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明 Ming · 诗 Poem

秋日怀弟

An Autumn Day: Thinking of My Younger Brother

谢榛

Xie Zhen

生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途。
别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤。
秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无。
遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。

My living, I pity you — chopping wood, cutting straw; the turning seasons startle the heart while you are still on the road.
Years after we parted, our children are grown; looking toward you a thousand li away, brother and sister stand alone.
How much grief as the leaves fall in autumn; a ruined lamp through the night rain, and dreams that come and go.
Far off I think of home and wipe away my tears — and then I hear the cold wild geese coming down over the lake and river.
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Meaning

A poem of late autumn addressed to the poet's brother. Toward the end of his life Xie Zhen is himself travelling, and he looks back over a separation lengthened by years: their children have grown up while the brothers have remained a thousand li apart. The middle couplets weigh the sorrow of falling leaves and of a night vigil lit by a dying lamp, dreams arriving and then not arriving; the last lines lift to the far-off home and the wild geese descending over the water, and the grief returns as tears. It is yearning for a kinsman and for home at once, and it is kept, in the manner of the mature Ming octet, under a calm and measured surface.

生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途。别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤。秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无。遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] On an autumn day the poet remembers his brother, who is working and travelling far away: the years have gone by, the families have grown, and the two men have become lonely figures facing each other across a thousand li. Falling leaves and a lamp burning down in the rain stand for the weight of the sorrow; the poem closes with the vision of home and the sound of geese crossing the water. [Structure] The octet is built as four ranked couplets, each complete in itself and each carrying the feeling a stage further. The first states the situation in two registers — pity for the brother's labour, and the shock of time passing while he is still on the road. The second, by contrast, lets distance do the work: children have grown, and “brother and sister stand alone” turns a family into a pair of solitudes. The third turns inward to weather and night. The fourth lifts outward again to country and season. [Imagery] Falling leaves, a spent lamp, rain, dreams, the homestead and the wild geese are the conventional vocabulary of sadness, yet they are used without emphasis. The power of the poem lies in the restraint: no line states the size of the grief, and the final couplet, which would normally be the place for lament, adds only a fact — the geese coming down over the lake and river. What might have been an elegy for a lost brother becomes a quiet record of a life divided.

【白话串讲】 谢榛写《秋日怀弟》：“生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途”——“别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤”——“秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无”——“遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖”——他秋日怀弟——望中千里弟兄孤。 【意象与手法】 “生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途”以怜汝惊心起笔；“别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤”以空间距离写兄弟之孤；“秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无”以落木夜雨写愁绪；结以“遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖”以寒雁写思乡。情景交融、沉郁苍凉。 【情感与主旨】 秋日怀念弟弟之作，写别后岁月、千里阻隔的兄弟情深与羁旅思乡之愁，是明代后七子谢榛怀人诗的代表。 【名句点睛】 常考“别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤”以千里弟兄孤写兄弟情；“秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无”以夜雨残灯写愁绪。

Background

Xie Zhen (1495–1575), courtesy name Maoqin and known as the Four-Person of the Sea of Sickness, was a poet of Linqing in Shandong and one of the “Seven Masters of the Later Ming.” The Institute for the Seven Masters promoted a learned, classical verse in reaction against the softer earlier style, and Xie Zhen is remembered as its most disciplined and least doctrinaire voice. This octet belongs to the poems written on his travels, when he was away from home for long stretches and turned to his family rather than to poetics. The figure of the brother chopping wood and cutting straw — a man keeping a household alive by his own hands — is not an image of rustic poise but of labour and want, and the poem is best read as a companion's pity rather than a scholar's complaint.

《秋日怀弟》为明代诗人谢榛所作诗。谢榛（1495—1575），字茂秦，号四溟山人，山东临清人，明代诗人，后七子之一。此诗写怀人思乡，为秋日怀念其弟之作。诗中「生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途」写生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途；「别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤」写别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤；「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」写秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无；「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」写遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。谢榛此诗以怀人思乡、况闻寒雁下江湖写其思乡之情，沉郁怀人，是谢榛诗中的名篇。此篇《秋日怀弟》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《秋日怀弟》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 formal finish is ordinary and its emotional effect is not. Each couplet is self-contained, and the movement between them is by contrast rather than by argument: pity for another's labour, then the indifferent growth of children, then the inward weather of the night, then the outward cry of the geese. “Chopping wood, cutting straw” — two verbs of menial work — are set against “the turning seasons startle the heart,” so that time is felt as violence against an ordinary life. The third couplet is the technical tour de force: autumn and night are each split into opposites (“how much” against “what there is not,” “a ruined lamp” against “dreams that come and go”), and the question “questions” the heart is asked in the form of a thing that cannot be answered. The closing line withholds both comfort and resolution; it reports a sound in the distance and leaves the tears standing.

此诗艺术上以「沉郁怀人、以秋写情」见长。全诗共八句四联，由生涯怜汝自樵苏而别后几年儿女大而秋天落木愁多少。起「生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途」写生涯怜汝自樵苏：生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途；「别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤」写别后几年儿女大：别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤；「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」写秋天落木愁多少：秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无；结「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」写遥想故园挥涕泪：遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。全诗以秋写情，由生涯怜汝自樵苏而况闻寒雁下江湖，沉郁怀人，是谢榛诗中的名篇。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

Much of the weight of the vocabulary is inherited. “Chopping wood and cutting straw” evokes the poor household of the “Book of Songs” and Han and Tang verses in which a son gathers faggots to support his mother — a figure of filial duty and want rather than of romance. “Falling leaves” is the standard autumn emblem of China's scholarly melancholy, from Song Yu onward. “The cold wild geese coming down over the lake and river” is a traditional messenger of letters and of separation: in “Tianfu” of Du Fu, geese carry letters, and “going down over the water” means sinking south toward the poet's own direction. The skill of the poem is not in these borrowed images but in the weight it gives them: nothing is newly devised, and the feeling therefore arrives directly.

诗中「生涯怜汝自樵苏时序惊心尚道途」「别后几年儿女大望中千里弟兄孤」「秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无」「遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖」等语，皆含典故故实。「生涯怜汝自樵苏时序惊心尚道途」用樵苏之典（樵苏写砍柴），写生涯怜汝自樵苏时序惊心尚道途；「别后几年儿女大望中千里弟兄孤」写别后几年儿女大望中千里弟兄孤；「秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无」写秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无；「遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖」写遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖。诗人以樵苏、寒雁等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把怀人思乡之情写得真切可感，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

Of Xie Zhen's poems “An Autumn Day: Thinking of My Younger Brother” is among the most frequently anthologized of its genre, and it is prized precisely for what it declines to do. Where the popular Ming lyric turns suffering into an effect — decorated, articulate, self-pitying — this poem keeps to plain statement, and its emotion surfaces only at the margins, in a scattered image or a lazy line. Later readers have especially admired the couplet “Years after we parted, our children are grown; looking toward you a thousand li away, brother and sister stand alone,” because it finds new content for an old form: the loneliness is not that the brothers are separated, but that the separation has aged them into strangers to one another's lives. In this it stands as a representative achievement of the Later Ming octave, which sought feeling already in hand and made it exact.

这首《秋日怀弟》，是谢榛写怀人思乡之作，写生涯怜汝自樵苏、别后几年儿女大、秋天落木愁多少、况闻寒雁下江湖之情，沉郁怀人。起「生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途」——生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途。写生涯怜汝自樵苏：生涯怜汝自樵苏、时序惊心尚道途——自樵苏、尚道途；「别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤」——别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤。写别后几年儿女大：别后几年儿女大、望中千里弟兄孤——儿女大、弟兄孤；「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」——秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无。写秋天落木愁多少：秋天落木愁多少、夜雨残灯梦有无——愁多少、梦有无；结「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」——遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。写遥想故园挥涕泪：遥想故园挥涕泪、况闻寒雁下江湖——挥涕泪、下江湖。这「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」，是全诗之结：以况闻寒雁下江湖写其思乡。全诗沉郁怀人，以秋写情，正是谢榛诗中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Poem (seven-character octave)诗（七言律诗）
Rhyme The octave rhymes in the yu department: “road,” “alone,” “is there” (or “go”), “lake and river” are held by the rounded back nasal. There is no change of rhyme; the four rhymes fall at the end of the four couplets, so the sound returns four times on the same vowel and holds the whole poem in a single colour.此诗为七言律诗，共八句四联。押韵：「途」「孤」「无」「湖」押虞部韵。首联起、颔联承、颈联转、尾联合，平仄相间，正与写怀人思乡的沉郁怀人相称，也见其以七律写怀人的工稳。
Tone pattern The sound follows the feeling outward. The first line is low and slow, the pity of a brother speaking; the second is heavier still, the weight of years; the third sinks into the night — rain, spent lamp, and the helpless question; the last widens and thins, until the verse seems to open onto the water. The rising and falling of the tones is unhurried and low throughout, which suits a poem that reports grief rather than contests it.句式上，「生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途」写生涯怜汝自樵苏，音节低回；「别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤」写别后几年儿女大，音节沉郁；「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」写秋天落木愁多少，音节悲凉；结「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」写遥想故园挥涕泪，音节苍茫。全诗音节随情起伏，由低回而沉郁、由悲凉而苍茫，正合七律「工稳」之妙，读来如怀人思乡、况闻寒雁下江湖之音，沉郁而动人。
Reading note As a regulated octave of the Ming, the poem's virtue is that its sound is even. The single rhyme, unvaried, gives the reader the sense of one feeling returning on itself four times, like a road walked in the same direction all day; the evenness of the register — no bright word, no sudden lift — is what keeps the lament from becoming self-regarding. The craft is audible in the couplets, where the two lines are built on the same shape but not to the same music: the third couplet asks its question in the middle of the line and leaves the answer to the last three characters, while the fourth holds a monotone that the ear reads as distance. Recited slowly, the poem sounds like a man who has already said everything and is saying it once more.此诗为七言律诗，是谢榛写怀人思乡之作，也是其诗中的名篇。全诗的艺术特色在于「沉郁怀人、以秋写情」：「生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途」写生涯怜汝自樵苏、「别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤」写别后几年儿女大、「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」写秋天落木愁多少、「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」写遥想故园挥涕泪。全诗沉郁怀人，以秋写情。尤为精妙者，是「生涯怜汝自樵苏」用樵苏之典；而「况闻寒雁下江湖」写尽下江湖，正是谢榛诗「沉郁怀人」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《秋日怀弟》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

生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途。

My living, I pity you — chopping wood, cutting straw; the turning seasons startle the heart while you are still on the road.

生涯怜汝自樵苏，时序惊心尚道途。

I grieve that your livelihood is still cutting firewood; the seasons startle me, and I am still on the road.

起句写生涯怜汝自樵苏，起笔即见其生涯。「生涯怜汝自樵苏」用樵苏之典写生涯怜汝自樵苏，「生涯怜汝」写生涯怜汝、「自樵苏」写自樵苏；「时序惊心尚道途」写时序惊心尚道途，「时序惊心」写时序惊心、「尚道途」写尚道途。一句写生涯怜汝自樵苏时序惊心尚道途，以生涯怜汝自樵苏写自樵苏、以时序惊心尚道途写尚道途，写尽生涯怜汝自樵苏、时序惊心尚道途之情。以樵起兴，沉郁而怀人，是「以樵起兴」的妙笔。

The firewood. I grieve that your livelihood is still cutting firewood; the seasons startle me, and I am still on the road. The brother's firewood livelihood and the seasons that startle are the opening. To have grieved at the firewood livelihood would be a grief; the I-grieve-that-your-livelihood-is-still-cutting-firewood-the-seasons-startle-me-and-I-am-still-on-the-road is the grief.

别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤。

Years after we parted, our children are grown; looking toward you a thousand li away, brother and sister stand alone.

别后几年儿女大，望中千里弟兄孤。

Years have passed since parting, the children are grown; gazing across a thousand li, the brothers are apart.

此句写别后几年儿女大，是全诗写别后之态的关键。「别后几年儿女大」写别后几年儿女大，「别后几年」写别后几年、「儿女大」写儿女大；「望中千里弟兄孤」写望中千里弟兄孤，「望中千里」写望中千里、「弟兄孤」写弟兄孤。一句写别后几年儿女大望中千里弟兄孤，以别后几年儿女大写儿女大、以望中千里弟兄孤写弟兄孤，写尽别后几年儿女大、望中千里弟兄孤之情。以别写情，沉郁而怀人，是「以别写情」的点睛之笔。

The grown. Years have passed since parting, the children are grown; gazing across a thousand li, the brothers are apart. The years of parting and the grown children and the thousand-li apart brothers are the couplet. To have set the grown children against the apart brothers would be a couplet; the years-have-passed-since-parting-the-children-are-grown-gazing-across-a-thousand-li-the-brothers-are-apart is the couplet.

秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无。

How much grief as the leaves fall in autumn; a ruined lamp through the night rain, and dreams that come and go.

秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无。

Autumn trees shed leaves—how much sorrow? Night rain, a dying lamp, dreams come or not.

此句写秋天落木愁多少，是全诗写秋天之态的关键。「秋天落木愁多少」写秋天落木愁多少，「秋天落木」写秋天落木、「愁多少」写愁多少；「夜雨残灯梦有无」写夜雨残灯梦有无，「夜雨残灯」写夜雨残灯、「梦有无」写梦有无。一句写秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无，以秋天落木愁多少写愁多少、以夜雨残灯梦有无写梦有无，写尽秋天落木愁多少、夜雨残灯梦有无之情。以秋写情，沉郁而怀人，是「以秋写情」的点睛之笔。

The lamp. Autumn trees shed leaves—how much sorrow? Night rain, a dying lamp, dreams come or not. The falling leaves and the dying lamp and the uncertain dreams are the autumn. To have counted the sorrow in falling leaves would be a question; the autumn-trees-shed-leaves-how-much-sorrow-night-rain-a-dying-lamp-dreams-come-or-not is the question.

遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。

Far off I think of home and wipe away my tears — and then I hear the cold wild geese coming down over the lake and river.

遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖。

From afar I think of home and wipe away tears; worse, I hear the cold geese descend on the river and lake.

结句写遥想故园挥涕泪，是全诗立意的落点。「遥想故园挥涕泪」写遥想故园挥涕泪，「遥想故园」写遥想故园、「挥涕泪」写挥涕泪；「况闻寒雁下江湖」写况闻寒雁下江湖，「况闻寒雁」写况闻寒雁、「下江湖」写下江湖。一句写遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖，以遥想故园挥涕泪写挥涕泪、以况闻寒雁下江湖写下江湖，写尽遥想故园挥涕泪、况闻寒雁下江湖之情。以雁写情，沉郁而怀人，是全诗最动人处，也是「以雁写情」的点睛之笔。

The geese. From afar I think of home and wipe away tears; worse, I hear the cold geese descend on the river and lake. The far-off home-tears and the worse-cold-geese are the close. To have wiped away the home tears would be a grief; the from-afar-I-think-of-home-and-wipe-away-tears-worse-I-hear-the-cold-geese-descend-on-the-river-and-lake is the grief.

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樵苏 Chopping wood and cutting straw — the two labours of a poor household. Together they name a life of hired or manual toil rather than of study, and they set the brother before the poet as a man whose days are spent earning food. The phrase is a plain statement of social standing and dignity: the pity in the line comes from seeing this, not from hearing about it. 「樵苏」写生涯怜汝自樵苏，是写樵苏之态的关键。「生涯怜汝自樵苏」着一「樵苏」，写樵苏——着一「樵苏」，写生涯怜汝自樵苏，见其苏之樵。两字写尽樵苏之态，是「以词写樵」的妙笔。「樵苏」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。
道途 “Still on the road” — the road as the place where a life is spent. It counterpoints the seasons, which move whether or not anyone moves, and it keeps the brother at a distance the poet cannot close; the road is also, in a poem of wandering, the natural object of “the heart that is startled.” The word carries no metaphor in itself and does all the work anyway. 「道途」写时序惊心尚道途，是写道途之态的关键。「时序惊心尚道途」着一「道途」，写道途——着一「道途」，写时序惊心尚道途，见其途之道。两字写尽道途之态，是「以词写途」的点睛之词。「道途」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。
落木 Falling leaves, the autumn emblem of decay and of a year running out; chosen rather than “flowers” or “grain,” it is what makes the question “how much” unanswerable. In the couplet it is paired with the lamp that has burnt down, so that the season and the self are both measured by what is used up. 「落木」写秋天落木愁多少，是写落木之态的关键。「秋天落木愁多少」着一「落木」，写落木——着一「落木」，写秋天落木愁多少，见其木之落。两字写尽落木之态，是「以词写木」的点睛之词。「落木」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。
寒雁 A cold wild goose, the traditional bearer of letters and of separation. It comes “down over the lake and river,” that is, away from the north and toward the south — toward the poet's side — while carrying nothing. The bird is real and the return it might signal is not, and the line ends there, with a sound in the distance and no answer. 「寒雁」写况闻寒雁下江湖，是写寒雁之态的关键。「况闻寒雁下江湖」着一「寒雁」，写寒雁——着一「寒雁」，写况闻寒雁下江湖，见其雁之寒。两字写尽寒雁之态，是「以词写雁」的点睛之词。「寒雁」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

水调歌头·明月几时有 Prelude to a Water-Music Dance: When Was the Moon Born 苏轼 · 同写怀人感怀、沉郁旷达，一写但愿人长久、一写遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖，皆于怀人之中见沉郁 Both write of thinking of someone far away and both are grave, one in the mood of “may men live long” and one in “wiping away my tears and hearing the cold wild geese,” each serious thought of a kinsman

Su Shi's long tune answers a question about the moon with a larger consolation: “may men live long, and share the beauty of a thousand li.” Xie Zhen offers no such comfort and, in place of the moon, gives the reader a lamp burning down and the sound of wild geese. Both poems are built on the absence of the beloved person, and both refuse to let the absence be the whole of the matter; the difference is in where they place the remedy. Su Shi rises toward the sky and finds a shared light; Xie Zhen stays on the ground and finds, at the end of a long autumn night, only that a homestead exists somewhere and that the geese are passing over the water. Read together, the two show what the same yearning can do with a more public self and a private one.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「但愿人长久，千里共婵娟」，写怀人感怀、沉郁旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；谢榛《秋日怀弟》则以「遥想故园挥涕泪，况闻寒雁下江湖」「别后几年儿女大」写下江湖、儿女大。两诗同写怀人感怀、沉郁旷达：一写但愿人长久、以千里共婵娟写思亲，一写遥想故园挥涕泪况闻寒雁下江湖、以寒雁写怀人；一为苏轼之旷达、一为谢榛之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「怀人感怀」的两种笔法，皆于怀人之中见沉郁。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of a Gallant Flute: Over the drizzly evening rain, the sky is washed 柳永 · 同写秋夜凝望、沉郁清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无，皆于秋夜之中见凝望 Both write of a watchful autumn night and both are grave and clear; one has “overn the drizzly evening rain” and the other “how much grief as the leaves fall, a ruined lamp through the night rain,” each in the night watch finds a still gaze

Liu Yong's opening is the most famous autumn vigil in the lyric tradition, and its speaker, though in the presence of a beautiful young woman, is already alone by the end of it. Xie Zhen's poem is far shorter and harder, and the tower he watches from is a nursery or a roadside rather than a lodges. The shared ground is the night and the weather; the difference is that Liu Yong lets the rain end and the sky open, while Xie Zhen leaves the reader in it with a lamp going out. Each poem makes sorrow the weather it is read in, and each, in its own register, is convincing precisely because the consolation is withheld until the last moment — and then only partially granted.

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」，写秋夜凝望、沉郁清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；谢榛《秋日怀弟》则以「秋天落木愁多少，夜雨残灯梦有无」「时序惊心尚道途」写梦有无、尚道途。两诗同写秋夜凝望、沉郁清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写秋天落木愁多少夜雨残灯梦有无、以落木写怀人；一为柳永之清丽、一为谢榛之沉郁，并读正可见诗写「秋夜凝望」的两种笔法，皆于秋夜之中见凝望。