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洗衣歌

The Washing Song

闻一多

Wen Yiduo

爱国诗Patriotic poem 劳动歌谣Labour song 闻一多Wen Yiduo

一件，两件，三件，洗衣要洗干净！
四件，五件，六件，熨衣要熨得平！

One garment, two, three — wash them clean!
Four, five, six — press them flat!

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Meaning

This is the opening of a long poem spoken in the voice of Chinese laundry workers in America. Counting articles of clothing, the speaker declares that the washing must be spotless and the pressing perfectly flat. On its own it is a working chant; in the whole poem it becomes an argument: the men who wash other people's dirty clothes are themselves cleaner than the society that employs them, and the poem's answer to the insult 'your father is a laundryman' is to insist that the work is done perfectly and that the workers are innocent.

一件，两件，三件，（这些衣服）要洗得干干净净！四件，五件，六件，（这些衣服）要熨得平平整整！

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Two lines, and the whole method. The first three words count — one, two, three — the way a washer's hands do; then a command in the plainest possible speech. The second line repeats the counting and changes the job. Nothing is symbolic here, nothing is beautiful, and that is exactly what the lines are for. [Structure] The two lines are parallel to the last letter: three three-character phrases, then a seven-character command, repeated with new numbers and a new verb. The parallelism is the structure of a folk song, and the counting has no end, which is the point — there is always another shirt. [Imagery] There are only two images, and both are conditions of the work: clean and flat. Neither is a poetic word. Their plainness is the poem's ethics: the worker's standard is not beauty or glory but a shirt that is clean and creased-free. Set against the rest of the poem, where the washer speaks of washing away sin, these two ordinary requirements become the beginning of a moral argument.

【白话串讲】闻一多写《洗衣歌》：“一件，两件，三件，洗衣要洗干净！四件，五件，六件，熨衣要熨得平”——“我洗得净悲哀的湿手帕，我洗得白罪恶的黑汗衣”——他写中国洗衣工在异国的辛酸。【意象与手法】歌谣体、数数起兴；复沓与排比营造劳动节奏；口语入诗，朴实刚健；以最寻常的劳动场景开头，为后文控诉种族歧视、为劳动者辩白的主题蓄势。【情感与主旨】以洗衣工的劳动唱出底层劳动者的尊严——洗衣、熨衣虽卑微而必求干净平整，正见劳动者的认真与自持，是「把劳动写进诗里、把尊严还给劳动者」的爱国爱民之作。【名句点睛】常考「一件，两件，三件，洗衣要洗干净」的数数起兴——以数字的单调写劳作的重复，以「洗干净」「熨得平」写劳动者的认真，是劳动歌谣的经典开头。

Background

Wen Yiduo (1899–1946) was from Xishui in Hubei, a poet of the New Moon school, a scholar and a democratic activist. He went to the United States in 1922 to study art in Chicago, Colorado and New York, and returned in 1925. In America he met the humiliation of Chinese students being asked, in effect, whether their father was a laundryman, since laundry was the most common Chinese occupation and was openly despised. He wrote this poem out of that experience, and it was collected in his 1928 volume 'The Dead Water', a book that marks his turn from pure aesthetics to satire and protest. The poem isprefaced with a note saying that laundry is the commonest of the Chinese overseas occupations and that many students cannot bear the insult, but that the occupation is not base. The excerpt is the opening of a much longer poem.

闻一多（1899—1946），本名家骅，湖北浠水人，新月派代表诗人、学者、民主战士。1922年赴美留学，先后就读芝加哥艺术学院、科罗拉多大学、纽约艺术学院，1925年夏回国。留美期间，他亲历了华人在美国的屈辱处境：中国留学生常被美国人问道「你爸爸是洗衣裳的吗」，洗衣被视为华人最下贱的职业。《洗衣歌》即写于这一背景，初稿约在留美期间，定稿收入1928年出版的诗集《死水》，原诗较长，篇首有题记：「洗衣是美国华侨最普通的职业，因此留学生常常被人问道：'你爸爸是洗衣裳的吗？'许多人忍受不了这侮辱。然而洗衣的职业并不是下贱的。……」此节选正是全诗的开头两行。闻一多归国后，目睹军阀混战、民不聊生，诗风由唯美转向沉郁，《死水》一集正是这一转变的产物，《洗衣歌》以华侨洗衣工的口吻，既写洗衣劳作之辛，更以「年年洗衣三百有六十日」的实情与「为甚要洗他们的脏衣服」的反诘，为劳动者正名、向种族歧视抗议，是闻一多爱国诗与写实诗的代表作。此节选两行，以数数的劳动节奏起兴，奠定了全诗「以劳动写尊严」的基调。

Art

The poem's first device is the counting, which is the oldest device of labour song — the same technique that makes a rower's chant. Numbers are monotonous, and monotony is the truth about this work: there is no end to it. The second device is the imperative 'wash them clean', which is both the worker's professional standard and his moral claim, so the most humble line in the poem becomes the noblest. The third is the exact parallelism of the two lines, whose sameness lets only the numbers and the final verb change; that economy is what makes the line memorable. And the whole excerpt is deliberately unpoetic in its vocabulary — no image, no metaphor, not a single ornate word — which is a bold choice for a poet famous for 'the three beauties' of music, painting and architecture. The beauty here has been moved from the wording into the rhythm of the hands.

此诗的艺术，集中体现为「歌谣体式、数数起兴、复沓成律、以劳作立尊严」四重特色，此节选则是这一艺术的开场。「一件，两件，三件」「四件，五件，六件」以数数的口吻起兴——洗衣工一边数着衣物一边劳作，数字的递增（一、二、三、四、五、六）正是洗衣顺序的实录，也是最古老的劳动歌谣的起兴方式（如《诗经》「七月流火」以时序起兴、采莲歌以「鱼戏莲叶东」的方位起兴），以单调的数字营造劳动的节奏，先声夺人。「洗衣要洗干净」「熨衣要熨得平」两个祈使句紧承数字，以「要」字写劳动者的自我要求——衣服要洗得干干净净，熨得平平整整，这是洗衣工的职业道德，也是做人的尊严。句式上两行完全对称：三三三字加七字，数字句短促急促，如手上的动作；要求句舒展坚定，如心里的誓言；「洗衣」对「熨衣」，「洗干净」对「熨得平」，对仗工整而口语自然。语言上纯用大白话，无一文饰，正合洗衣工的身份与劳动歌谣的体式。作为全诗开头，这两行以最朴素的劳动场景入诗，与后文「我洗得净悲哀的湿手帕，我洗得白罪恶的黑汗衣」的控诉、「为甚要洗他们的脏衣服」的反诘形成由实入虚、由劳入愤的推进，是「先铺劳作、后发抗议」的匠心结构。

Allusions

The poem sits on two traditions at once. The Chinese one is the labour song — the plucking songs of the 'Odes', the water-clearing songs of the south, the songs of the field — and using numbers as an opening is the oldest of their devices. Wen Yiduo is taking a folk form and putting it into modern Chinese free verse. The second tradition is the history of the Chinese laundryman in America: after the exclusion waves, Chinese immigrants were pushed out of mining and rail work into laundries and restaurants, and 'laundry' became the sign of a whole community. Against that, the poem argues from the work itself, and the line where the speaker declares he can wash away the black shirt of sin is a legal and religious claim in ordinary words. The poem also belongs to the May Fourth discussion about whether literature should serve the people, and to the verse of Liu Bannong and later to the direction of the Yan'an poets, who turned to folk forms for the same reason.

此诗的文化内涵，深植于十九世纪以来华侨洗衣工的辛酸史与中国诗歌「以劳动入诗」的民谣传统。洗衣在十九世纪赴美华工的职业谱系中占有特殊位置：早期华工多从事铁路修筑、采矿等苦力，排华浪潮兴起后，华人被迫集中于洗衣、餐馆等服务业，洗衣成为「华人职业」的代名词，甚至被美国主流社会视为下贱的象征——闻一多诗前题记所记「你爸爸是洗衣裳的吗」的侮辱性询问，正是这一历史处境的写照。《洗衣歌》以洗衣工口吻写「年年洗衣三百有六十日，我总要洗你（们）的……」，既是对这一职业的如实呈现，更是对「洗衣下贱」论的正面反驳：洗衣工洗的是「悲哀的湿手帕」「罪恶的黑汗衣」，他们比洗不掉罪恶的人更干净——以劳动之洁反讽文明之脏，是此诗最深刻的立意。从诗歌传统看，「歌」体（洗衣歌、采莲歌、敕勒歌）是中国民歌的古老体式，以劳动场景与复沓句式入歌，自《诗经·魏风》「十亩之间兮，桑者闲闲兮」的采桑歌、汉乐府《江南》「鱼戏莲叶间」的采莲歌一脉相承；闻一多取「歌」为体、以数数起兴，正是把中国民歌的源头活水引入现代新诗，使劳动者的歌谣在现代汉语中获得新生，其「以民谣写民生」的取向，与同时期刘半农《教我如何不想她》的民歌化尝试、后来的延安文艺方向遥相呼应。

Commentary

'The Washing Song' is one of the first long Chinese poems to take a labouring class as its subject, and it is the standard example of Wen Yiduo's later manner. Critics value it because it proves that the 'three beauties' he argued for are not limited to elegant themes: the counting gives the music, the clean and flat give the visual, and the two balanced lines give the architecture. Its political significance is larger than its length — 'the occupation of laundry is not base' is a defence of a whole people, written by a man who had personally been asked the insulting question, and it stands beside Ai Qing's 'Da Yan He' and Zang Kejia's 'The Old Horse' in the tradition of giving the labouring classes a voice in modern Chinese poetry. The counting line is still the most quoted opening in that tradition, and the historical detail it records — the laundry districts of American cities — makes the poem a document as well as a song.

《洗衣歌》是闻一多爱国诗与写实诗的代表作，也是中国新诗史上第一首正面书写华侨劳动者的长诗，此节选虽仅两行，却以劳动歌谣的形式为全诗定调，其价值可从三重维度衡量。从思想史看，此诗写于闻一多留美归来之际，把个人受辱的体验升华为对全体华侨劳工的声援，以「洗衣的职业并不是下贱的」的题记与「我洗得白罪恶的黑汗衣」的诗行，驳斥种族歧视、捍卫劳动者尊严，其「劳动神圣」的立场，在当时诗坛是罕见的进步声音，与艾青《大堰河——我的保姆》、臧克家《老马》等共同构成了新诗「为劳动者立传」的传统。从文学史看，此诗收入《死水》诗集，是闻一多由唯美转向沉郁的关键作品：诗中「三美」（音乐美、绘画美、建筑美）依然讲究——数数的节奏、对称的句式、口语的画面，却已注入现实的批判力量，证明格律诗并非只能吟风弄月，同样可以写劳工、写抗议，这对新月派「为艺术而艺术」的修正具有诗学上的意义。从接受史看，「一件，两件，三件，洗衣要洗干净」的数数起兴与「年年洗衣三百有六十日」的复沓，成为新诗中劳动歌谣的经典句式，被后世写劳动者题材的诗人广泛取法；而此诗所写的华侨洗衣史，至今仍是研究华工史、排华史的重要文学文献。百余年过去，洗衣歌中的劳动之声依然嘹亮——它提醒我们，最卑微的劳动里有最干净的尊严。

Prosody

Form Modern Chinese verse in a folk-song form; a labour chant with no metre but a strong parallel structure现代新诗（歌谣体，劳动歌谣）

Rhyme The two lines close on 'clean' and 'flat', which sound nearly alike and belong to the same open nasal ending, so the stanza rings out evenly; the counting in front of them gives the same beat four times before each command.节选两行以数数起兴、复沓成律：一二三、四五六的递增如劳动的节拍；「洗衣要洗干净」「熨衣要熨得平」两组长句以「净」「平」押韵（同属庚青类韵），对仗工整；全诗一韵到底，如劳动号子般齐整有力。

Tone pattern The voice is hard and upright; the counting is clipped and quick, like a hand moving, and the command that follows is straight and unsoftened. There is no gentle or sentimental note anywhere in the lines, which is what makes them sound like a working chant rather than a poem about work.语气刚健朴实，无一丝柔媚：数字句短促急促，如手上的动作；要求句坚定昂扬，如心中的誓言；两行复沓对称，如劳动歌谣的叠唱，先声夺人，为后文由劳作转入控诉蓄势。

Reading note The music of these two lines is their numbers. 'One garment, two, three' puts three short phrases in a row, each stopping on a single character, so the ear hears a drum being struck three times; then a seven-character line opens out and delivers the command. The second line repeats the whole frame with new numbers and a new verb, so the reader hears the same tune with different words, exactly as a chant does. In recitation the counting should be rapid and level, and the command should be given whole, without any ornament. The rhyme on 'clean' and 'flat' closes both lines on the same open sound, and that sameness is what makes the lines feel like a song that could be sung by a room full of people doing the same thing. Wen Yiduo wrote of the beauty of music, painting and architecture; here the architecture is the parallelism and the music is the count.此节选的节奏，是闻一多「音乐美」主张在劳动题材上的典范实践，其妙在以「数」为律、以「对」成歌。起句「一件，两件，三件」三个三字短语连续迸出，每字一顿，如洗衣工接连拿起衣物的动作，数字的递进恰是劳动的节拍——这是从民间劳动歌谣继承的「数数起兴」法，与采莲歌「鱼戏莲叶东」的方位起兴异曲同工，以最单调的计数营造最真实的劳作现场；「洗衣要洗干净」以七字长句承接，节奏由急促转为舒展，如劳作中吐出的誓言，一快一慢，张弛有致。次行「四件，五件，六件，熨衣要熨得平」与首行完全同构：同样的三三三七句式、同样的数数起兴、同样的「要」字誓言，复沓之下，劳动的一成不变与劳动者的始终如一都在节奏中显影——数不尽的衣服、复沓的句式，正是「年年洗衣三百有六十日」的节奏预言。音韵上，「件」字（去声）三见，如鼓点重锤；「洗干净」与「熨得平」以「净」「平」押韵（同收鼻音韵），句末韵脚平稳落下，如熨斗压平衣褶。全诗虽为自由诗，却以对称的句式、复沓的结构、鲜明的韵脚获得了歌谣的旋律，读来如闻槌衣之声、如见熨斗之烟，是「以形式写劳动」的绝佳范例。

Line by line

一件，两件，三件，洗衣要洗干净！

One garment, two, three — wash them clean: the count of the hands and the worker's whole professional standard in one line.

一件，两件，三件，（这些衣服）要洗得干干净净！

One piece, two pieces, three pieces—the washing must be clean!

首行以数数起兴，是劳动歌谣最古老也最有力的开场。「一件，两件，三件」三个数量词连续迸出，中间以逗号隔开，如洗衣工手不停歇地拿起一件、洗过一件、再拿一件，数字的递增就是劳作的节拍——这是从田间采茶歌、船夫号子一脉相承的「以数成律」，单调中自有节奏，重复中自有力量；数字从一到三，是劳作的开始，暗示后面还有无数件，「洗不尽」的意味已在数字中埋下。「洗衣要洗干净」紧承数字，以「要」字写出劳动者的自我要求——不是敷衍了事，而是必求干净，这一句是全诗立骨之句：洗衣虽贱，而洗则求净，劳动的态度即做人的态度。句式上三个三字短语急促如鼓点，七字长句坚定如誓言，长短相间，节奏鲜明。作为全诗第一行，它把读者直接带进洗衣房的水汽与皂香之中，让读者先听见劳动的声音，再听见劳动的心声——先「入其境」，后「感其情」，正是此诗布局的匠心。

The washing. One piece, two pieces, three pieces—the washing must be clean! The counted pieces and the washing-must-be-clean are the opening. To have counted the pieces would be a counting; the one-piece-two-pieces-three-pieces-the-washing-must-be-clean is the counting.

四件，五件，六件，熨衣要熨得平！

Four, five, six — press them flat: the same frame, the second half of the job, and the chant completed.

四件，五件，六件，（这些衣服）要熨得平平整整！

Four pieces, five pieces, six pieces—the ironing must be smooth!

次行以数字的继续与动作的转换，完成劳动场景的铺陈，是首行的复沓与推进。「四件，五件，六件」承接「一件，两件，三件」，数字由三进六，劳作由洗衣转入熨衣——洗衣是水里的功夫，熨衣是火上的功夫（熨斗），一湿一干、一洗一熨，把洗衣工完整的劳动流程呈现在读者面前；数字的递增暗示衣物的无尽，六件之后还有七件八件，日复一日，正是后文「年年洗衣三百有六十日」的先声。「熨衣要熨得平」以「平」字对「净」字——洗衣求净、熨衣求平，一个「平」字写熨斗下的耐心与细致：衣要熨得平平整整，不皱一褶，这是手艺，也是自尊。句式上两行完全对称（三三三加七），如两段相同的歌谣叠唱，复沓中见劳动的一成不变，也见劳动者对「净」「平」的一丝不苟。这一行与首行合观，是全诗劳动场景的完整开场：数、洗、熨，句句是劳作，字字是尊严——后文对「下贱论」的驳斥，正建立在这两行所写的认真劳动之上：洗得净、熨得平的人，如何会是下贱的？

The ironing. Four pieces, five pieces, six pieces—the ironing must be smooth! The counted four-five-six pieces and the ironing-must-be-smooth are the close. To have counted the pieces would be a counting; the four-pieces-five-pieces-six-pieces-the-ironing-must-be-smooth is the counting.

Study

Word focus

洗干净 In 'wash them clean', these three plain characters are the poem's moral as well as its trade. Clean means not merely free of dirt but without a stain, and the poem takes the standard of a laundry and gives it to a whole man: the one who washes what is dirty is himself clean. The word is also hard in the mouth — three characters, two stops — so it sounds like work rather than song, which is exactly right. 「洗衣要洗干净」的「洗干净」，是全诗立骨的日常口语，三个字把劳动者的职业良心写得掷地有声。「洗」是动作，「干净」是标准，「要」是誓言——洗衣工对自己说、对衣物说：必须洗干净。这个词组的妙处在于「净」的深意：衣服要洗去污垢，正如人要保持清白；闻一多后文写「我洗得净悲哀的湿手帕，我洗得白罪恶的黑汗衣」，正是把「洗」从洗衣房的劳作升华为对世界污秽的清洗——「洗干净」既是职业的要求，也是道德的宣言：洗衣工洗得净衣裳，也洗得白罪恶，他们比那些把「脏衣服」交给他们的人干净得多。从音韵看，「洗干净」三字一仄二平，读来干脆利落，如皂泡破裂之声；从节奏看，它与数字句（一件两件三件）的急促形成对照——数数是劳作的节拍，洗干净是内心的誓言，一快一慢，劳动的形与劳动者的魂都在其中。一个日常词组，因置于劳动歌谣的语境而获得道德的分量，正是闻一多「口语入诗而不失其重」的功力。

熨得平 In 'press them flat', this is the second half of the working standard and the second half of the poem's character. Pressing takes fire and patience; 'flat' demands that not one crease remain. As with 'clean', the ordinary word carries a moral: a life pressed flat and clean is the opposite of the black shirt of sin that the poem says the worker is able to wash. The two words together — clean and flat — are the whole ethics of the poem, stated in the vocabulary of a laundry. 「熨衣要熨得平」的「熨得平」，与「洗干净」对仗成文，写熨衣工序的标准，也写劳动者的心性。「熨」是洗衣工的第二道工序——以灼热的熨斗压平衣物的褶皱，此字入诗，把熨斗的沉重、热气的蒸腾、衣料的平展都带入读者的感官；「平」是熨衣的标准，一熨一熨地压过，直到不见一褶——「平」字不仅写衣物的状态，更写心态的从容：急不得、躁不得，唯有耐心，方能熨平。从文化意蕴看，「平」与「净」对举，是中国美学与伦理的核心范畴——平正、干净，是器物之德，亦是君子之德；洗衣工以「净」「平」自律，正是「虽贱业而守正」的体现。从音韵看，「熨得平」读来平稳绵长（熨字去声、平字阳平），如熨斗缓缓压过的节奏；与「洗干净」的干脆形成动静互补——洗是泼辣的快动作，熨是沉着的慢功夫，一快一慢，恰是洗衣工一天劳作的两个节拍。后文「熨衣要熨得平」与「洗衣要洗干净」的复沓，更以对称的句式把两种劳动写成一首完整的歌谣，使最平凡的工序获得歌的韵律。

洗衣歌