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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

贺新郎·甚矣吾衰矣

Congratulating the Bridegroom: How Utterly I Have Grown Old

辛弃疾

Xin Qiji

言志Theme 壮志未酬Theme 知音Theme

邑中园亭，仆皆为赋此词。
一日，独坐停云，水声山色，竞来相娱。
意溪山欲援例者，遂作数语，庶几仿佛渊明思亲友之意云。
甚矣吾衰矣。
怅平生、交游零落，只今余几！
白发空垂三千丈，一笑人间万事。
问何物、能令公喜？
我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是。
情与貌，略相似。
一尊搔首东窗里。
想渊明、停云诗就，此时风味。
江左沉酣求名者，岂识浊醪妙理。
回首叫、云飞风起。
不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳。
知我者，二三子。

Preface: In the gardens and pavilions of the town I have written this lyric for each. One day, sitting alone at the Pavilion of Stopped Clouds, the sound of water and the look of the hills vied to delight me. Thinking they wished to be treated alike, I wrote these few lines, hoping to catch something of Tao Yuanming's feeling for friends and kin.
How utterly I have grown old! I regret a life's acquaintances scattered - how few remain now!
White hair hangs in vain three thousand yards; with a single smile, all worldly things are done.
What is there that can make my lord glad? I see the green hills as utterly charming - and surely the hills see me the same.
In feeling and form, much alike.
One cup, I scratch my head by the eastern window. I think of Tao Yuanming, who finished his 'Stopped Clouds' poem - this very flavor.
Those in the south who drink deep in search of fame - how could they know the subtle truth of muddy ale?
Turning my head, I cry aloud: clouds fly, wind rises.
I do not resent that I never met the ancients; I resent that the ancients never saw my wildness.
Those who know me are but two or three.

Listen

Meaning

An aging Xin Qiji finds his only true companions in the green hills and a handful of friends.

铅山县中的园亭，我都曾为它们题写此词。一天独坐停云堂，水声山色争相前来使我愉悦。想来这溪山也想要我依例作词，于是写了这几句，差不多仿效陶渊明思念亲友的意趣。我已衰老得太厉害了。可叹平生交游零落，如今还剩几人！白发徒然垂落三千丈，笑对人间万事。试问还有什么能让我欢喜？我看青山多姿妩媚，料想青山看我也当如此。情怀与容貌，大致相似。独把酒杯搔首东窗之下。想渊明写成《停云》诗时，正是这般风味。江南那些沉醉求名的人，怎识得浊酒的真味。回首长啸，云飞风起。不恨不能见古人，只恨古人不见我的狂放。知我的，不过两三个朋友。

Appreciation

Old, unrecognized, and unbowed, Xin Qiji turns to the hills as equals and to two or three friends as enough. The resentment that the ancients missed his greatness is the sound of a giant refusing to be forgotten.

【白话串讲】辛弃疾在瓢泉闲居，写贺新郎：“甚矣吾衰矣。怅平生、交游零落，只今余几”——他叹自己老了，朋友零落。“白发空垂三千丈，一笑人间万事”——“我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是”——他看青山妩媚，青山也看他妩媚。“不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳”——他狂放不改。【意象与手法】上片“白发空垂三千丈，一笑人间万事”化用李白“白发三千丈”写年华空老；“我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是”以人与自然相照；结句“不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳”狂放不改，以《论语》“二三子”典收束。以文为词，议论与抒情交融。【情感与主旨】辛弃疾投闲置散时所作，在孤愤中转向青山与古人觅知己，与陶渊明《饮酒》“采菊东篱下”的静不同，一狂一静恰可对照宋人“学陶”而各成气象，是“壮志未酬”书写的代表作。【名句点睛】常考“我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是”以青山相看写知己难觅；“不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳”以恨古人不见写狂放。

Background

Xin Qiji (1140-1207), the great patriot-lyricist, wrote this in his later years of frustrated ambition. The preface tells of writing a lyric for each local garden; here the hills themselves prompt the song.

此词作于辛弃疾闲居瓢泉（江西铅山）时期，约在庆元、嘉泰年间，词人已近暮年。淳熙八年（1181）后，辛弃疾屡遭谗忌，被迫退居上饶、铅山一带，前后近二十年。他本是山东忠义军出身，平生以恢复中原为志，却长期投闲置散，英雄无用武之地。此词小序明言「邑中园亭，仆皆为赋此词」「仿佛渊明思亲友之意」，可知他仿陶渊明《停云》诗思念亲友之旨，于铅山园亭一一题写《贺新郎》。作此词时，他独坐停云堂，水声山色相娱，却益发感到交游零落、知音难觅。一个曾「壮岁旌旗拥万夫」的将领，至此白发空垂，只能向青山觅知己，向古人求同调。词中「甚矣吾衰矣」直用《论语》孔子之叹，把个人衰老与家国无望叠在一起；「不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳」则把无人理解的孤愤，推向与历史对话的狂放。读此词，须把它放回稼轩晚年「平生塞北江南，归来华发苍颜」的处境，方能懂那一份「知我者，二三子」的苍凉。

Art

Famous for the apostrophe to the hills ('I see them as charming, they see me the same') and the defiant 'I resent the ancients never saw my wildness' - ego and nature in mutual reflection.

此词艺术上最动人处，在于把孤愤化为与自然、与古人的双重对话，于平淡中见奇崛。上片以「甚矣吾衰矣」劈空而起，全用散文句法入词，如与人面谈，打破词体婉转的常格。随即「怅平生、交游零落，只今余几」，从衰老直跳到知交凋零，情绪如瀑布下泻。「白发空垂三千丈」融李白「白发三千丈」之句而反用之——太白言愁，稼轩言「空」，空字一层，更见功名蹉跎之痛。「我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是」，则以拟人翻进，不说人爱山，而说山亦爱人，主客互换，物我两忘，把无人理解的孤独，转化为与青山的相看两不厌。下片由陶渊明《停云》诗切入，「江左沉酣求名者，岂识浊醪妙理」，以东晋争名之徒反衬自己饮酒之真，暗含对南宋浮躁士风的讥刺。结处「不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳」，翻进一层：寻常人恨不见古人，稼轩却恨古人不见己之狂，孤标高迈，直追太白。全词以文为词，议论、写景、抒情交织，看似散漫，实则意脉连贯，是稼轩「刚柔相济、以气驭词」的典型。

Allusions

Tao Yuanming and his 'Stopped Clouds' poem of longing for friends. 'Three thousand yards of white hair' adapts Li Bai. 'Clouds fly, wind rises' echoes the Han founding emperor Liu Bang.

此词用典化典，密而自然，最要者四。其一「甚矣吾衰矣」，直取《论语·述而》孔子叹「甚矣吾衰也，久矣吾不复梦见周公」，以圣人之衰自况，既写年老，更写道不行、志不伸的深层悲凉。其二「白发空垂三千丈」，暗化李白《秋浦歌》「白发三千丈，缘愁似个长」，却易「愁」为「空」，将个人愁绪升为功业落空的浩叹，是点铁成金式的化用。其三「我见青山多妩媚」一联，意脉遥接李白「相看两不厌，只有敬亭山」与陶渊明「悠然见南山」，把前人「人山相得」的静境，翻成「人山互媚」的活境，主客相看，情貌相似，物我界限消融。其四「想渊明、停云诗就」，明用陶潜《停云》思亲友之旨，小序亦云「仿佛渊明思亲友之意」，是全词立意之骨；「浊醪妙理」亦本陶诗饮酒之趣。其五「知我者，二三子」，则出《论语·八佾》「二三子以我为隐乎」，以孔门师徒之语收束，把无人相知的落寞，托于圣门典实。诸典或显或隐，皆不碍词气流畅，反使孤怀有了千年知音作衬，是稼轩「掉书袋」而能化熟为新的范例。

Commentary

A summit of Song lyric subjectivity: the poet measures his worth against hills and dead sages, and finds the world wanting. Both lonely and magnificent.

此词历来被誉为稼轩晚年代表作，论者多重其「以文为词」与「狂」之气格。清人陈廷焯《白雨斋词话》虽主沉郁，亦不能不称其「悲愤慷慨，郁结于中」。近人梁启超评稼轩词，独赏此篇「不恨古人吾不见」一语，以为「有独立苍茫、俯仰无人之概」，正抓着了词的灵魂。稼轩自谓「余既为词，每好用四字、五字、七字句」，此词开篇「甚矣吾衰矣」五字如散文直入，正是他以经史子语入词、打破音律拘挛的明证——据说此词曾因犯韵遭友人戏谑，足见其重意不重律的取向。与陶渊明对读，是理解此词的关键。小序明言「仿佛渊明思亲友之意」，然陶诗于闲适淡泊中得「真意」，稼轩却于投闲置散的孤愤里转向青山与古人觅知己，一静一狂，同题而异趣。今人论宋词「知音」书写，每以此词与贺铸《鹧鸪天》「谁复挑灯夜补衣」并提：贺以逝妻无人补衣写孤，辛以古人不见己狂写孤，一私一公，悲感有别而苍凉相类。读此词当知：其「狂」非轻狂，而是英雄老去、世无知音的悲愤外衣；其「衰」非体衰，而是志衰——一颗恢复之心，被闲置成了满头白发。

Prosody

Form Lyric in He Xin Lang (Congratulating the Bridegroom) tune, long slow form词·贺新郎（双调一百十六字，仄韵体，上、下片各七仄韵）

Rhyme Rhymes shift across the long stanza; level/oblique mixed, in the zhi/wei groups.本词押仄韵，上、下片多句以仄声收，如上片矣、几、喜、是、似，下片里、味、起、耳、子，大抵属词韵第四部（纸、尾、寘、未等）上、去声通协，声情激越，宜写悲愤慷慨。

Tone pattern Song lyric; irregular long lines building emotional crescendo.《贺新郎》为长调，句法长短错落，以仄韵为主，平仄依谱而定。此词以散文句「甚矣吾衰矣」开篇，破常格而重意脉，后续「怅平生、交游零落」等句多用领字（怅、问、想、恨）提挈，使气脉连贯。

Reading note One of Xin Qiji's most personal and celebrated lyrics; the hill apostrophe is iconic.《贺新郎》本为激越跌宕之调，最宜写豪气与悲愤，稼轩此词可谓得其所哉。用韵上，全词以仄声收束为主，上、去声通押，发音短促有力，与「衰矣」「零落」「狂耳」等语的沉痛相称，读来如击碎玉，声声带愤。句法上最值得注意的是以文为词：开篇五字散文直入，中间「怅」「问」「想」「恨」等领字（一字逗）频繁提挈，把写景、用典、议论串成一气，全然不避散文化。稼轩论词曾言不喜「雕琢」，此词正以「意」驭「律」——传说此词曾因个别字犯韵遭友人戏谑，他亦不改，足见其重意不重律的取向。长调最怕散漫，此词却因意脉贯穿（衰—零落—空—青山—渊明—狂—知我），看似信手，实则环环相扣，是仄韵长调「以气行腔」的典范。

Line by line

甚矣吾衰矣。

How utterly I have grown old!

我已衰老得太厉害了。

How great is my decay.

五个字劈空而起，是全词最奇崛的起句，也是全篇情绪的总闸门。它直取《论语》孔子「甚矣吾衰也」之叹，却把温润的「也」换成斩截的「矣」，语气更急、更痛。以散文句法入词，如与人当面长叹，全然不顾词体婉转的常格，正是稼轩「以文为词」的招牌动作。更深的意味在于：孔子叹衰，是因为「不复梦见周公」，道不行；稼轩叹衰，是因为恢复之志成空。所以「衰」不只是年老，更是志衰、是英雄被时代抛弃的衰。读到这一句，须想见一个白发将军，独坐空堂，开篇不问景、不叙事，先把自己的一生判了死刑——这种自暴式的起笔，反而把全词的孤愤逼到最高处，后面所有的青山、古人、知己，都是从这声叹息里长出来的。

The five characters rise out of nowhere, the strangest opening of the ci, the main sluice of the whole emotion. It takes directly the Analects' Confucius exclaiming how great is my decay, and yet changes the mellow also into the decisive already, the tone more urgent, more pained. Using prose syntax in the ci, like a long sigh face to face, disregarding the graceful ci's norm, the signature move of Xin Qiji's writing the ci with prose. The deeper meaning: Confucius grieved his decay because he no longer dreamed of the Duke of Zhou, the way not practiced; Xin Qiji grieves his decay because the restoration's vow is void. So decay means not only age, but the will's decay, the hero's decay at the hands of the age. Reading the line, one imagines a white-haired general sitting alone in the empty hall, the opening asking no scenery, telling no tale, and first pronouncing sentence on his whole life — this self-accusatory opening forces the ci's lonely anger to its height, and all the green hills, the ancients, the soulmates below grow from this sigh.

我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是。

I see the green hills as utterly charming - and surely the hills see me the same.

我看青山多姿妩媚，料想青山看我也当如此。

I find the green hills so charming; I reckon the hills find me the same.

这是全词最妩媚也最孤独的一联。寻常写山，是人赏山、人爱山；稼轩却翻转主客：不只我见山妩媚，料想山见我也妩媚。「应如是」三字，把山拟人化，赋予它回看人的目光，于是无人理解的人，竟在青山那里找到了对称的知己。意脉遥接李白「相看两不厌，只有敬亭山」，却比太白更进一层——太白是「不厌」，稼轩是「互媚」，主客彻底换位，物我界限消融。「情与貌，略相似」紧承其后，把这种相看归结为「性情与容貌大致相类」，仿佛人与山本是同类。表面写山水之乐，内里写知交零落后的代偿：人间既无知己，便与青山订交。这是孤独到极处开出的花，妩媚里藏着深深的荒凉。

This is the ci's most charming and most lonely couplet. The usual writing of hills: the man admires, the man loves; Xin Qiji reverses subject and object: not only I find the hills charming, I reckon the hills find me the same. The three words should be so personify the hill, endowing it with a returning gaze, and the man whom none understands finds in the green hills a mirrored soulmate. The vein inherits Li Bai's looking at each other, never tiring, only Jingting Mountain, and yet goes further — Li Bai is never-tiring, Xin is mutual-charming, subject and object wholly exchanged, the boundary of thing and self dissolved. Feeling and face, much alike follows, gathering the gazing into the temper and the face much the same, as if man and hill were one kind. On the surface the joy of the hills, within the compensation after the soulmates' scattering: since no friend in the world, he makes a compact with the green hills. This is the flower blooming at the extreme of loneliness, and beneath the charm lies a deep desolation.

不恨古人吾不见，恨古人不见吾狂耳。

I do not resent that I never met the ancients; I resent that the ancients never saw my wildness.

不恨不能见古人，只恨古人不见我的狂放。

I grieve not that I cannot see the ancients; I grieve that the ancients could not see my wildness.

这一联是稼轩「狂」的顶峰，也是全词精神的落脚点。寻常人遗憾不能亲见古之圣贤，稼轩却反过来说：我不恨见不到古人，只恨古人见不到我的狂放。一层翻案已奇，两层翻案更绝——他把自己的「狂」置于古人之上，仿佛古人之未见己，是古人的损失。这「狂」绝非轻佻，而是英雄老去、世无知音的悲愤外衣：既然今人不懂我，古人又已逝，那便以「狂」傲视古今，把无人理解的孤独，升格为睥睨历史的孤高。与李白「仰天大笑出门去，我辈岂是蓬蒿人」的狂放一脉，却更多一层迟暮的苍凉。读此句当知，所谓「恨古人不见」，骨子里是「恨今人不见」——一个「狂」字，撑起了整首词独立苍茫、俯仰无人的气概。

This couplet is the peak of Xin's wildness, the landing point of the ci's spirit. The usual man grieves not seeing the ancient sages; Xin Qiji reverses: I grieve not that I cannot see the ancients, I grieve that the ancients could not see my wildness. One reversal already strange, two reversals more marvelous — he places his wildness above the ancients, as if the ancients' not seeing him were their loss. This wildness is no levity, but the outer garment of the hero's aging, the grief at no soulmate: since the moderns do not understand, and the ancients are gone, then let the wildness look down on past and present, elevating the loneliness of no understanding into the loftiness of scorching history. It shares the vein of Li Bai's laughing aloud as I go out the door, are we not men of the wild grass? and yet carries the desolation of the twilight years. Reading the line, one knows the grief that the ancients do not see is at bottom the grief that the moderns do not see — the one word wildness holds up the whole ci's independent vastness, the looking down and up with none beside.

知我者，二三子。

Those who know me are but two or three.

知我的，不过两三个朋友。

Those who know me are two or three friends.

结句以《论语》「二三子以我为隐乎」之语收束，把全词的孤愤轻轻落到地上。前面极写衰老、零落、青山、古人、狂放，气脉磅礴如潮，至此忽然收束为「二三子」三个字，像一声叹息后的落款。妙在「不过」二字（译作「不过两三个朋友」），把知音之少说得平淡，却比痛哭更痛——英雄一生，到头只有两三个真懂自己的人。「二三子」本是孔门师徒的称呼，稼轩借来，等于把自己与仅存的知己，安放在圣人门墙的影子里，孤怀由此接通了千年的道统。全词由狂转敛，由古归今，以极简的收束，把前面所有波澜都压进了「知我」二字之中，余味悠长，是长调结穴的典范。

The closing uses the Analects' you few, do you think I hide anything? to gather the ci's lonely grief gently to the ground. Before, the writing of aging, scattering, green hills, ancients, wildness, the force sweeping like a tide, and here suddenly gathered into the two or three friends, like the signature after a sigh. The beauty lies in the two or three (rendered not more than two or three friends), speaking the rarity of soulmates in the plainest words, and yet more piercing than weeping — the hero's whole life, and at the end only two or three who truly know him. The two or three was the name in the Confucian school, and Xin Qiji borrows it, placing himself and the few remaining friends in the shadow of the sage's gate, the lonely heart thereby joined to the thousand-year line of the way. The ci turns from wildness to restraint, from the ancients to the present, closing in the fewest words, pressing all the waves above into the two words who know me, the aftertone long, the model close of the long lyric.

Study

Word focus

甚矣吾衰矣 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 这五字是全词的眼，也是稼轩「以文为词」最典型的标本。它直抄《论语》孔子原句而仅改一字（也作矣），却完成了一桩惊人的创造性转化：把圣人关于「道不行」的温和叹息，变成英雄关于「志成空」的沉痛自判。句法上，它是散文的否定式感叹，硬嵌入词的首句，全然不顾音律的婉转，读来如当头一棒。更妙在「甚矣」置于句首的倒装，把「衰」的程度强调到极致，情绪未展开先到顶。「矣」字收束，比「也」更斩截、更决绝，像一个已经认命的人替自己下的判词。这五个字的价值，在于用最古的句式，撑起最烈的现代悲愤，是稼轩掉书袋而能化腐朽为神奇的明证。

妩媚 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「妩媚」本是形容女子姿容的柔词，稼轩却用来写青山，是全词最俏皮也最沉痛的一个词。以人写山，并不罕见，但「妩媚」专写山的姿态风韵，把山从静物变成了一个含情回望的「人」——它不只是被看的风景，而是会「看我」的知己。这一词安在「我见青山多妩媚，料青山见我应如是」之中，使主客彻底换位：人媚山、山媚人，情貌相似，物我两忘。表面是赏景的愉悦，内里是知交零落后的代偿性想象——正因为人间无人可媚、无人媚我，才把全部柔情挪给青山。一个柔词，撑起了一段最孤独的「恋爱」，是稼轩刚健词风中极罕见的妩媚笔触，恰见其刚柔相济的本领。

狂 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 「狂」字是此词的精神徽章，也是理解稼轩晚年心境的钥匙。它不是轻狂、张狂，而是「古之狂也肆」式的狷介，是英雄被闲置后无处安放的生命力。词中说「恨古人不见吾狂耳」，把「狂」置于古人之上，看似骄傲，实则是无人理解的悲愤外衣——今人既不懂，古人又已逝，便只能以「狂」傲视古今，把孤独升格为孤高。这个字与小序「仿佛渊明思亲友之意」形成张力：渊明是「静」的知音书写，稼轩是「狂」的知音书写，同是孤，一温一烈。读全词，当知「狂」是志衰之人的最后铠甲，铠甲之下，是一颗「了却君王天下事」而终成空的赤心。