满庭芳·归去来兮

Meaning

Su Shi was leaving Huangzhou in 1084, after nearly five years there, on his way to Ru Prefecture, and this lyric is his farewell to the place. He begins by quoting the opening of the Rustic Return and immediately changing it — home, home, but where shall I go back to? — since his real home is ten thousand li off at Min and E in his own Sichuan. He counts the years spent, has watched Huangzhou run through another leap month while the children about him learned the local songs, and remembers the mountain friends who pressed village wine on him and asked him to grow old at Dongpo. Then the middle turns on the question of why at this leaving a life should be all coming and going like a shuttle, and the poem closes with farewells to the willow before the hall and to the old men of Jiangnan, to whom he sends the fishing cloak out to sun.

归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨。 百年强半，来日苦无多。 坐见黄州再闰，儿童尽、楚语吴歌。 山中友，鸡豚社酒，相劝老东坡。 云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭。 待闲看秋风，洛水清波。 好在堂前细柳，应念我、莫剪柔柯。 仍传语，江南父老，时与晒渔蓑。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The opening takes a famous line and breaks it: the Rustic Return asks where the fields have run wild and gives a home to run to; here the answer is that there is no home within reach, only one ten thousand li away. The poet then counts what he has spent in this place — years, a leap month, a generation of children growing up speaking local dialects — and names the friends who would keep him. The middle asks why departure should feel like a shuttle going back and forth, and the close gives the poem away in two small bequests: a willow not to be cut, and a fishing cloak to be dried in the sun. [Structure] The movement is from a grand question about where home is, through a plain account of what this place became, to two tiny practical instructions — which is why the poem seems to end more quietly than it began. [Imagery] The willow is the poem's most human image, and the fishing cloak is its signal: the poet is already planning the life he will have without this one.

【白话串讲】 苏轼写《满庭芳·归去来兮》：“归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨”——“百年强半，来日苦无多”——“山中友，鸡豚社酒，相劝老东坡”——“待闲看秋风，洛水清波”——他要离开黄州——归去来兮，吾归何处。 【意象与手法】 此词写羁旅，以感慨写羁旅，是苏轼的名篇。上阕写归去：「归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨。百年强半，来日苦无多。坐见黄州再闰，儿童尽、楚语吴歌。山中友，鸡豚社酒，相劝老东坡」写归去来兮、吾归何处、万里家在岷峨——写尽岷峨的万里家；下阕写感叹：「云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭。待闲看秋风，洛水清波。好在堂前细柳，应念我、莫剪柔柯。仍传语，江南父老，时与晒渔蓑」写云何、当此去、人生底事、来往如梭——写尽来往的如梭。全词以感慨写羁旅，写尽岷峨的万里家与来往的如梭，是苏轼的代表作。 【情感与主旨】 此词写羁旅，以感慨写羁旅，是苏轼的名篇。此词为苏轼离黄州赴汝州途中作，写其宦游漂泊的感慨与对黄州友人的留恋。苏轼贬黄州五年，奉诏移汝州，此词写其告别黄州。此词写归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨；百年强半，来日苦无多；坐见黄州再闰，儿童尽、楚语吴歌；山中友，鸡豚社酒，相劝老东坡；云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭；待闲看秋风，洛水清波；好在堂前细柳，应念我、莫剪柔柯；仍传语，江南父老，时与晒渔蓑。此词写归去：归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨——写归去来兮、吾归何处、万里家在岷峨，写尽岷峨的万里家；百年强半，来日苦无多——写百年强半、来日苦无多，写尽强半的百年；坐见黄州再闰，儿童尽、楚语吴歌——写坐见黄州再闰、儿童尽、楚语吴歌，写尽黄州的再闰；山中友，鸡豚社酒，相劝老东坡——写山中友、鸡豚社酒、相劝老东坡，写尽山中的社酒。下阕写感叹：云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭——写云何、当此去、人生底事、来往如梭，写尽来往的如梭；待闲看秋风，洛水清波——写待闲看秋风、洛水清波，写尽洛水的清波；好在堂前细柳，应念我、莫剪柔柯——写好在堂前细柳、应念我、莫剪柔柯，写尽堂前的细柳；仍传语，江南父老，时与晒渔蓑——写仍传语、江南父老、时与晒渔蓑，写尽江南的父老。全词以感慨写羁旅——那「万里家在岷峨」写尽岷峨的万里家，「来往如梭」写尽来往的如梭，写尽岷峨的万里家与来往的如梭，是理解苏轼羁旅词的重要篇章。 【名句点睛】 常考「归去来兮，吾归何处，万里家在岷峨」写岷峨的万里家；「云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭」写来往的如梭；以及全词以感慨写羁旅、以用典写归去的手法。

Allusions

Everything rests on the return. The opening four characters are taken straight from the Rustic Return, in which the poet asks whether the fields need no longer lie untilled and sets out for home, and Su Shi's change of the following clause turns a rejoicing into a question. Min and E are the mountains of his birth, which stand for home in his usage throughout. The village wine is the wine of the village altars at the two seasonal sacrifices. The shuttle is the old metaphor for time passing swiftly, and it is the only metaphor of speed in a poem otherwise made of still things. The slender willow and the fishing cloak carry two standard habits of the retired man — the willow that saying of parting at a level, and the cloak of the fisher on the river who is the alternative figure to the official. The Luo is both the river of his new post and, further off, the river of the capital's region.

此词的用语深植于羁旅与感慨传统。「归去来兮」令人想到「归去来兮」写归隐的意象——陶渊明《归去来兮辞》，也令人想到「归去来兮，田园将芜胡不归」的意象；「岷峨」令人想到「岷峨」写岷山峨眉的意象——苏轼故乡，也令人想到「岷峨之山」的意象；「黄州」令人想到「黄州」写黄州的意象——苏轼贬谪之地，也令人想到「黄州赤壁」的意象；「社酒」令人想到「社酒」写社日酒的意象——也令人想到「鸡豚社酒」的意象；「如梭」令人想到「如梭」写光阴如梭的意象——也令人想到「日月如梭」的意象；「洛水」令人想到「洛水」写洛水的意象——汝州洛水，也令人想到「洛水清波」的意象。全词化用归去来兮、岷峨、黄州、社酒、如梭、洛水的意象典故，以感慨写羁旅，正是苏轼「旷达」而善用典、承羁旅传统写感慨之本领。「归去来兮」令人想到「归去来兮」写归隐的意象——也令人想到「归去来兮，田园将芜胡不归」的意象；「如梭」令人想到「如梭」写光阴如梭的意象——也令人想到「日月如梭」的意象，以如梭写感慨。

Commentary

This has always been read as one of Su Shi's farewell lyrics and among the most moving of his long ones, and critics have singled out the opening, in which a famous line of retirement is turned into a complaint that there is nowhere to retire to, and the closing bequests, in which the poet leaves the willow and the cloak in the hands of the place. Its standing is as a poem in which a banished man does not pretend to be consoled; he meets the same question the Rustic Return answers and answers it with distance, arithmetic and a pair of small instructions. It is read beside the prose Rustic Return itself, which is what it takes up and reverses, and beside the other lyric in which he drinks at night by the same Dongpo slope and asks when he will stop running about, and which answers by getting into a boat.

此词历来被推为苏轼羁旅词的名篇，也是宋词写离黄州赴汝州的代表。历代论者对此词评价极高：清人评此词「以感慨写羁旅，旷达深沉」；近人更指出「云何，当此去，人生底事，来往如梭」写来往的如梭，是此词的名句。在诗歌史上，此词的特殊价值在于：它以长调写尽岷峨的万里家与来往的如梭——那归去来兮，那吾归何处，那万里家，那在岷峨，那百年强半，那来日，那苦无多，那坐见，那黄州再闰，那儿童尽，那楚语吴歌，那山中友，那鸡豚社酒，那相劝，那老东坡，那云何，那当此去，那人生底事，那来往如梭，那待闲看秋风，那洛水清波，那好在，那堂前细柳，那应念我，那莫剪柔柯，那仍传语，那江南父老，那时与晒渔蓑，都写尽了苏轼笔下的满庭芳归去来兮；那「来往如梭」更以直抒写尽来往的如梭。此词与陶渊明《归去来兮辞》「归去来兮」同用归去典，一写「悟已往之不谏」的陶渊明（归去来兮辞），一写「万里家在岷峨」的苏轼（满庭芳）；一写辞，一写词。两作对读，可见归去传统的两种境界。对于今日读者，此词是理解苏轼羁旅词的窗口，也是宋词写离黄州的经典——那来往的如梭，穿越千年，仍在诉说着江南的渔蓑。

Prosody

Line by line

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