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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

临江仙·送王缄

To the Tune 'At the Side of the River': Farewell to Wang Jian

苏轼

Su Shi

离别Farewell 思乡Longing for Home

忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量。
凭将清泪洒江阳。
故山知好在，孤客自悲凉。
坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠。
殷勤且更尽离觞。
此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。

Ten years have gone by since I left Chengdu -
And it is because of you that I cannot help thinking of it.
Let these clear tears fall into the southern bend of the river.
That old hill, I know it is still there; a lonely guest is sad enough.
At the banquet, the grief of parting you did not see; when you come back, my heart will want to break.
Be generous, and drain this last cup of the wine of leaving.
This body is like an inn - where is my home?

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Meaning

Su Shi's brother-in-law Wang Jian is returning to Shu and the poem gives the farewell in the form of homesickness. Ten years have passed in another place since Chengdu, and because of this departure the memory comes back. He pours clear tears into the river, worries that the old hill may or may not still be there, describes what the separation will do to him after the wine, and then closes with the line that is the poem's point: a body that lodges in every town cannot say where home is.

忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量。凭将清泪洒江阳。故山知好在，孤客自悲凉。坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠。殷勤且更尽离觞。此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The poet had supposed he had forgotten Chengdu, ten years having passed; the coming of Wang Jian shows him that he has not. He pours his tears into the river, thinks of his home hill, and predicts his own state once the guest has gone. The toast is the usual one, but the last line turns the farewell into a question about where any of it belongs.<br>[Structure] The upper stanza is the memory of Chengdu; the lower stanza is the farewell and then the statement of what the poet is.<br>[Imagery] The river, the old hill, the parting cup and the body likened to an inn - the poem's images are all places and vessels, and none of them is described twice.<br>[Tone] Straightforward and slightly blown open, as a letter to family would be; the feeling is stated rather than veiled, and the last line is the only one that is advanced as an idea.

【白话串讲】苏轼写《临江仙·送王缄》：“忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量”——“凭将清泪洒江阳”——“坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠”——“此身如传舍，何处是吾乡”——他送王缄——此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。【意象与手法】此词写送别，以思乡写送别，是苏轼的名篇。上阕写思量：「忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量。凭将清泪洒江阳。故山知好在，孤客自悲凉」写忘却成都来十载、因君未免思量——写尽因君的思量；下阕写别愁：「坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠。殷勤且更尽离觞。此身如传舍，何处是吾乡」写坐上别愁君未见、归来欲断无肠——写尽归来的欲断无肠。全词以思乡写送别，写尽因君的思量与归来的欲断无肠，是苏轼的代表作。【情感与主旨】此词写送别，以思乡写送别，是苏轼的名篇。此词为苏轼送别妻弟王缄而作，写其送别之情与思乡之念。王缄为王弗之弟，苏轼守杭州时送其归蜀，此词写其离情。此词写忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量；凭将清泪洒江阳；故山知好在，孤客自悲凉；坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠；殷勤且更尽离觞；此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。此词写思量：忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量——写忘却成都来十载、因君未免思量，写尽因君的思量；凭将清泪洒江阳——写凭将清泪洒江阳，写尽洒江阳的清泪；故山知好在，孤客自悲凉——写故山知好在、孤客自悲凉，写尽孤客的悲凉；坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠——写坐上别愁君未见、归来欲断无肠，写尽归来的欲断无肠；殷勤且更尽离觞——写殷勤且更尽离觞，写尽更尽离觞的殷勤；此身如传舍，何处是吾乡——写此身如传舍、何处是吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的传舍。全词以思乡写送别——那「因君未免思量」写尽因君的思量，「何处是吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，写尽因君的思量与归来的欲断无肠，是理解苏轼送别词的重要篇章。【名句点睛】常考「忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量」写因君的思量；「此身如传舍，何处是吾乡」写何处是吾乡的传舍；以及全词以思乡写送别、以直抒写离情的手法。

Background

Su Shi (1037-1101) was from Meishan in Sichuan; his first wife, Wang Fu, died young in 1065, and her brother Wang Jian continued to be part of his family's life. While Su Shi was prefect of Hangzhou, in his own conduct of the office in the 1070s, he saw Wang Jian off as the latter returned to Shu, and this lyric belongs to that parting. Jiangyang, where the tears are poured, is on the Yangzi below Chengdu, and the poem's inward turn - from the farewell to the question of where home is - follows the pattern of Su Shi's farewell verses, in which the departure of another man becomes a reckoning with his own life.

此词写送别，以思乡写送别，是苏轼的名篇。苏轼（1037—1101），字子瞻，号东坡居士，眉州眉山（今四川眉山）人，北宋文学家、书画家，与父苏洵、弟苏辙并称「三苏」，与黄庭坚并称「苏黄」，是豪放派词人的代表。此词为苏轼送别妻弟王缄而作，写其送别之情与思乡之念。王缄为王弗之弟，苏轼守杭州时送其归蜀，此词写其离情。此词写忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量；凭将清泪洒江阳；故山知好在，孤客自悲凉；坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠；殷勤且更尽离觞；此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。此词写思量：「忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量」写忘却成都来十载、因君未免思量——写尽因君的思量（忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量）；「凭将清泪洒江阳」写凭将清泪洒江阳——写尽洒江阳的清泪（凭将清泪洒江阳）；「坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠」写坐上别愁君未见、归来欲断无肠——写尽归来的欲断无肠（坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠）；「此身如传舍，何处是吾乡」写此身如传舍、何处是吾乡——写尽何处是吾乡的传舍（此身如传舍，何处是吾乡）。全词以思乡写送别，写尽因君的思量与归来的欲断无肠，是理解苏轼送别词的重要篇章。

Art

The poem begins with a statement almost contradicting itself - he had forgotten, and then he has not - which is the plainest possible way of showing how a departure reaches back into memory. The tears are then poured into a river, so that the grief is given to the water to carry. 'That old hill, I know it is still there' is a strange line, because the poet has no news of home and yet is certain about a hill; the certainty is what makes the loneliness bite. The exaggeration about the heart is left to the middle of the poem, and then the closing couplet drops all of it for a plain comparison - the body is like an inn - and a question, 'where is my home?'. The effect of the ending is to absorb the farewell into a much larger complaint about being a guest everywhere.

此词的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以直抒写思量。「忘却成都来十载」以直抒写思量——那「因君未免思量」写尽因君的思量，以直抒写尽因君的思量。其二，以白描写清泪。「凭将清泪洒江阳」以白描写清泪——那「故山知好在」写尽故山的好在，以白描写尽洒江阳的清泪。其三，以夸张写别愁。「归来欲断无肠」以夸张写别愁——那「殷勤且更尽离觞」写尽更尽离觞的殷勤，以夸张写尽归来的欲断无肠。其四，以比喻写身世。「此身如传舍」以比喻写身世——那「何处是吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，以比喻写尽何处是吾乡的传舍。此外，此词上阕写因君的思量，下阕写归来的欲断无肠，由思及愁，正是送别词「以乡写别」的写法。四重手法，使此词以思乡写送别，写尽因君的思量与归来的欲断无肠，是苏轼的代表作。此外，此词还善于以「故山知好在」的「故山」写故山之好在——那「故山」写尽故山的好在，正是以山写乡，以「孤客自悲凉」写尽孤客的悲凉。又善以「殷勤且更尽离觞」的「殷勤」写殷勤之离觞——殷勤且更尽离觞，正见殷勤劝酒的写照，以「离觞」写尽更尽离觞的殷勤。

Allusions

The wine of leaving is the ordinary parting cup of the tradition, which also occurs in the famous line about drinking one more cup for old friend's sake. The body likened to an inn comes from the word for a post station, and expresses the classical complaint that a life spent in offices is a life spent in lodgings. The tears poured into the river follow the familiar habit of giving grief to water. The poem belongs to the same family as his famous dream of the tenth month, where the same poet writes of a wife whom he cannot stop thinking of; here the thinking is triggered by a brother-in-law rather than by a death.

此词的用语深植于送别与思乡传统。「成都」令人想到「成都」写成都的意象——也令人想到「锦官城」的意象；「思量」令人想到「思量」写思念的意象——也令人想到「不思量，自难忘」（苏轼）的意象；「清泪」令人想到「清泪」写清泪的意象——也令人想到「执手相看泪眼」（柳永）的意象；「江阳」令人想到「江阳」写江阳的意象——长江之阳，也令人想到「江阳」的意象；「孤客」令人想到「孤客」写孤客的意象——也令人想到「孤客最先闻」的意象；「无肠」令人想到「无肠」写无肠的意象——也令人想到「断肠」的意象；「传舍」令人想到「传舍」写驿舍的意象——也令人想到「传舍邮亭」的意象。全词化用成都、思量、清泪、江阳、孤客、无肠、传舍的意象典故，以思乡写送别，正是苏轼「旷达」而善白描、承送别传统写思乡之本领。「离觞」令人想到「离觞」写别酒的意象——也令人想到「劝君更尽一杯酒」（王维）的意象；「吾乡」令人想到「吾乡」写故乡的意象——也令人想到「此心安处是吾乡」（苏轼）的意象，以吾乡写思乡。

Commentary

One of Su Shi's best farewell lyrics and the main text on the parting from Wang Jian. Qing readers called it sincere and moving; modern anthologies quote the closing couplet as the poem's centre, since it turns a personal parting into a general reflection on not having a home. It is often read beside his Jiangchengzi of the same years, where the same poet faces death, and beside Liu Yong's Rain on the Willows, where the same occasion is drawn out over a long goodbye instead of being folded into one line.

此词历来被推为苏轼送别词的名篇，也是宋词写送王缄的代表。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以思乡写送别，真挚感人」；近人更指出「此身如传舍，何处是吾乡」写何处是吾乡的传舍，是此词的名句。在诗歌史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以小令写尽因君的思量与归来的欲断无肠——那忘却，那成都，那来十载，那因君，那未免，那思量，那凭将，那清泪，那洒江阳，那故山，那知好在，那孤客，那自悲凉，那坐上，那别愁，那君未见，那归来，那欲断无肠，那殷勤，那且更尽，那离觞，那此身，那如传舍，那何处，那是吾乡，都写尽了苏轼笔下的临江仙送王缄；那「何处是吾乡」更以设问写尽何处是吾乡的传舍。此词与苏轼《江城子·乙卯正月二十日夜记梦》「十年生死两茫茫」同为悼亡名篇，一写「不思量，自难忘」的江城子，一写「因君未免思量」的临江仙；一写悼妻，一写送舅。两词对读，可见苏轼思乡词的两面。对于今日读者，此词是理解苏轼送别词的窗口，也是宋词写送王缄的经典——那何处是吾乡的传舍，穿越千年，仍在诉说着因君的思量。

Prosody

Form Ci - the tune 'At the Side of the River' (Lin Jiang Xian), two stanzas, short form词·临江仙

Rhyme The upper stanza rhymes on liang (thinking), yang (river) and liang (cold); the lower on chang (break), shang (cup) and xiang (home) - a single level rhyme throughout the whole lyric.临江仙，上阕押「量」「阳」「凉」，下阕押「肠」「觞」「乡」（阳韵），一韵到底

Tone pattern One level rhyme held from the first line to the last gives the poem a long, unbroken line of sound, which suits a complaint that keeps coming back to itself.此词为临江仙小令，押平声韵，一韵到底，音节凄婉，正合思乡的凄婉。

Reading note A short double stanza of the tune, fairly uniform in line length, so it reads more like verse than most lyrics of the form. The rhyme words are 'thinking', 'river', 'cold', 'break', 'cup' and 'home', all in the same open level group, which is why the closing question so easily goes on sounding. Read the first line flatly, and let the last line grow rather than rise.此词为临江仙小令，上下两阕——上阕「忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量。凭将清泪洒江阳。故山知好在，孤客自悲凉」，下阕「坐上别愁君未见，归来欲断无肠。殷勤且更尽离觞。此身如传舍，何处是吾乡」，押阳韵（量、阳、凉、肠、觞、乡），一韵到底，音节凄婉。全词以思乡写送别：上阕写因君的思量（忘却成都来十载、故山知好在），下阕写归来的欲断无肠（坐上别愁君未见、此身如传舍）。小令短章，前写思量，后写身世，以「何处是吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，正见苏轼「旷达」的本色。诵读此词，宜以凄婉的语调读「因君未免思量」的思量，以感慨的语调读「此身如传舍」的传舍，结句要读得凄婉而有余韵，方能传达出苏轼的真挚感人。苏轼小令以「清丽」著称，此词正是其送别词的典范。

Line by line

忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量

Ten years have gone by since I left Chengdu - and it is because of you that I cannot help thinking of it.

忘却成都来十载，因君未免思量。

Ten years since I tried to forget Chengdu; because of you, I cannot help thinking of it.

此二句是全词写思量的核心，以忘却成都来十载写忘却，以因君未免思量写思量，写尽因君的思量，是千古名句。「忘却成都来十载」写忘却成都来十载——那「忘却成都」写忘却成都，「来十载」写来十载，写尽忘却的成都；「因君未免思量」写因君未免思量——那「因君」写因君，「未免思量」写未免思量，写尽因君的思量。这句的深意在于：它以「忘却成都来十载」的忘却与「因君未免思量」的思量，写尽因君的思量——忘却成都来十载，那「忘却成都来十载」写尽忘却的成都——忘却成都来十载，正是十载欲忘的写照，那「忘却」写尽因君的思量；因君未免思量，那「因君未免思量」写尽因君的思量——因君未免思量，正是因君而思的写照，那「思量」写尽因君的思量；那「忘却成都来十载」写尽忘却的成都，那「因君未免思量」写尽因君的思量，一写忘却，一写思量，写尽因君的思量——十载欲忘而因君又思，正是思量的写照；此二句以忘却、思量写尽因君的思量，也为下文的清泪作铺垫，也让此二句成为全词写思量的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「忘却成都十载，因你未免又想起」，则失其矛盾；唯以「忘却成都来十载」写忘却、「因君未免思量」写思量，写尽因君的思量，也让此二句成为全词写思量的核心。

Chengdu. Ten years since I tried to forget Chengdu; because of you, I cannot help thinking of it. The ten years of trying to forget against the reminded thinking are Su Shi's widowhood. To have said he tried to forget for ten years but could not would be a statement; the ten-years-since-trying-to-forget-Chengdu against the because-of-you-cannot-help-thinking is the statement.

此身如传舍，何处是吾乡

This body is like an inn - where is my home?

此身如传舍，何处是吾乡。

This body is like an inn; where is my home?

此二句是全词写身世的核心，以此身如传舍写传舍，以何处是吾乡写吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，是千古名句。「此身如传舍」写此身如传舍——那「此身」写此身，「如传舍」写如传舍，写尽此身的传舍；「何处是吾乡」写何处是吾乡——那「何处」写何处，「是吾乡」写是吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的吾乡。这句的深意在于：它以「此身如传舍」的传舍与「何处是吾乡」的吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的传舍——此身如传舍，那「此身如传舍」写尽此身的传舍——此身如传舍，正是身如驿舍的写照，那「传舍」写尽何处是吾乡的传舍；何处是吾乡，那「何处是吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的吾乡——何处是吾乡，正是故乡何处的写照，那「吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的传舍；那「此身如传舍」写尽此身的传舍，那「何处是吾乡」写尽何处是吾乡的吾乡，一写传舍，一写吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的传舍——身如驿舍而乡在何处，正是身世的写照；此二句以传舍、吾乡写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，也让此二句成为全词写身世的核心与千古名句。若换作直说「此身就像驿舍一样，哪里是我的故乡」，则失其感慨；唯以「此身如传舍」写传舍、「何处是吾乡」写吾乡，写尽何处是吾乡的传舍，也让此二句成为全词写身世的核心。

The inn. This body is like an inn; where is my home? The body-as-inn against the where-is-my-home question is the exile's question. To have compared his life to an inn would be a metaphor; the body-as-inn against the where-is-my-home question is the metaphor.

Study

Word focus

忘 'Forget' - wang; the opening pretence of forgetting is what lets the second line restore what forgetting had hidden. 「忘却成都来十载」之「忘」字是写思量关键词，一个「忘」字写尽因君的思量。忘者，忘记、忘怀也。苏轼以「忘却成都来十载」写思量，这个「忘」字至少有双重意味：其一，写城之忘——那「忘却成都来十载」写忘却成都来十载，那「忘」字写尽因君的思量——忘却，正是想要忘掉的写照，那「忘」字写尽因君的思量；其二，写情之深——那「忘」字更是写深——忘，正见欲忘不能的深情，那「忘」字写尽苏轼的思乡。以「忘」字写思量，正是苏轼写送别的枢纽——若换作「别」「离」等字，则或失其与「忘却成都」「来十载」的配合，或失其写忘的意味；唯「忘」字，以忘却成都来十载写尽成都之欲忘与十载之追忆，与「因君未免思量」的思量相合，写尽因君的思量，也让「忘却成都来十载」成为全词写思量的名句。

断 'Break' - duan; duan chang, the heart ready to break, here spent on the poet's own waiting rather than on the friend's journey. 「归来欲断无肠」之「断」字是写别愁关键词，一个「断」字写尽归来的欲断无肠。断者，断绝、寸断也。苏轼以「归来欲断无肠」写别愁，这个「断」字至少有双重意味：其一，写肠之断——那「归来欲断无肠」写归来欲断无肠，那「断」字写尽归来的欲断无肠——欲断，正是将要断肠的写照，那「断」字写尽归来的欲断无肠；其二，写愁之极——那「断」字更是写极——断，正见愁极断肠的深愁，那「断」字写尽苏轼的思乡。以「断」字写别愁，正是苏轼写送别的枢纽——若换作「尽」「绝」等字，则或失其与「归来欲断」「无肠」的配合，或失其写断的意味；唯「断」字，以归来欲断无肠写尽肠之将断与愁之已极，与「殷勤且更尽离觞」的离觞相合，写尽归来的欲断无肠，也让「归来欲断无肠」成为全词写别愁的名句。