立春日感怀

Meaning

On the first day of spring Yu Qian is away from home on horseback, grey-haired and still riding the circuit of the provinces. He complains that the rivers and passes hold him as an idle guest and that Time itself grants no reprieve, then sets the public and the private against each other: an inch of red heart pledged to the state, two rows of tears shed for the parents he cannot serve. He closes on the old Lichun custom of eating a plate of pungent greens, pushing them about idly - the restraint of grief rather than its wording.

一年过去，一年又来，头上的白发又添了几分；在匆匆的征马之上，不知不觉又遇见了春天。 山河究竟为了什么，白白地把我这客子留了下来？岁月最是无情，它从不肯宽恕、放过任何人。 我这一寸丹心，只图报效国家；两行清泪，却是为了思念远方的双亲。 孤寂的心怀激荡难平，无从排遣，只好随手把金盘里簇拥着的五辛拨弄——又到了立春。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] It is Lichun, the first day of spring, and the poet is riding through the provinces: the spring comes as usual, but he is aged, far from home, and unable to sit by his parents.<br>[Structure] The regulated verse follows the standard four-couple arc. The first joins time and travel; the second rebukes the landscape and then Time; the third rises to public duty and then sinks to private grief; the fourth gathers all of it into one unquiet heart and discharges it in a customary gesture.<br>[Imagery] Guanhe and suiyue are the two presences the poem turns around: the outer world that detains him, the inner flow that ages him. The central couplet, one inch of red heart / two rows of clear tears, is the pivot of the whole piece - the smallest possible measure set against the largest, the hardest public motive placed beside the softest private one.<br>[Tone] Nothing is exaggerated. The poet neither swears nor complains; white hair, hurried travel and idle fingering of a plate of greens carry the weight. Ordinary words, an unshakeable backbone - regulated verse at its plainest, where style is character.

《立春日感怀》是于谦七言律诗中的抒怀名作。立春本是新岁肇始、阳气萌动的佳节，诗人却偏在此时生出白发之叹与羁旅之悲，足见其宦游劳顿、忠悃无告的心境。首联以「年去年来」「匆匆马上」八字，将岁月流转与行旅匆忙并写，起笔便有沧桑之气。颔联「关河底事空留客，岁月无情不贷人」设问作对，将自然的关山与无情的岁月拟人化，道尽羁留之苦与老大之悲。颈联「一寸丹心图报国，两行清泪为思亲」一联尤为警策：忠与孝、公与私在两句之中对峙而又统一，既是于谦一生的写照，也是千古志士的共同心声。尾联以「孤怀激烈」「漫把金盘簇五辛」收束，借立春食五辛的旧俗，把难以消遣的孤怀写得克制而深婉。全诗对仗工稳，情景交融，以淡语写沉痛，于平直中见风骨，读之令人想见一位披肝沥胆的社稷之臣，在节序更迭之际，既念苍生社稷，亦念白发双亲。

Allusions

Two of the allusions are literary and one is a seasonal custom. Danxin, a red heart, runs back from Wen Tianxiang's line about leaving a red heart to illuminate the annals to Zhuge Liang's dying service; Yu Qian, writing long after Wen Tianxiang, claims the same inch of loyalty, and later The Lime Burn and Ode to Coal continue the line. Budairen plays on dai as both to grant and to excuse: Time lends nothing and forgives nothing, which is harsher than simple cruelty. The wuxin plate is the Lichun diet recorded in the Jingchu Suishiji and the Bencao Gangmu, five pungent vegetables eaten to welcome spring and dispel disease, and the poet handles it without a comment; even bai fa, new white hair, is a stock motif, from Pan Yue to Du Fu, used here simply to mark the years.

诗中用典与节俗，皆融化无痕。其一，「五辛」。立春食五辛盘，乃古来节俗：以葱、蒜、韭、蓼、蒿等辛物为盘，取迎新、通五脏、辟疫疠之意，宗懔《荆楚岁时记》、李时珍《本草纲目》均有载。诗人「漫把金盘簇五辛」，即写此俗，而「漫把」「簇」字间，已含孤怀难遣之味，是以节俗写心。其二，「丹心」。丹心谓赤诚之心，其语渊源甚古，诸葛亮《出师表》「鞠躬尽瘁，死而后已」是其精神前驱；文天祥《过零丁洋》「留取丹心照汗青」尤为其著例。于谦生当文天祥之后，以「丹心图报国」自矢，实承两宋忠愤之传统，后之《石灰吟》「要留清白在人间」同一机杼。其三，「不贷人」。贷，本义为施与、宽假，《左传》《国语》多以「贷」为宽恕、放过之意；此处「岁月无情不贷人」，谓岁月不肯稍假人以宽缓，催人老去，拟人而精当。其四，「关河」。关河即关山河防，本为地理、用兵之辞，此处借指羁留之地，暗含以身许国、奔走四方之意。其五，「白发」。白发新添，古来叹老之常语，潘岳《秋兴赋》、杜甫《登高》皆以白发写老大，于谦以「白发新」写年光暗换，简净而深。全诗典故与节俗皆如盐着水，不堆砌而自然，故能深入浅出，童蒙可诵而君子可味，是咏怀诗用事的最高境界。

Commentary

The third couplet is the passage most often quoted, and not only for its craft: it names the standing condition of the committed scholar-official, who must serve the state and cannot at the same time sit beside his parents. Later readers have read it in the light of 1449 - two years after this poem Yu Qian defended the capital, six years after it he died unjustly - and heard in bao guo the whole of his public career. Ming anthologies such as Shen Deqian's Ming Shi Bie Caiji offer little comment on the poem, yet it kept its place in school readers and popular anthologies, usually printed beside The Lime Burn. What has kept it alive is not its colour but its honesty: a man of principle recording that he is lonely, that he is aged, and that his tears and his loyalty come from the same source.

此诗自明代以来，即与于谦生平相互发明，被视为其忠悃之心的写照。诗人以社稷之臣而久历宦游，诗中「一寸丹心图报国，两行清泪为思亲」一联，尤与其后来北京保卫国之壮烈、冤死西市之悲怆相映发，读之令人想见其人。清代选家如沈德潜《明诗别裁集》虽未多评，而此诗以气骨胜，向为论者所重；近世语文读物与诗词选本亦多收之，与《石灰吟》《除夜太原寒甚》并见其宦游抒怀之一面。其传播之广，尤在颈联一联，既写出志士公而忘私、忠孝难全的普遍处境，又以其对仗之工、情辞之切，成为中国人表达家国情怀与思亲之情的经典语码。今人读之，既可见明代士大夫以天下为己任、出处不苟的风尚，亦可见七律一体在抒写沉郁心绪时的独到力量。钱锺书论诗贵「不即不离」，此诗写宦游之感而能超出一己之悲，归于报国思亲之公心，恰得其要。要之，此诗之传，非徒以辞采，更以其人其节——诗如其人，故能跨越时代，常为后人所诵。其于立春佳节而能写出如此沉郁之音，亦足见作者性情之厚、襟抱之正。

Prosody

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