ideal;
Whoever has an ideal is a figure written large, a capital Person.
There are always those who abandon their ideal,
but ideal never abandons anybody.
To the criminal, new life: ideal is the herb that restores the soul;
To the prodigal who returns: ideal is a loving mother.
If ideal is defiled, do not resent it —
that is a demon testing your constancy;
If ideal is stolen, do not weep —
go and take it back, and be careful for the future!
A hero who loses his ideal degenerates into an ordinary man,
nauseatingly boasting of the deeds he once did;
An ordinary man who loses his ideal drifts through life,
ridiculously cursing the world he lives in.
Ideal blooms, and the peach and the plum will bear sweet fruit;
Ideal sprouts, and the elms and poplars will give deep shade.
Mount the horse of ideal, then; take up the whip and set out from here —
the road is fair with spring, and overhead the sun is bright.
Meaning
A long lyric from the Cultural Revolution years, written as a chain of definitions rather than as an argument. Ideal is described first as a series of helpful instruments — stone, fire, lamp, road, compass, ship — and then as a series of uncomfortable ones: the arc on the horizon that torments the aspirant, the alarm clock that breaks the golden dream, the soap that scrubs the selfish heart. The poem insists that ideal is both a gain and a sacrifice, that it can be defiled or stolen, and that a person without it is either a boaster or a complainer. It closes by sending the reader out on the road in spring weather, with the sun HHigh overhead.
理想是石，敲出星星之火；理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；理想是灯，照亮夜行的路；理想是路，引你走到黎明。饥寒的年代里，理想是温饱；温饱的年代里，理想是文明。离乱的年代里，理想是安定；安定的年代里，理想是繁荣。理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗，贯古今，串未来，莹莹光无尽。美丽的珍珠链，历史的脊梁骨，古照今，今照来，先辈照子孙。理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向；理想是船舶，载着你出海远行。但理想有时候又是海天相吻的弧线，可望不可即，折磨着你那进取的心。理想使你微笑地观察着生活；理想使你倔强地反抗着命运。理想使你忘记鬓发早白；理想使你头白仍然天真。理想是闹钟，敲碎你的黄金梦；理想是肥皂，洗濯你的自私心。理想既是一种获得，理想又是一种牺牲。平凡的人因有理想而伟大；有理想者就是一个大写的人。世界上总有人抛弃了理想，理想却从来不抛弃任何人。给罪人新生，理想是还魂的仙草；唤浪子回头，理想是慈爱的母亲。理想被玷污了，不必怨恨，那是妖魔在考验你的坚贞；理想被扒窃了，不必哭泣，快去找回来，以后要当心！英雄失去理想，蜕作庸人，可厌地夸耀着当年的功勋；庸人失去理想，碌碌终生，可笑地诅咒着眼前的环境。理想开花，桃李要结甜果；理想抽芽，榆杨会有浓阴。请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。
Appreciation
[Structure] The whole poem is one grammatical device repeated: 理想是 X, always followed by a clause that says what X does. Because the metaphor is never explained, the reader is asked to test each one, and the poem gains force from the sequence — the metaphors come in pairs that hand off to each other (stone makes fire, fire lights the lamp, lamp lights the road, road reaches the dawn). [Imagery] The poem's two symbol systems are maritime and mineral: the pearl chain with its 'spine of history', and the sea-and-sky arc that can never be reached. [Voice] The tone is that of a public speaker addressing a crowd, familiar, imperative, using 二 and 又 to make the definitions feel like accounting. [The close] 路上春色正好 leaves the pastoral, and the last two lines are the only place in the poem where the weather is simply pleasant.
【白话串讲】 流沙河写《理想》：“理想是石，敲出星星之火”——“理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯”——“理想是灯，照亮夜行的路”——“理想是路，引你走到黎明”——他写理想——敲出星星之火。 【意象与手法】 以“理想是石，敲出星星之火”等一连串比喻（石、火、灯、路、罗盘、珍珠）层层递进写理想之作用；结以“请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程”以呼告勉励。比喻连环、语言明快、节奏整齐。 【情感与主旨】 哲理诗，以系列的比喻阐明理想对人生的指引作用，鼓励人们树立理想、砥砺前行，是改革开放初期广为流传的励志名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“理想是石，敲出星星之火；理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯”以连环比喻写理想；“请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程”以乘马起程写奋斗。
Background
Liu Shahe (b. 1931) was born in Qingshui county, Sichuan, and published 理想 in 1979 in the poetry supplement of the magazine 星星, three years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. The poem became one of the emblematic texts of the new era precisely because it refused the two available positions: it neither denounced idealism as illusion nor restored it as doctrine, but described it as a hard,在日常生活中 inevitable and painful labour. 大写的人 — a person written large — then became a phrase of some currency in discussions of what a modern intellectual should be.
《理想》为当代诗人流沙河所作诗。流沙河（1931—2019），原名余勋坦，四川金堂人，当代诗人。此诗写咏志哲理，为咏理想之作。诗中「理想是石，敲出星星之火」写理想是石，敲出星星之火；「理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯」写理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；「理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗」写理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗；「请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴」写请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。流沙河此诗以咏志哲理、路上春色正好写其咏志之情，昂扬哲理，是流沙河诗中的名篇。此篇《理想》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。此篇《理想》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 engine is the anaphora 理想是 plus a verb of effect. Every stanza opens in the same place, which gives the verse its persuasive, almost statutory cadence, and the reader begins toanticipate what the next object will be. Within that frame Liu Shahe varies the grammatical shape: sometimes the metaphor is followed by a clause of creation (敲出), sometimes of restoration (点燃，照亮), sometimes of mere relation (是温饱，是文明). The poem also uses paired opposites at scale — 获得 against 牺牲, 英雄 against 庸人, 玷污 against 坚贞 — so that the definitions accumulate as a set of balances. The last movement of the poem turns from definition to command: 请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程.
此诗艺术上以「昂扬哲理、以物写情」见长。全诗由理想是石而理想如珍珠而理想是罗盘。起「理想是石，敲出星星之火」写理想是石：理想是石，敲出星星之火；「理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗」写理想如珍珠：理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗；「理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向」写理想是罗盘：理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向；结「请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴」写路上春色正好：请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。全诗以物写情，由理想是石而路上春色正好，昂扬哲理，是流沙河诗中的名篇。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。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 pearl chain with 历史的脊梁骨 is probably a memory of the classical figure of the 贤 as a pillar of the state, and the phrase 大写的人 sounds anecho of the Maoist ideal of 大写的人 as against 小写的人 — the revolutionary subject fashioned by thought reform. 海天相吻的弧线, the arc where sea and sky kiss, is a memory of the 蒹葭 and 天上的街市 conventions of unreachable desire, and 桃李 and 榆杨 follow the traditional blessing of a good teacher (桃李满天下). The alarm clock and the soap, however, are not literary at all; they are the household objects of the 1950s and 60s, and their presence is what makes the poem read as a document of its own decade.
诗中「理想是石敲出星星之火」「理想如珍珠一颗缀连着一颗」「理想是罗盘给船舶导引方向」「请乘理想之马挥鞭从此起程」等语，皆含典故故实。「理想是石敲出星星之火」写理想是石敲出星星之火；「理想如珍珠一颗缀连着一颗」写理想如珍珠一颗缀连着一颗；「理想是罗盘给船舶导引方向」写理想是罗盘给船舶导引方向；「请乘理想之马挥鞭从此起程」用乘马之典（乘马写启程），写请乘理想之马挥鞭从此起程。诗人用乘马之典入诗，不着痕迹，而把咏志哲理之情写得真切可感，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。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
The poem's immediate success was enormous and its reception divided. Supporters read it as a redefinition of idealism suitable to a post-maoist generation; detractors thought the poem's confusions were calculated and its politics evasive. What has kept it in the anthologies is the precision of its paradoxes — above all 理想既是一种获得 / 理想又是一种牺牲 — and its refusal to resolve them. Later readers have fing the poem's real subject to be not ideal but the honest labour of holding an impossible aspiration without pretending it has been fulfilled.
这首《理想》，是流沙河写咏志哲理之作，写理想是石、理想如珍珠、理想是罗盘、路上春色正好之情，昂扬哲理。起「理想是石，敲出星星之火」——理想是石，敲出星星之火。写理想是石：理想是石、敲出星星之火——是石、星星之火；「理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗」——理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗。写理想如珍珠：理想如珍珠、一颗缀连着一颗——如珍珠、缀连着一颗；「理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向」——理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向。写理想是罗盘：理想是罗盘、给船舶导引方向——是罗盘、导引方向；结「请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴」——请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。写路上春色正好：请乘理想之马、挥鞭从此起程、路上春色正好、天上太阳正晴——乘理想之马、太阳正晴。这「请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴」，是全诗之结：以路上春色正好写其咏志。全诗昂扬哲理，以物写情，正是流沙河诗中的名篇。
Prosody
Line by line
理想是石，敲出星星之火；
Ideal is a stone that strikes the spark of a star: the first link of the chain, in which the hardest and smallest object produces the light that the poem will follow outwards.
理想是石，敲出星星之火；
Ideal is a stone, striking a spark of starfire;
起句写理想是石，起笔即见其理想。「理想是石」写理想是石，「理想」写理想、「是石」写是石；「敲出星星之火」写敲出星星之火，「敲出」写敲出、「星星之火」写星星之火。一句写理想是石敲出星星之火，以理想是石写是石、以敲出星星之火写星星之火，写尽理想是石、敲出星星之火之情。以石起兴，昂扬而哲理，是「以石起兴」的妙笔。
The poem opens the chain of metaphors. Ideal is a stone, striking a spark of starfire. The first image is the smallest possible beginning—a stone struck in the dark for a single spark—and the whole series will grow from that spark. The chain structure (stone becomes fire becomes lamp) is the didactic form. To have said ideal starts small would be a moral; the striking stone producing starfire is the image.
理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；
Ideal is fire that lights a lamp already out: the second link, which restores a light that was gone, and so introduces the poem's habit of describing ideal as that which revives.
理想是火，点燃熄灭的灯；
Ideal is fire, lighting the lamp that had gone out;
此句写理想是火，是全诗写点燃之态的关键。「理想是火」写理想是火，「理想」写理想、「是火」写是火；「点燃熄灭的灯」写点燃熄灭的灯，「点燃」写点燃、「熄灭的灯」写熄灭的灯。一句写理想是火点燃熄灭的灯，以理想是火写是火、以点燃熄灭的灯写熄灭的灯，写尽理想是火、点燃熄灭的灯之情。以火写情，昂扬而哲理，是「以火写情」的点睛之笔。
The spark is now fire. Ideal is fire, lighting the lamp that had gone out. The chain continues: the spark from the stone has become flame, and flame relights a dead lamp. Each image inherits the last, and the progression from stone to fire to lit lamp is itself the poem's argument about what ideal does. To have said ideal revives hope would be abstract; the relit lamp is the revival.
理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗，
Ideal is like a pearl, one strung to another: from the instruments the poem moves to a chain of precious things, each bound to the next, so that the ideal becomes a sequence rather than an object.
理想如珍珠，一颗缀连着一颗，
Ideal is like pearls, one linked to the next,
此句写理想如珍珠，是全诗写珍珠之态的关键。「理想如珍珠」写理想如珍珠，「理想」写理想、「如珍珠」写如珍珠；「一颗缀连着一颗」写一颗缀连着一颗，「一颗」写一颗、「缀连着一颗」写缀连着一颗。一句写理想如珍珠一颗缀连着一颗，以理想如珍珠写如珍珠、以一颗缀连着一颗写缀连着一颗，写尽理想如珍珠、一颗缀连着一颗之情。以珠写情，昂扬而哲理，是「以珠写情」的点睛之笔。
The metaphor changes register. Ideal is like pearls, one linked to the next. Pearls on a string are beautiful and continuous, each depending on the last—the image introduces continuity and beauty rather than utility. The chain of ideals links one life's purpose to the next. To have said ideals are many and connected would be prose; the strung pearls are the connection.
理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向；
Ideal is a compass that gives the ship its direction: the poem's maritime metaphor, in which ideal is no longer a light but a fixed bearing, and the ship can be steered rather than merely relieved.
理想是罗盘，给船舶导引方向；
Ideal is a compass, guiding ships on their course;
此句写理想是罗盘，是全诗写罗盘之态的关键。「理想是罗盘」写理想是罗盘，「理想」写理想、「是罗盘」写是罗盘；「给船舶导引方向」写给船舶导引方向，「给船舶」写给船舶、「导引方向」写导引方向。一句写理想是罗盘给船舶导引方向，以理想是罗盘写是罗盘、以给船舶导引方向写导引方向，写尽理想是罗盘、给船舶导引方向之情。以盘写情，昂扬而哲理，是「以盘写情」的点睛之笔。
The useful image returns. Ideal is a compass, guiding ships on their course. After the ornamental pearls, the compass is practical: the function of an ideal is navigation, giving direction to the vessel of a life. The ship-at-sea metaphor has been the poem's hidden model. To have said ideals guide us would be a saying; the compass steering the ship is the guidance.
请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，
Mount the horse of ideal, then; take up the whip and set out from here: the poem's imperative close, which turns all the preceding definitions into a departure and hands the reader the reins.
请乘理想之马，挥鞭从此起程，
Ride then on the steed of ideal, crack the whip and set out from here,
此句写请乘理想之马，是全诗写乘马之态的关键。「请乘理想之马」用乘马之典写请乘理想之马，「请乘」写请乘、「理想之马」写理想之马；「挥鞭从此起程」写挥鞭从此起程，「挥鞭」写挥鞭、「从此起程」写从此起程。一句写请乘理想之马挥鞭从此起程，以请乘理想之马写理想之马、以挥鞭从此起程写从此起程，写尽请乘理想之马、挥鞭从此起程之情。以马写情，昂扬而哲理，是「以马写情」的点睛之笔。
The poem turns imperative. Ride then on the steed of ideal, crack the whip and set out from here. The metaphors (stone, fire, lamp, pearls, compass) give way to direct address: ideal itself becomes a horse to mount. The from here is the summons to the reader's own life. To have said pursue your ideals would be advice; mounting the steed and cracking the whip is the pursuit.
路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。
The road is fair with spring, and overhead the sun is bright: the last two lines, which give no argument and offer only weather — and by doing so send the traveller out without any further instruction.
路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴。
The spring colors on the road are just right, and the sun in the sky is clear.
结句写路上春色正好，是全诗立意的落点。「路上春色正好」写路上春色正好，「路上」写路上、「春色正好」写春色正好；「天上太阳正晴」写天上太阳正晴，「天上」写天上、「太阳正晴」写太阳正晴。一句写路上春色正好天上太阳正晴，以路上春色正好写春色正好、以天上太阳正晴写太阳正晴，写尽路上春色正好、天上太阳正晴之情。以晴写情，昂扬而哲理，是全诗最动人处，也是「以晴写情」的点睛之笔。
The closing is a blessing on the road. The spring colors on the road are just right, and the sun in the sky is clear. After all the exhortation, the poem ends on weather: the journey begins in perfect spring, under a clear sun. The two balanced images (road and sky) promise that the ride ahead is auspicious. To have said the future looked bright would be a cliché; the just-right spring colors and the clear sun are the blessing.
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Su Shi's 我欲乘风归去，又恐琼楼玉宇 is built on the same oscillation between aspiration and its discomfort that this poem builds on 理想 either helps or torments. Where Su Shi resolves in favour of staying among men (起舞弄清影，何似在人间), Liu Shahe resolves in favour of keeping moving, and his closing weather is deliberately plain. The one point of contact worth noting is that both poems are written to be read aloud by a group.
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」，写咏志感怀、昂扬旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；流沙河《理想》则以「理想是石，敲出星星之火」「路上春色正好，天上太阳正晴」写星星之火、太阳正晴。两诗同写咏志感怀、昂扬旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写理想是石敲出星星之火、以理想写咏志；一为苏轼之旷达、一为流沙河之昂扬，并读正可见诗写「咏志感怀」的两种笔法，皆于咏志之中见昂扬。
八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Ba Sheng Gan Zhou: Over the Drizzling Evening Rain on the River 柳永 · 同写天际凝望、昂扬清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写理想是船舶载着你出海远行，皆于天际之中见凝望 Both move from a wide landscape to a single human figure with no way outLiu Yong opens with rain washing an entire autumn and closes on one person leaning out of a tower; the present poem opens with a chain of images and ends with one figure on a road in spring. The difference is in the weather. Liu Yong's 一番洗清秋 is cold, cleansing, unreachable; Liu Shahe's 路上春色正好 is warm and available, and the poem's hopefulness is entirely a matter of that last change of temperature.
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」，写天际凝望、昂扬清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；流沙河《理想》则以「理想是船舶，载着你出海远行」「但理想有时候又是海天相吻的弧线」写出海远行、海天相吻的弧线。两诗同写天际凝望、昂扬清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写理想是船舶载着你出海远行、以船舶写咏志；一为柳永之清丽、一为流沙河之昂扬，并读正可见诗写「天际凝望」的两种笔法，皆于天际之中见凝望。