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汉 Han · 诗 Poem

木兰诗

The Ballad of Mu Lan

汉乐府

Han Yuefu (Musical Bureau ballads)

唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。
新新复新新，千古一花春。
邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷。
北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘。
北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛。
烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫。
幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨。
添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。

Jiji, and again jiji: before him an eternal moonlight.
New, and again new: before him an eternal flower and spring.
The wind of Mang sighs for Meng Jiao; the autumn of Song buries Lu Yin.
Guests before and behind Bei Mang mourn one another, and all of them are dust.
Thorn grass at Bei Mang, roots of tears that grow bitter.
Smoke and fire cannot warm themselves; sinew and strength have long been poor.
A quiet libation of one cup in weeping, poured out at the edge of the clear Luo.
There is nothing to add to the heart-breaking sound; it slays the one who is parted from others for long.
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Meaning

The poem sets before us a world of tombs and partings, where wind sighs over poets already dead and the passers-by at the northern cemetery are themselves only dust. Smoke cannot warm itself and strength is spent; one cup is poured at the river's edge, and the sound of the last line is what finally kills the long-separated. Read as a lament, it holds grief and stubborn patience in the same breath: nothing escapes, and yet the speaker keeps pouring the cup.

唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。新新复新新，千古一花春。邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷。北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘。北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛。烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫。幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨。添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The ballad opens with two hammered repetitions, 'jiji, and again jiji', set against an eternal moonlight; the second couplet answers with an eternal flower and spring. Then the ground shifts: the wind of Mang sighs for Meng Jiao, the autumn of Song buries Lu Yin, and the crowds at Bei Mang are already dust. [Structure] The eight lines move in two halves. The first four establish a cyclical eternity; the last four turn to mortality, and each couplet there grows heavier than the last, thorns then cold smoke then the single cup then the sound that kills. [Imagery] Grass with tears for roots, fire that cannot warm itself, a cup poured at the river: the poet chooses things that are small, cold and useless, and lets them carry the lament. The final couplet is the keystone. The heart-breaking sound is not described, only its effect on the one who hears it, which is the oldest way of making grief persuasive: show what it does, not what it means.

【白话串讲】 汉乐府《木兰诗》：“唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织”——“不闻机杼声，惟闻女叹息”——“昨夜见军帖，可汗大点兵”——“愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征”——她替父从军——写木兰的传奇。 【意象与手法】 以“唧唧复唧唧，木兰当户织”起兴，问答铺陈；“愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征”写替父从军的决断；以排比铺写行军征战；“将军百战死，壮士十年归”以对举写战争；“当窗理云鬓，对镜帖花黄”写归家还原女儿身。叙事完整、铺排有致。 【情感与主旨】 北朝乐府民歌，写木兰女扮男装替父从军、功成不受赏而还家的传奇，歌颂其忠孝与勇敢，塑造了中国文学史上不朽的女性英雄形象，是乐府民歌的代表作。 【名句点睛】 常考“愿为市鞍马，从此替爷征”以替爷征写木兰孝勇；“雄兔脚扑朔，雌兔眼迷离；双兔傍地走，安能辨我是雄雌”以双兔写性别之辨。

Background

The piece survives in the Han yuefu collection, the songs gathered by the imperial Musical Bureau and copied down in the northern and southern courts. It belongs to a tradition of funeral songs, which in the Han and the Six Dynasties were performed publicly at burials and later absorbed into the repertoire of the ballad-writers. The named figures it mentions, Meng Jiao and Lu Yin, are Tang and late-Tang poets, and the cemeteries of Mang and Bei Mang outside the northern capital were the fashionable burial ground of the same period, so the poem moves in the world of late imperial lettered grief rather than of the earlier folk song. Nothing in it is dated, and its power rests on that refusal to date.

《木兰诗》为一首五言乐府诗，author 记汉乐府，kind 记诗。全诗写乐府感怀：首联「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色」写唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色；颔联「新新复新新，千古一花春」写新新复新新，千古一花春；颈联「邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷」写邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷；中联「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」写北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘；「北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛」写北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛；「烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫」写烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫；「幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨」写幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨；尾联「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」写添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。全诗以乐府感怀、愁杀长别人写其感怀之情，含蓄深婉，是乐府中的名篇。此篇《木兰诗》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 most obvious device is the couplet of repetition, which in a funeral song is both incantation and complaint: the doubled sound suggests the pause of weeping, and the things it doubles, moonlight and spring, are precisely what refuse to change. Against these the poem sets the irreversible, and the contrast is what makes the middle lines bite. Two figures appear without explanation, Meng Jiao and Lu Yin, both already lost, and the poet's relation to them is left as weather: the wind sighs, the autumn buries. The vocabulary is chosen for bleakness, thorns, smoke, a cup of wine at the river's edge, and this plainness keeps the lament from becoming rhetoric. The close is the tightest passage of the whole: the heart-breaking sound is not described, only its effect, so grief is measured by what it does to the survivor.

此诗艺术上以「含蓄深婉、以景写情」见长。全诗多联，由唧唧复唧唧、邙风噫孟郊而北邙前后客、愁杀长别人。首联「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色」写唧唧复唧唧：唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色；颔联「新新复新新，千古一花春」写新新复新新：新新复新新，千古一花春；颈联「邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷」写邙风噫孟郊：邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷；中联「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」写北邙前后客：北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘；「北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛」写北邙棘针草：北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛；「烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫」写烟火不自煖：烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫；「幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨」写幽荐一杯泣：幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨；尾联「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」写愁杀长别人：添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。全诗以景写情，由唧唧复唧唧而北邙前后客而愁杀长别人，含蓄深婉，是乐府中的名篇。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 ballad leans on two kinds of reference and uses neither explicitly. Bei Mang and the wind of Mang point to the great northern cemetery outside Luoyang, the place where generations of the capital's dead lay, so to name Mang is to name the crowd of tombs at once. Meng Jiao and Lu Yin recall actual poets of the ninth century, the first a gaunt recluse of terrible severity, the second a younger poet who died young and was buried by his friends; citing them makes the grief specific rather than generic. The edge of the clear Luo fixes the cup of wine at the famous river of the eastern capital, so the offering is made in a place every reader can picture. None of this is glossed in the text, and the poem's skill is that the allusions deepen the lament without ever interrupting it.

诗中「唧唧复唧唧千古一月色」「新新复新新千古一花春」「邙风噫孟郊嵩秋葬卢殷」「北邙前后客相吊为埃尘」「北邙棘针草泪根生苦辛」「烟火不自煖筋力早已贫」「幽荐一杯泣泻之清洛滨」「添为断肠声愁杀长别人」等语，皆含典故故实。「唧唧复唧唧千古一月色」写唧唧复唧唧千古一月色；「新新复新新千古一花春」写新新复新新千古一花春；「邙风噫孟郊嵩秋葬卢殷」写邙风噫孟郊嵩秋葬卢殷（孟郊卢殷写唐代诗人）；「北邙前后客相吊为埃尘」用北邙之典（北邙山为墓葬之所），写北邙前后客相吊为埃尘；「北邙棘针草泪根生苦辛」写北邙棘针草泪根生苦辛；「烟火不自煖筋力早已贫」写烟火不自煖筋力早已贫；「幽荐一杯泣泻之清洛滨」写幽荐一杯泣泻之清洛滨（清洛滨写洛水之滨）；「添为断肠声愁杀长别人」写添为断肠声愁杀长别人。诗人以北邙山等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把乐府感怀之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

Later readers have found this ballad strange next to the famous 'Mu Lan' of the same anthology, which tells of a girl who takes her father's place in the army and returns without being recognized. Where that poem is a story with an ending, this one refuses closure: the last line kills the mourner rather than comforting anyone. Critics of the Qing valued it precisely for that hard edge, noting that the monuments in it never answer the speaker. The couplet about smoke and strength has been read both as a description of a poor household and as the condition of all mourners; the ambiguity is deliberate, since the poem's subject is not any particular death but the way death empties the living.

这首《木兰诗》，是写乐府感怀之作，写唧唧复唧唧、北邙前后客、愁杀长别人之情，含蓄深婉。首联「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色」——唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。写唧唧复唧唧：唧唧复唧唧、千古一月色——唧唧复唧唧、千古一月色；颔联「新新复新新，千古一花春」——新新复新新，千古一花春。写新新复新新：新新复新新、千古一花春——新新复新新、千古一花春；颈联「邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷」——邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷。写邙风噫孟郊：邙风噫孟郊、嵩秋葬卢殷——邙风噫孟郊、嵩秋葬卢殷；中联「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」——北邙前后客（用北邙之典），相吊为埃尘。写北邙前后客：北邙前后客、相吊为埃尘——北邙前后客、相吊为埃尘；「北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛」——北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛。写北邙棘针草：北邙棘针草、泪根生苦辛——棘针草、泪根生苦辛；「烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫」——烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫。写烟火不自煖：烟火不自煖、筋力早已贫——烟火不煖、筋力已贫；「幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨」——幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨。写幽荐一杯泣：幽荐一杯泣、泻之清洛滨——一杯泣、泻清洛滨；尾联「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」——添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。写愁杀长别人：添为断肠声、愁杀长别人——断肠声、愁杀长别人。这「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」，是全诗之结：以愁杀长别人写其感怀。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情，正是乐府中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Shi (five-character yuefu ballad)诗（五言乐府）
Rhyme Sixteen lines in regular five-syllable measure, rhyming on level tones in the zhen-wen branch: se (色), chun (春), yin (殷), chen (尘), xin (辛), pin (贫), bin (滨), ren (人). The long run of closed, resonant vowels gives the ballad a funereal slowing down, the voice dropping at each line's end like a bell struck and left ringing.此诗为五言乐府诗，共十六句，句式整齐。押平声韵：「色」「春」「殷」「尘」「辛」「贫」「滨」「人」押真文部韵。诗体依乐府而定，句式整齐，音节随情起伏，正与写乐府感怀的含蓄深婉相称，也见其以乐府写感怀的自然。
Tone pattern The sound is built from repetition and from descent. The doubled openings are the lowest register, almost a hum; the Mang and Song couplets are dry and wind-bitten; the cemetery couplet is heavy and slow; the thorn and smoke couplets are thin; the cup couplet is cold and clear; the close is the longest drawn-out note of all. Pitches fall rather than rise, and the poem reads best at a declining pace, which is exactly the posture of a lament.句式上，首联「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色」写唧唧复唧唧，音节低回；颔联「新新复新新，千古一花春」写新新复新新，音节明快；颈联「邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷」写邙风噫孟郊，音节苍凉；「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」写北邙前后客，音节沉郁；「北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛」写北邙棘针草，音节悲凉；「烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫」写烟火不自煖，音节低回；「幽荐一杯泣，泻之清洛滨」写幽荐一杯泣，音节清冷；尾联「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」写愁杀长别人，音节绵长。全诗音节随情起伏，由低回而苍凉、由悲凉而绵长，正合乐府「缘事」之妙，读来如乐府感怀、愁杀长别人之音，含蓄而动人。
Reading note As with the other old ballads, there is no fixed tonal rule (平仄) or required parallelism; the craft lies in the even five-syllable line and in the long unbroken rhyme chain, which is what gives yuefu its native, sung cadence. The device to watch for is the anaphora of the opening, where a repeated word sets up a rhythm that the rest of the poem answers with variations. Because the form is so regular, the variation has to come from the words, and here it comes gently: the poet changes an image rather than the line, and the constancy of the frame is what lets the changes register.此诗为五言乐府诗，是写乐府感怀之作，也是乐府中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「含蓄深婉、以景写情」：「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色」写唧唧复唧唧、「邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷」写邙风噫孟郊、「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」写北邙前后客、「烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫」写烟火不自煖、「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」写愁杀长别人。全诗含蓄深婉，以景写情。尤为精妙者，是「北邙前后客」用北邙山之典；而「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」以声写愁，正是含蓄深婉的典范，为历代选本所常收。《木兰诗》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。

Jiji, and again jiji: before him an eternal moonlight.

唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。

Sigh after sigh; through the ages, the same moon.

首联写唧唧复唧唧，起笔即见其声。「唧唧复唧唧」写唧唧复唧唧，「唧唧」写叹息之声、「复唧唧」写又唧唧；「千古一月色」写千古一月色，「千古」写千古、「一月色」写同一月色。两句一写唧唧复唧唧、一写千古一月色，以唧唧复唧唧写叹息、以千古一月色写千古同月，写尽唧唧复唧唧、千古一月色之情。以声起兴，含蓄而苍凉，是「以声起兴」的妙笔。

The opening. Sigh after sigh; through the ages, the same moon. The repeated sigh is the loom (or the weeping), and the single moon over the ages is the poem's cold frame. To have said I sighed under the moon would be a mood; the repeated sigh and the one moon of the ages are the mood.

邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷。

The wind of Mang sighs for Meng Jiao; the autumn of Song buries Lu Yin.

邙风噫孟郊，嵩秋葬卢殷。

The Mang hills' wind sighs for Meng Jiao; autumn on Songshan buries Lu Yin.

此二句写邙风噫孟郊，是全诗写其人已殁的关键。「邙风噫孟郊」写邙风噫孟郊，「邙风」写北邙之风、「噫孟郊」写叹孟郊；「嵩秋葬卢殷」写嵩秋葬卢殷，「嵩秋」写嵩山秋、「葬卢殷」写葬卢殷。两句一写邙风噫孟郊、一写嵩秋葬卢殷，以邙风噫孟郊写叹孟郊、以嵩秋葬卢殷写葬卢殷，写尽邙风噫孟郊、嵩秋葬卢殷之情。以人写慨，含蓄而苍凉，是「以人写慨」的点睛之笔。

The mourned poets. The Mang hills' wind sighs for Meng Jiao; autumn on Songshan buries Lu Yin. The two dead poets are the poem's elegy: the wind of the tomb hills grieves them, and autumn buries them. To have written of dead poets would be a lament; the Mang wind sighing for Meng Jiao and the autumn burial of Lu Yin are the lament.

北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘。

Guests before and behind Bei Mang mourn one another, and all of them are dust.

北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘。

The visitors before and after the Northern Mang tombs mourn one another as dust.

此二句写北邙前后客，是全诗以典写慨的关键。「北邙前后客」写北邙前后客，用北邙之典写北邙前后客；「相吊为埃尘」写相吊为埃尘，「相吊」写互相凭吊、「为埃尘」写化为埃尘。两句一写北邙前后客、一写相吊为埃尘，以北邙前后客写前后之客、以相吊为埃尘写凭吊埃尘，写尽北邙前后客、相吊为埃尘之情。以典写慨，含蓄而苍凉，是「以典写慨」的点睛之笔。

The cemetery. The visitors before and after the Northern Mang tombs mourn one another as dust. The Northern Mang hills are the famous cemetery of the capital; the mutual mourning is the living's recognition that all are dust. To have described the tomb hill visitors would be a scene; the mourners of the Northern Mang consoling one another as dust are the scene.

烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫。

Smoke and fire cannot warm themselves; sinew and strength have long been poor.

烟火不自煖，筋力早已贫。

The fires of the hearth cannot warm them; strength has long since failed.

此二句写烟火不自煖，是全诗写其贫寒的关键。「烟火不自煖」写烟火不自煖，「烟火」写烟火、「不自煖」写不能自暖；「筋力早已贫」写筋力早已贫，「筋力」写筋骨气力、「早已贫」写早已贫乏。两句一写烟火不自煖、一写筋力早已贫，以烟火不自煖写烟不暖、以筋力早已贫写力已贫，写尽烟火不自煖、筋力早已贫之情。以贫写苦，含蓄而深挚，是「以贫写苦」的点睛之笔。

The poverty. The hearth fires cannot warm them; strength has long since failed. The cold hearth and the failed body are the poet's own want. To have said I was poor and weak would be a confession; the fire that cannot warm and the strength long spent are the confession.

添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。

There is nothing to add to the heart-breaking sound; it slays the one who is parted from others for long.

添为断肠声，愁杀长别人。

It adds the heart-breaking sound; it kills with grief those parted for long.

尾联写愁杀长别人，是全诗立意的落点。「添为断肠声」写添为断肠声，「添为」写添作、「断肠声」写断肠之声；「愁杀长别人」写愁杀长别人，「愁杀」写愁死、「长别人」写长别之人。两句一写添为断肠声、一写愁杀长别人，以添为断肠声写断肠之声、以愁杀长别人写愁杀别者，写尽添为断肠声、愁杀长别人之情。以声写愁，含蓄而深挚，是全诗最动人处，也是「以声写愁」的点睛之笔。

The closing. It adds the heart-breaking sound; it kills with grief those parted for long. The music (the loom, the song) becomes the sound that breaks the hearts of the long-parted. To have said the sound was heartbreaking would be a statement; the added heart-breaking sound and the grief slaying the long-parted are the statement.

Study

Word focus

复 复 (fu) means again, once more. In 'jiji, and again jiji' it turns a single sound into a repeat, so the line becomes a rhythm rather than a statement; the word also implies a pause between the two beats, which is why the opening reads as weeping rather than as noise. 「复」字写唧唧复唧唧，是写声之续的关键。「唧唧复唧唧」着一「复」，写又——着一「复」字，写唧唧复唧唧，见其声之续。一字写尽复续之声，是「以一字写声」的妙笔。「复」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
噫 噫 (yi) is a particle of sighing, the breath let go in grief or pity. In 'the wind of Mang sighs for Meng Jiao' the wind itself seems to sigh, so the poet's pity is given a weather form and the lament stops being a personal act. 「噫」字写邙风噫孟郊，是写叹息之意的关键。「邙风噫孟郊」着一「噫」，写叹——着一「噫」字，写邙风噫孟郊，见其叹之意。一字写尽噫叹之情，是「以一字写叹」的点睛之词。「噫」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
埃尘 埃尘 (ai chen) means dust, and in a burial context means reduced to dust, that is dead and forgotten. The pair turns the whole crowd of mourners at the cemetery into the same matter they came to weep over, and the image brings the poem's argument to its point without a single word of commentary. 「埃尘」写相吊为埃尘，是写化为埃尘的关键。「相吊为埃尘」着一「埃尘」，写尘土——着一「埃尘」，写相吊为埃尘，见其化为埃尘。两字写尽埃尘之慨，是「以词写慨」的点睛之词。「埃尘」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
愁杀 愁杀 (chou sha) means to kill with sorrow; sha is used here as an intensifier, the same figure as the English 'to worry one to death'. It converts an inner mood into an external event, so the grief of the last line is something that happens to the mourner rather than something he merely feels. 「愁杀」写愁杀长别人，是写愁之极的关键。「愁杀长别人」着一「愁杀」，写愁死——着一「愁杀」，写愁杀长别人，见其愁之极。两字写尽愁杀之情，是「以词写愁」的点睛之词。「愁杀」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯 Huan Xi Sha — 'A New Song, A Cup of Wine' 晏殊 · 同写感怀写物、无可奈何，一写无可奈何花落去、一写千古一月色千古一花春，皆于感怀之中见无可奈何 Both take up a memory that will not be consoled, and both trust a small concrete object to carry it, a cup of wine in the hands and an eternal light and spring in the verse.

Yan Shu's little tune produced the line 'the flowers fall as one can only sigh; the swallows come back as though they had known me before', a grief about time eased by the return of what has passed. The ballad's grief is about what cannot return, and its only comfort is a cup poured out. Read together the two show the range of the Chinese complaint, one looking for the pattern in things that recur, the other for the weight of what does not, and neither is wrong. The contrast is clearest in the endings, where Yan Shu turns back to the swallow and this poem turns to the dead.

晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》「无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来」，写感怀写物，是宋词小令的名篇；《木兰诗》则以「唧唧复唧唧，千古一月色。新新复新新，千古一花春」「添为断肠声，愁杀长别人」写千古一月色、愁杀长别人。两诗同写感怀写物、无可奈何：一写无可奈何花落去、以花落燕归写惜时，一写千古一月色千古一花春、以月色花春写永恒；一为晏殊之温润、一为乐府之深婉，并读正可见诗写「感怀无可奈何」的两种笔法，皆于感怀之中见无可奈何。

 山园小梅 Small Plum Garden 林逋 · 同写咏物寄情、借物抒怀，一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、一写北邙前后客相吊为埃尘，皆于咏物之中见寄情 Both spend the whole poem on a single object in a single place, and in each case the object stands for the self: the plum for a recluse's purity, the thorn grass and the cold smoke for a mourner's barren condition.

Lin Bu's famous couplet describes a plum whose shadow leans across clear shallow water and whose hidden scent drifts at the hour of the moon, and buys for that flower a whole poet's reclusive dignity. The ballad gives the same concentration to things that are useless and cold, thorns where tears take root and fire that cannot warm itself. The two poems therefore show what object-poetry can do in opposite directions, since Lin Bu's object admits the poet while this poem's objects exclude him. The pairing is useful for seeing why Chinese poets reach for an image rather than a declaration, and for noticing that the choice of image is itself a choice about what kind of self is being described.

林逋《山园小梅》「疏影横斜水清浅，暗香浮动月黄昏」，写梅之清雅，是宋诗咏物的绝唱；《木兰诗》则以「北邙前后客，相吊为埃尘」「北邙棘针草，泪根生苦辛」写北邙前后客、泪根生苦辛。两诗同写咏物寄情、借物抒怀：一写疏影横斜水清浅暗香浮动月黄昏、以梅写清雅，一写北邙前后客相吊为埃尘、以北邙写感慨；一为林逋之清逸、一为乐府之深婉，并读正可见诗写「咏物寄情」的两种笔法，皆于咏物之中见寄情。