新秋

Meaning

The autumn colours of the river town are so pure that they move the heart; cicadas sing among the green willows as if they had locked in the broken threads of mist. In the southern land a new coolness has come and someone strikes up the old tune of the White Ramie; night rain over the West Lake beats the red lotus down. The fair one sits lonely and grieves in vain at the coming of dusk; the hair turns white and falls away without waiting for the years to pass. Do not go and lean on the railing and add to your wistful gazing: the setting sun is nearly always there, right in front of the little tower.

江城的秋色纯净得惹人怜爱，翠柳间蝉鸣阵阵，仿佛锁住了那断续的烟霭。南国新添凉意，有人唱起《白苎》曲，西湖夜雨打落了红色莲花。美人寂寞，空自为日暮发愁；华发凋零，竟等不及岁月流转。不要去倚栏增添惆怅的远望，夕阳多半就停在小楼前头。

Appreciation

Wen Zhengming, first named Bi, courtesy name Zhengming and later Zhengzhong, styled the Retired Scholar of Mount Heng, was a native of Changzhou, the modern Suzhou; he modelled his poetry on Bai Juyi and Su Shi, ranked among the Four Masters of the Wu School in painting, and with Zhu Yunming, Tang Yin and Xu Zhenqing was called one of the Four Talents of Wu. The opening couplet works its scene through two words, clear and lock, so that willow mist and cicada song alike are steeped in quiet. The second couplet weaves sight and sound, the cool song against the night rain, the White Ramie against the red lotus, colour and feeling both full, and new autumn is rendered at its richest. The third turns abruptly from things to persons, the lonely fair one and the falling white hair, a sigh over years quietly exchanged; and the last, in the guise of consolation, tells us not to lean on the railing, while the sun insists on setting before the little tower, so that the sorrow is never dispelled and feeling is closed with scene.

【白话串讲】 “江城秋色净堪怜，翠柳鸣蜩锁断烟”——文征明写新秋：江城秋色，翠柳蝉鸣。“美人寂寞空愁暮，华发凋零不待年”——“莫去倚阑添怅望，夕阳多在小楼前”——别去倚栏了，夕阳总是在小楼前。 【意象与手法】 首联“江城秋色净堪怜，翠柳鸣蜩锁断烟”，以“净”“锁”二字炼景，柳烟蝉鸣皆着静气 【情感与主旨】 文征明，初名壁，字征明，更字征仲，号衡山居士，长洲（今苏州）人 【名句点睛】 常考“景物描写的特点”“情景关系”“炼字”。命题示例：赏析“翠柳鸣蜩锁断烟”中“锁”字的妙处。答

Allusions

The White Ramie is the name of an old yuefu air of the Wu region, whose songs mostly wrote of spring melancholy, autumn longing and the affections of men and women; there were already Songs for the White Ramie Dance in the Jin. Here the singing of the White Ramie both marks the season of new coolness and borrows an ancient tune to write the autumn thoughts of Jiangnan, carrying a quiet, elegant literary pleasure. The red lotus draws on the imagery of the lotus season in the south. The poem uses very few allusions, setting off plain description with the name of a yuefu air and never reaching for the obscure, in keeping with its clear and gentle manner: the aim is to voice feeling from the scene before the eye, not to parade learning.

《新秋》用典在“白苎”“阳羡”。“白苎”写《白苎歌》（乐府舞曲，白纻歌）；“阳羡”写阳羡（今宜兴，产茶之地，词人归隐之地）。全诗以这些意象写初秋之景、新秋之感，用典自然而深婉自见，正是文征明诗的笔法。

Commentary

Wen Zhengming's poetry belongs to the elegant strain of the Wu region, and Wang Shizhen said that his poems are like a girl born in Wan and Luo who needs no powder or paint. A modern critic wrote of New Autumn that it is clear and lovely as a painting and yet lets the sigh of declining years show through, so that it is no mere description of scenery. His verse is neither bold nor merely delicate, and within its leisured elegance one feels the sense of a personal fate; set beside Tang Yin's wildness and Zhu Yunming's abandon it forms a style of its own, and shows how various the lyric voices of the Wu poets were.

《新秋》是文征明诗的名篇，也是明诗中写初秋的代表作。此诗写初秋之景、新秋之感，向为论者称道。论者多赏其初秋之景的描摹与新秋之感的深婉——“江城秋色净堪怜，翠柳鸣蜩锁断烟”写江城秋色、翠柳鸣蜩，深婉之极；“南国新凉歌《白苎》，西湖夜雨落红莲”写南国新凉、西湖夜雨，更见其美；“美人寂寞空愁暮，华发凋零不待年”写美人寂寞、华发凋零，尤见其感；“何日去寻阳羡路，白云秋树共流连”写归隐之愿，尤深。文征明以书画著称，其诗亦以清雅深婉著称，此诗正是其代表——以初秋之景写新秋之感，正是其诗风。

Prosody

Line by line

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