清 Qing · 诗 Poem
感旧四首·其一
Remembering the Past, Four Poems: No. 1
大道青楼望不遮，年时系马醉流霞。
风前带是同心结，杯底人如解语花。
下杜城边南北路，上阑门外去来车。
匆匆觉得扬州梦，检点闲愁在鬓华。
in those years I tied my horse here and drank myself drunk on wine like sunset cloud.
Her sash fluttered in the wind, knotted in a true-lover's knot;
at the bottom of the cup her face was a flower that could speak.
By the wall of Xiadu the highway runs north and south;
outside the Shanglan gate the carriages come and go.
All of it passes in a moment, a dream of Yangzhou,
and counting over those idle sorrows I find them in my greying hair.
Meaning
Returning to a street he once frequented, the poet remembers drinking there in his youth and the woman he loved, then looks at the unchanged road and traffic and feels how completely his own life has changed. The affair now seems a brief dream, and its light sorrows have settled visibly into the white at his temples.
宽阔的大道旁高楼连绵，一眼望去毫无遮拦，当年我就在这楼前系马，醉饮那如霞的美酒。 她迎风飘动的衣带上系着同心结，酒杯映着她的容颜，宛如一朵会说话的花。 下杜城边，大路贯通南北；上阑门外，车马来来往往。 匆匆之间，只觉那段日子恰似一场扬州旧梦，如今清点从前的闲愁，才发现都已化作鬓边的白发。
Appreciation
The structure moves in clear stages. The opening couplet begins with the towers and the road before him and slips into memory; the second couplet closes in on the woman, one image for a thing she wore and one for the face she turned to him; the third pulls the camera back to the roads and carriages, whose changelessness measures how much has changed in him; the closing couplet gathers everything into a dream and then lets the dream settle in his hair. Huang Jingren is not writing the drama of a lost love but the vertigo of looking back and finding a whole world gone. The road is still there, the traffic is still there, only the young man who drank there has aged. To count over sorrows once dismissed as idle and discover they were heavy enough to whiten the temples is the poem's quietest and cruelest stroke.
【白话串讲】 黄景仁回忆旧情：“大道青楼望不遮，年时系马醉流霞”——当年在青楼喝醉。“风前带是同心结，杯底人如解语花”——她那么懂他。“匆匆觉得扬州梦”——如今像做了一场扬州梦。 【意象与手法】 章法极见层次：首联从眼前的楼与路写起，宕入回忆；颔联特写伊人，“同心结”“解语花”两个意象一属物一属人，把当日的柔情写足；颈联忽然拉开镜头，写城边道路、门外车马，以永恒不变的车尘马足反衬人事之无常；尾联收束，由“梦”入“愁”，由“愁”落于“鬓华”，抽象的时间终于在头发上现出形迹。 【情感与主旨】 黄仲则一生穷愁，早年与一歌者有过一段无果之情，此四首即为此而作。全诗写的不是激烈的失恋，而是那种回头一望、恍如隔世的怅惘。旧地还在，旧路还在，连车马都还在，只有当年那个纵酒的少年老了。所谓“检点闲愁”，是把往日看似轻飘的“闲”愁一一清点，才发现它们早已沉重到足以催白双鬓。 【名句点睛】 “风前带是同心结，杯底人如解语花”是全诗最旖旎的一联。上句写物，衣带临风而同心结分明；下句写人，酒杯之底而笑靥如花。一“前”一“底”，视角一高一低，把醉眼中的美人写得摇曳生姿。愈是把当年写得明艳，尾联的“鬓华”二字就愈是刺目。
Background
Huang Jingren (1749-1783), styled Hanyong and better known by his other style Zhongze, with the sobriquet Lufeizi, came from Yanghu in what is now Changzhou, Jiangsu, and was one of the Seven Masters of Piling. He modeled his verse on Li Bai, lived in poverty and frustration all his life, and died away from home at thirty-five, leaving the Liangdangxuan Collection. The four poems of Remembering the Past recall an early love that came to nothing; this first one sets out the memory as a whole.
黄景仁（一七四九至一七八三），字汉镛，一字仲则，号鹿菲子，阳湖（今江苏常州）人，为毗陵七子之一。四岁而孤，家清贫，少年即负诗名，诗学李白而兼取义山，一生穷愁潦倒，为生计四方奔走，卒于山西解州，年三十五，有《两当轩集》传世。据其集中《感旧》诸作及生平行迹推考，诗人早岁在宜兴氿里读书时，与一位歌者有过一段两心相许而无果的恋情，后各天一方，重经旧地，感怀而作《感旧四首》（一作《感旧四章》），此为第一首，总提往事。其时约在乾隆三十三年前后，诗人年方弱冠，而诗中已有鬓华之叹，则知这段情事与其穷愁身世相纠结，非独儿女之私。仲则十九岁娶赵氏，而氿里情事在婚前数年，集中绮怀十六首多与此事相关，缠绵往复，论者谓可与李商隐无题诸诗并读；感旧四章同源而较收敛，其一总冒，以下分咏旧游、别后与梦寻，自成一小小整体。诗人自谓感旧之怀非言语能尽，故托之律体，一唱三叹，遂成绝调。
Art
The four couplets of the regulated form advance step by step: the first moves from the present scene into memory, the second draws the woman in fine detail, the third opens out into landscape so that the setting carries the feeling, and the fourth closes with a dream and with white hair. Real and remembered, present and past are woven through one another throughout.
此诗章法极见层次，四联如一篇文章的起承转合。首联从眼前的楼与路写起，「望不遮」三字先把视野推开，为回忆腾出空间，随即宕入「年时」的追忆；颔联特写伊人，「同心结」属物、「解语花」属人，一「风前」一「杯底」，视角一高一低，把当日的柔情写足，是全诗最旖旎的一笔；颈联忽然拉开镜头，写下杜城边的南北路、上阑门外的去来车，以永恒往复的车尘马足反衬人事之无常，看似闲景，实为最狠的过渡；尾联收束，由「扬州梦」入「闲愁」，由「愁」落于「鬓华」，抽象的时间终于在头发上现出形迹。丽语起而悲语结，愈见其悲，是仲则七律的本色当行。此诗的另一妙处在色彩的安排：首联浓（青楼流霞），颔联艳（同心结解语花），颈联忽淡（路车），尾联冷（梦与鬓华）。由浓而淡而冷，正是感情从沉醉到醒觉的温度曲线；颈联之淡，如浓茶后一口清水，反使前之浓者愈见其不可复得，章法与色彩在此高度合一。
Allusions
The green or painted tower originally meant a handsome building - Cao Zhi's Beautiful Woman has such a tower facing the great road - and later came to mean the quarters of singing girls. The rosy wine is the immortals' drink named in Ge Hong's Baopuzi. The flower that can speak comes from the Anecdotes of the Kaiyuan and Tianbao Eras, where Emperor Xuanzong points to Yang Guifei and asks his attendants how she compares with his flower that understands speech. The dream of Yangzhou is from Du Mu's poem of self-reproach, where ten years pass like a single Yangzhou dream.
此诗用典皆有来历而融化无迹。①「青楼」本指涂饰华美之楼，曹植《美女篇》「青楼临大路，高门结重关」，后渐指歌妓居处，此处两义兼含。②「流霞」为神话中仙酒之名，见葛洪《抱朴子·祛惑》项曼都所言「每饮一杯，数月不饥」，诗中代指美酒。③「同心结」为旧时以锦带绾成连锁回文之结，象征男女永好，梁武帝诗「腰间双绮带，梦为同心结」。④「解语花」出五代王仁裕《开元天宝遗事》，唐玄宗指杨贵妃谓左右曰「争如我解语花」，后以喻美人。⑤「下杜」「上阑」皆为长安城郊地名，借指旧游之地。⑥「扬州梦」用杜牧《遣怀》「十年一觉扬州梦，赢得青楼薄幸名」事。诸典之用尤可注意其地域：下杜、上阑皆长安地名，而青楼、系马诸语又皆可属吴楚冶游，诗人把两处经验叠印，使旧地兼有少年行乐与京华踪迹的双重投影。又杜牧扬州梦本自嘲薄幸，仲则用之，则薄幸之外更多一层身世之感——梦醒之后，连薄幸之名亦无从谈起，此用典之进一层者。
Commentary
The feeling is finely drawn and the sense of past against present almost unbearable; there is affection for what was lovely and a mild, resigned grief at what is. The poem shows Huang Zhongze's seven-character verse at its strongest.
黄景仁之诗，当世即负盛名，翁方纲为序《悔存诗钞》，包世臣称其「乾隆六十年间第一人」。此四首感旧，后世评家多致意焉：以为情深而不失于狎，语丽而不失于纤，得义山之神而去其晦。张维屏《诗人征略》谓仲则诗如哀猿之叫月、独雁之啼霜，此类感旧之作正是注脚——不是激烈的失恋之呼号，而是回头一望、恍如隔世的怅惘。今人论清诗，于仲则七律独推此等篇章，以其能以唐音运清情，「检点闲愁在鬓华」一句尤被举为清人七律名句之一。仲则殁后，其诗益重。后人评此四章，谓哀感顽艳，得玉溪之神而能自出机杼；洪亮吉与仲则同里同学，知其诗本末最深。读者取感旧与绮怀并观，可见仲则言情诗的全貌：绮怀铺张，感旧收敛，一放一收，皆至情之文。今人论清诗言情一派，仲则与纳兰并称，一以词名，一以诗名，其位置久已论定。又仲则诗当时即有纸贵之誉，毕沅幕中同人争相传写，殁后刻本益多；此四章本事既明，文本复佳，故凡选清诗者殆不能舍之，其传诵之久且广，非一时标榜所能致也。
Prosody
Line by line
大道青楼望不遮，年时系马醉流霞。
Broad road, painted towers, and nothing to block the eye; here in those years I tied my horse and drank myself drunk on wine like sunset cloud. The opening lays out the pleasure quarter of his youth in rich color, the unobstructed view suggesting rows of galleries, the tethered horse and the wine recalling a young man's high spirits.
宽阔的大道旁高楼连绵，一眼望去毫无遮拦，当年我就在这楼前系马，醉饮那如霞的美酒。
On the broad avenue the tall mansions rise, one unbroken sight; in those days I tied my horse there and drank the wine of flowing sunset.
大道青楼起笔即铺陈当年冶游之地，「望不遮」见楼馆连绵之盛，亦见旧事奔来眼底、无可遮拦。「系马醉流霞」追忆少年豪兴——系马是暂时，醉是纵情，六个字里全是当日的意气；而「年时」二字轻轻一点，便知这一切已入追想，起势浓丽而已伏今昔之界。起联以空间之开阔写时间之纵深，正是律诗发端的高法：楼馆如昨，而系马之人已老，十四字中两重对照，通篇今昔之感已尽在此。
The opening, on the broad avenue the tall mansions rise, lays out at once the old pleasure quarter: one unbroken sight writes the unbroken rank of pavilions, and also how the old affairs rush before the eyes, beyond all veiling. In those days I tied my horse there and drank the wine of flowing sunset recalls the young ardor: tying the horse the brief stop, drunkenness the abandonment; six characters full of the spirit of those days, and the words in those days lightly mark it all as memory, the opening lush, yet the boundary between then and now already planted. The opening couplet writes the depth of time through the breadth of space, the high way to begin a regulated verse: the pavilions as of old, yet the man who tied his horse is old; within fourteen characters two contrasts, the whole poem's feeling of then and now already complete.
风前带是同心结，杯底人如解语花。
The sash at her waist streamed in the wind, tied in a true-lover's knot; at the bottom of the cup her face was a flower that could speak. Object and person each stand for tenderness, and beneath the ornate phrasing lies a whole exchange of hearts.
她迎风飘动的衣带上系着同心结，酒杯映着她的容颜，宛如一朵会说话的花。
In the wind, her girdle ribbon bore the lover's knot; at the bottom of the cup, her face was like a flower that speaks.
同心结、解语花以物喻人，风前杯底皆是柔情，丽语中藏着一段倾心相许。上句写物，衣带临风而同心结分明；下句写人，酒杯之底而笑靥如花；一「前」一「底」，视角一高一低，把醉眼中的美人写得摇曳生姿，是仲则集中最旖旎的笔墨之一。此联又暗用动静相成之法：风前之带是动，杯底之人是静，一动一静，则伊人之美遂有立体之致，非平铺一貌者可比。
The lover's knot and the speaking flower figure person through object: in the wind before the cup, all is tender feeling, and beneath the fair words lies a heart pledged. The upper line writes the object, the ribbon in the wind bearing the lover's knot clear; the lower writes the person, the face at the cup's bottom like a speaking flower. The words before and at the bottom, one high and one low, write the beauty as seen through wine in swaying grace, among the most enchanting strokes in the collected verse of Zhongze. The couplet also secretly uses the method of motion and stillness: the ribbon in the wind is moving, the person at the cup still; one moving, one still, and the beauty gains a three-dimensional presence, beyond any flat description.
下杜城边南北路，上阑门外去来车。
By the wall of Xiadu the highway runs north and south; outside the Shanglan gate the carriages come and go. Movement stands in for meeting and parting, and the endless traffic at wall and gate is the ordinary rhythm of such a quarter.
下杜城边，大路贯通南北；上阑门外，车马来来往往。
By the city of Xiadu, the north-south road runs on; beyond the Lan Gate, the carriages come and go.
南北路、去来车以行迹写聚散，城边门外车马往还，正是欢场集散之常。妙在这一联全不言情：路还是那条路，车还是那样的车，永恒往复的车尘马足，反衬出人事的一去不返。以不变写变，是律诗中最经济的对照法。此联之淡，正所以蓄下联之转：读者于此稍弛，忽接匆匆二字，则光阴之感骤至，一张一弛之间，全诗的节奏由此而生，章法之妙尤在不着痕迹。
The north-south road and the coming-and-going carriages write parting and gathering through tracks: by the city wall and beyond the gate, carriages pass to and fro, the very ebb and flow of pleasure quarters. The beauty is that the couplet says nothing of feeling: the road is still that road, the carriages still those carriages; the everlasting round of dust and wheels sets off the irretrievable going of human affairs. Writing change through the unchanging is the most economical contrast in regulated verse. The plainness of this couplet precisely stores the turn of the next: the reader relaxes here, and suddenly meets the word in a hurry, and the sense of time arrives; between release and tension, the rhythm of the poem is born, and the craft of the close lies in leaving no trace.
匆匆觉得扬州梦，检点闲愁在鬓华。
In a rush it all becomes a dream of Yangzhou, and when he counts over his old idle sorrows he finds them in the white at his temples. Du Mu's image closes the poem: one wakes from a brief dream already grey, and the light sorrows have all turned into the grief of growing old.
匆匆之间，只觉那段日子恰似一场扬州旧梦，如今清点从前的闲愁，才发现都已化作鬓边的白发。
In a hurry, I feel the years were but a Yangzhou dream; and counting up my idle sorrows, I find them in the graying temples.
扬州梦以杜牧意象收束，匆匆一觉而鬓已生华，今昔陡转。「检点」二字最耐咀嚼——本是清点行囊的日常动作，用来点算旧愁，便显出一种冷静的自嘲；「闲愁」与「鬓华」对举，轻者愈轻、重者愈重，当年以为闲的，如今都成了催白的账目。结联之妙，又在把不可见之愁落在可见之发上：愁本无形，鬓华有形，以有形载无形，则旧事之重，乃可称量，此与以景结情同一机杼而更进一层。
The Yangzhou dream closes the poem through Du Mu's image: in a hurry, the dream has passed, and the temples have turned gray, the sudden turn between then and now. The words count up are the most to be savored — ordinarily the daily action of checking one's luggage, here used to reckon old sorrows, revealing a calm self-mockery. Idle sorrows set against graying temples: the lighter grows lighter, the heavier grows heavier; what was once thought idle has now become the bill that turned the hair white. The beauty of the closing couplet lies further in landing the invisible grief on the visible hair: grief has no form, gray hair has form; using the visible to carry the invisible, the weight of old affairs can at last be weighed — the same device as closing emotion in scene, yet one step further.
Study
Word focus
Related Reading
Nalan turns his famous line about life being as it was at first sight into an act of severance, with the edge showing; Huang Jingren closes by counting his idle sorrows in his greying hair, and keeps the regret inward. The same subject produces one voice of protest and one of quiet melancholy.
纳兰以「人生若只如初见」翻出决绝之语，锋芒外露，怨在于人；黄景仁以「检点闲愁在鬓华」收束，怅惘内敛，怨在于时。两首同写情事已矣，一激越一沉郁，于词与律两种体裁中各见清代情词的不同面目，对读最见兴味。两家之别亦在身世：纳兰为贵胄而情深不寿，仲则为寒士而才大数奇；同写情殇，一多惜福之语，一多不平之鸣，读之各有其痛，正不必强分高下。
长相思·山一程 Everlasting Longing: A Stage of Mountains 纳兰性德 · 同为清代抒写羁旅与深情之作 Both are Qing works on travel and deep feeling.Nalan writes homesickness on the march, Huang Jingren writes remembrance on returning to an old haunt; one looks homeward from the road, the other looks backward from the spot itself. Both use a clear, polished line to convey the sense of being adrift.
纳兰写行役中的思乡，「聒碎乡心梦不成」，情在眼前之苦；黄景仁写重游旧地的追怀，「检点闲愁在鬓华」，情在事后之思。一在途中望归，一在旧地忆逝，同以清丽之笔写飘零之感，而一取空间的阻隔、一取时间的不可逆，取径各异。又长相思之聒碎乡心以声写心，此诗之检点闲愁以物写心，皆化虚为实，而一取听觉，一取白发之视觉，取径不同，其归一也。