唐 Tang · 诗 Poem
将进酒
Bring Me the Wine!
琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红。
烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗帏绣幕围香风。
吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞。
况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨。
劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土。
Dragon and phoenix roasted and singed, jade fats weeping; silk curtains and embroidered canopies enclose fragrance like a wind.
A dragon flute is blown, an alligator drum is struck, teeth-of-pearl songs are sung, willow-waisted dances danced.
And yet the day of youth is drawing to its close, peach petals falling in showers like red rain.
I urge you: be drunken the whole day long — wine never reaches the mould of Liu Ling's grave.
Meaning
A banquet is at its most brilliant — crystal cups, jade fats sizzling, flute, drum, singing, dancing — and at the height of it the poet suddenly notices that youth is ending and that the peach petals are falling like red rain. His conclusion is a paradox: drink all day, because after death wine cannot reach a grave. The poem is a gorgeous surface under which everything is vanishing.
琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红。烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗帏绣幕围香风。吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞。况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨。劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土。
Appreciation
[Plain Paraphrase] The first three stanzas pile up luxury — glass, amber wine, roasting dragons, silk curtains, music and dancing — and the language itself is dense and jewelled. Then the fourth stanza steps back: 'the day of youth is drawing to its close, peach petals falling in showers like red rain.' The whole banquet is revealed as a frame around one short sentence about time. [Structure] Five uneven blocks: three of feasting, one of.Image, one of argument. The poem deliberately withholds its theme as long as possible. [Imagery] Li He's images are strange rather than pretty: jade fat that 'weeps', a wine that falls like 'red pearls', petals like 'red rain'. Sensation is carried by colour and sound more than by meaning.
【白话串讲】 李贺写《将进酒》：“琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红”——“烹龙炮凤玉脂泣”——“吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞”——“况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨”——“劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土”——他写青春的狂欢与逝去。 【意象与手法】 此诗写豪饮与人生短暂的感慨，是李贺的名篇。前六句写酒宴的豪华：「琉璃钟，琥珀浓」写琉璃酒钟、琥珀色酒，「小槽酒滴真珠红」写美酒如真珠红，「烹龙炮凤玉脂泣」写珍馐美味，「罗帏绣幕围香风」写罗帷绣幕的香风；中四句写歌舞：「吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞」写龙笛鼍鼓、皓齿细腰的歌舞；后四句写感慨：「况是青春日将暮」写青春将暮，「桃花乱落如红雨」写桃花乱落如红雨，「劝君终日酩酊醉」写劝君终日醉饮，「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写酒浇不到刘伶坟上土。全诗以豪饮写人生短暂的感慨，写尽及时行乐的豪放与悲慨，正是李贺「瑰奇」诗风的本领。 【情感与主旨】 此诗写豪饮与人生短暂的感慨，是李贺的名篇。李贺天才横溢而英年早逝，对人生短暂有深切的体悟，其诗多写及时行乐与人生感慨。此诗写酒宴：琉璃钟、琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红——写美酒的华美；烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗帏绣幕围香风——写珍馐与香风；吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞——写歌舞的盛宴；况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨——写青春将暮、桃花乱落；劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土——写劝君终日醉饮，因为酒浇不到刘伶（魏晋名士，以嗜酒著称）坟上的土。全诗以豪饮写人生短暂的感慨——那琉璃钟、真珠红写尽美酒的华美，那烹龙炮凤写尽盛宴的豪华，那皓齿细腰写尽歌舞的欢愉；然「青春日将暮」「桃花乱落如红雨」写尽青春易逝、繁华易散，「酒不到刘伶坟上土」更写尽人生终将归于尘土，唯有及时行乐。全诗写尽及时行乐的豪放与人生短暂的悲慨，正是李贺「瑰奇」诗风的本领。 【名句点睛】 常考「桃花乱落如红雨」写青春易逝的名句；「况是青春日将暮」写时光流逝；「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写人生短暂、及时行乐；「琉璃钟，琥珀浓」「烹龙炮凤」写酒宴的豪华；以及全诗以豪饮写人生感慨、以华美写悲慨的手法。
Background
Li He (790–816), styled Changji, was a young and famously unworldly poet from a family long associated with the imperial household; he failed the metropolitan examination and never held high office. His verse is known for vivid, unstable colour, strange vocabularies and a persistent preoccupation with death, immortality and brief beauty. He died in his mid-twenties. This piece, titled 'Bring Me the Wine', belongs to his wine and banquet poems, in which he imitates the lively irregular manner of the old yuefu song traditions rather than the regulated verse of his contemporaries.
此诗写豪饮与人生短暂的感慨，是李贺的名篇。李贺（790—816），字长吉，福昌（今河南宜阳）人，中唐著名诗人，人称「诗鬼」。李贺才华横溢而体弱多病，英年早逝（二十七岁），对人生短暂、时光易逝有深切的体悟，其诗多写及时行乐与人生感慨，想象瑰奇，语言华美。此诗写酒宴豪饮：「琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红」写美酒的华美——琉璃钟写华美的酒器，琥珀浓写酒色如琥珀，小槽酒滴真珠红写美酒滴落如真珠红（美酒名）；「烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗帏绣幕围香风」写珍馐与香风——烹龙炮凤写穷奢极侈的珍馐（夸张之辞），玉脂泣写烹煮之声，罗帏绣幕写华贵的帷幕围裹香风；「吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞」写歌舞的盛宴——龙笛、鼍鼓写乐器，皓齿歌、细腰舞写歌女舞女；「况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨」写青春将暮、桃花乱落——青春日将暮写年华将尽，桃花乱落如红雨写桃花纷落如红雨（以红雨喻落花，是千古名句）；「劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土」写劝君终日醉饮——因为酒浇不到刘伶（魏晋名士，以嗜酒著称，常纵酒放达）坟上的土，人生终将归于尘土。全诗以豪饮写人生短暂的感慨，写尽及时行乐的豪放与悲慨，是理解李贺人生感慨与中唐诗歌风格的重要篇章。
Art
The poem's central technique is the delayed turn. For three whole blocks the reader is allowed to take pleasure in the feast, and only at the fourth does the pressure of time enter; the final couplet then converts that pressure into an argument for drinking. Li He also makes a shift of sense where a moder poet would use metaphor — the fat of the roast does not merely sizzle, it 'weeps'; the wine is not red, it is a string of red pearls falling. The irregular line lengths (three, four, seven syllables) accelerate and then slow the reading in sympathy with the mood. The closing image is an argument made with an image rather than a maxim: wine reaches the living but not the dead, therefore drink.
此诗的艺术特色可从四个方面解析。其一，以华美写酒宴。前六句「琉璃钟，琥珀浓，小槽酒滴真珠红。烹龙炮凤玉脂泣，罗帏绣幕围香风」以华美的笔触写酒宴——那「琉璃钟」「琥珀浓」「真珠红」写美酒的华美，「烹龙炮凤」「罗帏绣幕」写珍馐与华贵的帷幕，以华美写尽酒宴的豪华。其二，以排比写歌舞。「吹龙笛，击鼍鼓，皓齿歌，细腰舞」以排比写歌舞——那「吹」「击」「歌」「舞」的排比写尽歌舞的盛宴，音节急促，写尽欢愉。其三，以奇喻写落花。「桃花乱落如红雨」以「红雨」的奇喻写桃花纷落——那「桃花乱落如红雨」以红雨喻落花，写尽桃花纷落的华美与青春易逝的悲慨，是千古名句。其四，以警语收束。「劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土」以警语收束——那「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写酒浇不到刘伶坟上土，以刘伶（嗜酒名士）之典写人生终归尘土，以警语写尽及时行乐与人生短暂的悲慨。四重手法，使此诗以豪饮写人生短暂的感慨，写尽及时行乐的豪放与悲慨，正是李贺「瑰奇」诗风的本领。
Allusions
Two layers. The furniture of the banquet — the 'small groove' (xiao cao, the channel of a wine press), the glazed cup, the alligator-skin drum — is drawn from the description of famous drinking assemblies in the yuefu tradition. The closing couplet depends on Liu Ling, one of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Grove, who drank without measure and reportedly had a spade carried behind him with the word 'bury me here'; the joke is that the wine he loved will not reach him now. The falling peach blossom as 'red rain' takes up the Palace-of-Long-Life tradition in which falling petals foretell doom.
此诗的用语深植于饮酒与人生感慨的传统。「琉璃钟」令人想到「琉璃」写华美器物的意象，也令人想到「钟」写酒杯的意象；「琥珀浓」令人想到「琥珀」写酒色的意象——「兰陵美酒郁金香，玉碗盛来琥珀光」（李白《客中行》），也令人想到琥珀色的美酒；「真珠红」令人想到「真珠红」写美酒名（唐代美酒名），也令人想到「珍珠」的华美；「烹龙炮凤」令人想到「烹龙炮凤」写穷奢极侈的珍馐之辞——「炮凤烹龙」，也令人想到「食前方丈」的豪奢；「玉脂泣」令人想到「玉脂」写烹煮的油脂，也令人想到「泣」写烹煮之声（油脂受热的声音）；「龙笛」令人想到「龙笛」写龙形之笛，也令人想到「笛」的乐器意象；「鼍鼓」令人想到「鼍鼓」写鼍皮之鼓——「鼍鼓逢逢」（《诗经·大雅·灵台》），也令人想到「鼓」的宴乐；「皓齿歌，细腰舞」令人想到「皓齿」写歌女的白齿、「细腰」写舞女的纤腰——「楚王好细腰」，也令人想到「歌台舞榭」的宴乐传统；「青春日将暮」令人想到「青春」写年华的意象——「青春作伴好还乡」，也令人想到「日将暮」写时光将尽的意象；「桃花乱落如红雨」令人想到「桃花」写春色的意象——「人面桃花相映红」，也令人想到「落花」写春去的意象——「落红不是无情物」，以红雨喻落花，是李贺的奇喻；「刘伶」令人想到刘伶——魏晋名士，竹林七贤之一，以嗜酒著称，常乘鹿车携酒，使人荷锸随之，曰「死便埋我」，令人想到「刘伶醉酒」的典故，也令人想到「竹林七贤」的放达；「酒不到刘伶坟上土」令人想到「坟上土」写死亡的意象——「贤愚千载知谁是，满眼蓬蒿共一丘」，也令人想到「人生寄一世，奄忽若飙尘」的短暂。全诗化用琉璃、琥珀、真珠红、烹龙炮凤、刘伶的传统意象与典故，以豪饮写人生短暂的感慨，正是李贺「瑰奇」而善用奇喻、承饮酒感慨传统写悲慨的本领。
Commentary
This poem has been read for over a thousand years as a perfect example of Li He's manner: brilliance that is also an elegy. Song and Qing commentators admired its colours while worrying that its oddness bordered on the obscure; modern readers tend to see the dense surface as the subject itself — a banquet that is beautiful precisely because you can hear the petals falling in it. It is one of the handful of Li He's poems widely memorised, and it is conventionally paired with Li Bai's 'Invitation to Wine', where the same pleasure is met with a different temper.
此诗历来被推为李贺的名篇，也是唐人饮酒诗的代表。历代论者对此诗评价极高：清人评此诗「以豪饮写人生感慨，瑰奇华美」；近人更指出「桃花乱落如红雨」以奇喻写落花，是千古名句。在诗歌史上，此诗的特殊价值在于：它以十二句的短歌写尽豪饮的华美与人生短暂的悲慨——那琉璃钟、琥珀浓、真珠红的美酒，那烹龙炮凤的珍馐，那皓齿细腰的歌舞，那青春将暮的感慨，那桃花乱落如红雨的奇喻，那刘伶坟上土的警语，都写尽了李贺对人生短暂的深切体悟；那「桃花乱落如红雨」更写尽青春易逝的华美与悲慨。此诗与李白《将进酒》（「君不见黄河之水天上来」）同为《将进酒》名篇，一写「天生我材必有用」的豪放，一写「酒不到刘伶坟上土」的悲慨；又与刘伶嗜酒的传统一脉相承，可见中国诗写饮酒与人生感慨的传统。对于今日读者，此诗是理解李贺人生感慨与中唐诗歌风格的窗口，也是中国诗写饮酒的经典——那乱落如红雨的桃花，穿越千年，仍在诉说着青春易逝、及时行乐的悲慨。
Prosody
Line by line
况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨
And yet the day of youth is drawing to its close, peach petals falling in showers like red rain.
何况青春之日将暮，桃花纷落如红雨。
What is more, youth's day is nearing dusk; peach blossoms fall in wild profusion like a rain of red.
此联是全诗写感慨的核心，以「红雨」的奇喻写落花，写尽青春易逝，是千古名句。「况是青春日将暮」写何况青春之日将暮——那「况是」写何况、递进，「青春日将暮」写青春之日将尽，写尽年华将逝的感慨；「桃花乱落如红雨」写桃花纷落如红雨——那「桃花乱落」写桃花纷纷飘落，「如红雨」以红雨喻落花，写尽落花的华美与纷乱。这句的深意在于：它以「况是青春日将暮」的递进与「桃花乱落如红雨」的奇喻，写尽青春易逝的感慨——前面写尽酒宴的豪华与歌舞的欢愉，此联以「况是」递进：何况青春之日将暮，那「青春日将暮」写尽年华将逝的感慨——青春将尽，盛筵难再；桃花纷纷飘落，如红雨一般，那「桃花乱落如红雨」以红雨喻落花，写尽落花的华美与纷乱——桃花乱落，如红雨缤纷，正是青春易逝、繁华易散的写照；那「日将暮」写尽时光将尽，那「乱落如红雨」写尽落花的华美与悲慨，以华美的奇喻写尽青春易逝的悲慨——越是华美，越是悲慨。若换作直说「青春要结束了」，则失其华美；唯以「况是青春日将暮」写时光、「桃花乱落如红雨」的奇喻写落花，写尽青春易逝的华美与悲慨，也让此联成为全诗写感慨的核心与千古名句。
The couplet is the core of the poem's feeling, an age-famed line built on the strange metaphor of a red rain of blossoms. What is more, youth's day is nearing dusk: kuang shi advances the thought, the day of youth nearing its end writes the waning of years. Peach blossoms fall in wild profusion like a rain of red: the red rain compares the falling petals. The hidden art: after the splendor of the banquet and the delights of song and dance, kuang shi advances the turn: youth's day is nearly over, the feast cannot last; the peach petals scatter like a rain of red, a gorgeous yet chaotic figure for youth's swift passing and glory's quick dispersal. The more gorgeous the image, the more poignant the grief. To have said baldly that youth is ending would lose the splendor; only the advancing turn and the red-rain metaphor write the beauty and the grief together.
劝君终日酩酊醉，酒不到刘伶坟上土
I urge you: be drunken the whole day long, for wine never reaches the mould of Liu Ling's grave.
劝你终日酩酊大醉，因为酒浇不到刘伶坟上的土。
I urge you to be dead drunk all day long; wine never reaches the earth on Liu Ling's grave.
此联是全诗的收束，以刘伶之典写人生短暂，以警语写及时行乐。「劝君终日酩酊醉」写劝你终日酩酊大醉——那「劝君」写劝勉，「终日酩酊醉」写终日大醉，写尽劝人及时行乐的豪放；「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写酒浇不到刘伶坟上的土——那「酒不到」写酒浇不到，「刘伶坟上土」写刘伶坟上的土，以刘伶之典写人生终归尘土。这句的深意在于：它以「劝君终日酩酊醉」的豪放与「酒不到刘伶坟上土」的警语，写尽人生短暂的悲慨——劝你终日酩酊大醉，那「终日酩酊醉」写尽及时行乐的豪放；因为酒浇不到刘伶坟上的土，那「刘伶」是魏晋名士，以嗜酒著称，常使人荷锸随之，曰「死便埋我」，然如今刘伶坟上的土，酒也浇不到了——人死之后，纵有美酒，也浇不到坟上，那「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写尽人生终归尘土、死后一切皆空的悲慨；生前须及时行乐，终日酩酊醉，因为死后酒也喝不到了，那「劝君终日酩酊醉」写尽豪放，那「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写尽悲慨，以警语收束，写尽及时行乐与人生短暂的深刻感慨。若换作直说「及时行乐吧」，则失其深沉；唯以「劝君终日酩酊醉」写豪放、「酒不到刘伶坟上土」的警语写人生短暂，写尽及时行乐与悲慨，也让此联成为全诗的收束与千古名句。
The couplet closes the poem, using the allusion to Liu Ling to write the shortness of life and preaching timely joy in a warning tone. I urge you to be dead drunk all day long: quan jun urges, zhong ri ming ding zui writes the abandon. Wine never reaches the earth on Liu Ling's grave: wine never reaches, Liu Ling's grave the earth above the notorious drinker. The hidden art: Liu Ling of the Wei-Jin era was famous for his love of wine, often followed by a servant carrying a spade, saying, bury me wherever I fall dead; yet now, on the earth of Liu Ling's grave, even wine cannot be poured. Once a man is dead, however fine the wine, it never reaches the grave; so while alive, be dead drunk all day, for after death there will be no more wine. The abandon of drinking and the warning of the grave write the deep feeling of timely joy and life's shortness; to have said enjoy yourself while you can would lose the depth, and the warning close is the poem's most famous line.
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Li Bai's famous piece opens on the Yellow River pouring down from the sky and climbs to 'if a genius is born, let him be used; a thousand in gold spent will come back' — the pleasure is a claim about the self. Li He's version opens on a jewel of a cup and closes on the earth of a drunkard's grave — the pleasure is a knowledge of ending. Same title, same drink, opposite temperaments: together they show what the Tang could do with one yuefu subject.
李白《将进酒》「君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复回」「天生我材必有用，千金散尽还复来」写豪饮与自信，是唐诗的名篇。此诗《将进酒》则「况是青春日将暮，桃花乱落如红雨」「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写豪饮与人生短暂的悲慨。同为《将进酒》，一写「天生我材必有用」的豪放（李白），一写「酒不到刘伶坟上土」的悲慨（李贺）；一以「会须一饮三百杯」写豪兴，一以「桃花乱落如红雨」写易逝。两诗对读，可见李白的豪放自信与李贺的华美悲慨。
短歌行 Short Song (Duan ge xing) 曹操 · 同写人生短暂与酒，一慷慨一悲慨 Both poems confront the shortness of life over a cup of wine, one in the northern marketplace of the late Han and one at a Tang banquet.Cao Cao asks 'against a cup and a song, how long is life? like the morning dew, the passed days are too many' and answers this with the ambition to rule the world; his sadness is public and political. Li He asks the same question and answers only with the advice to get drunk, because the wine will not reach a dead man's grave. The earlier poem's grief is a grief about order; the later one's grief is a grief about time itself.
曹操《短歌行》「对酒当歌，人生几何？譬如朝露，去日苦多」「何以解忧？唯有杜康」写对酒当歌、人生短暂的感慨，是曹操的名篇。此诗《将进酒》则「况是青春日将暮」「酒不到刘伶坟上土」写豪饮与人生短暂的悲慨。同为写人生短暂与酒，一写「对酒当歌，人生几何」的慷慨（短歌行），一写「酒不到刘伶坟上土」的悲慨（将进酒）；一以「周公吐哺」写志向，一以「桃花乱落如红雨」写易逝。两诗对读，可见中国诗写人生短暂与酒的两种情调。