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宋 Song · 词 Ci lyric

破阵子·为陈同甫

Breaking the Battle Formation: Written for Chen Tongfu (Pozhenzi)

辛弃疾

Xin Qiji

边塞Frontier 抒情Lyric

醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营。
八百里分麾下炙，五十弦翻塞外声。
沙场秋点兵。
马作的卢飞快，弓如霹雳弦惊。
了却君王天下事，赢得生前身后名。
可怜白发生。

Drunk, I trim the lamp and look at my sword, and in the dream I am back at the camp where the horns blow from tent to tent.
The eight hundred leagues of the roast are shared to the men of the command, and the fifty strings play the tunes beyond the frontier.
In the autumn fields the troops are mustered.
My horse runs fast like the Dili, my bow twangs like the thunderclap and the bowstring startles.
I have finished the great matters of the sovereign under heaven, and won the fame after life and before death.
But it is a pity, the white hair has grown.

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Meaning

Written about the fifteenth year of Chunxi (1188) when Xin Qiji, dismissed from office, was living in idleness at the Daihu of Shangrao, Jiangxi, and sent to his friend Chen Liang (Tongfu) after their meeting at the Goose Lake. The whole ci, in nine sentences, the first eight write the grandeur of the dream of the military life: drunk, trimming the lamp and looking at the sword, in the dream back at the camp where the horns blow from tent to tent, sharing the roast of the eight hundred leagues, the fifty strings playing the tunes beyond the frontier, mustering the troops in the autumn fields, the horse running fast and the bow twanging like the thunder, and 'I have finished the great matters of the sovereign under heaven, and won the fame after life and before death'—the accomplishment of the great matters of the state and the fame of the life, the utmost of the hero's dream; and the last sentence 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown' turns abruptly, falling into the desolation of the reality, the white hair grown and the dream void, the great emotional gap, the grandeur writing the desolation, doubling the desolation—the whole ci, the dream of the battlefield of the hero and the grief of the reality of the dismissal, the patriotic feeling of the resistance against the Jin.

醉意中挑亮油灯细看宝剑，梦回军营，号角声连成一片。把八百里烤牛肉分给部下享用，五十弦瑟奏出塞外雄壮的乐曲。秋日沙场上正在点兵。战马像的卢马一样飞快，弓弦像霹雳一样令人心惊。完成君王收复失地统一天下的大事，赢得生前身后的英名。可惜壮志未酬，白发已经丛生。

Appreciation

The most striking feature of the art of the ci is the great rise and the great fall of the structure and the grandeur writing the desolation. The whole in nine sentences, the first eight write the grandeur of the dream of the military life, and the last sentence 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown' turns abruptly, falling into the desolation of the reality, forming the great emotional gap, the grandeur writing the desolation, doubling the desolation. The first half writes the camp of the dream: 'drunk, I trim the lamp and look at my sword, and in the dream I am back at the camp where the horns blow from tent to tent,' entering from the drunkenness and the dream, the real and the void mutually born; 'the eight hundred leagues of the roast are shared to the men of the command, and the fifty strings play the tunes beyond the frontier,' the reward of the three armies and the playing of the music, the scene grand; 'in the autumn fields the troops are mustered,' the five characters point out the season, the place, and the event. The second half writes the battle: 'my horse runs fast like the Dili, my bow twangs like the thunderclap and the bowstring startles,' the swiftness of the horse and the force of the bow, the vigor of the battle; 'I have finished the great matters of the sovereign under heaven, and won the fame after life and before death,' the accomplishment of the dream; and the 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown' the sharp turn, the dream and the reality, the hero and the aged, the grief of the whole ci in the five characters.

【白话串讲】辛弃疾为好友陈同甫写破阵子：“醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营”。“八百里分麾下炙，五十弦翻塞外声。沙场秋点兵”——“马作的卢飞快，弓如霹雳弦惊”——“了却君王天下事，赢得生前身后名。可怜白发生”——他梦回战场，可惜白发。【意象与手法】此词以梦境与现实对比，前九句极写军旅生活的豪壮，末句陡然转悲，以壮写悲，倍增其悲。用典自然，白描与夸张结合，是辛弃疾豪放词的代表作。【情感与主旨】全词写梦中沙场点兵的壮阔与梦醒白发的悲凉，抒发词人杀敌报国、收复失地的雄心壮志与壮志难酬的悲愤，是辛弃疾爱国词中最具代表性的一首。【名句点睛】常考『了却君王天下事，赢得生前身后名』的家国情怀，以及末句『可怜白发生』以壮写悲、陡然转折的妙处。

Background

The ci was written about the fifteenth year of Chunxi (1188), when Xin Qiji, dismissed from office, was living in idleness at the Daihu of Shangrao, Jiangxi. Chen Tongfu was Chen Liang, courtesy name Tongfu, a famous patriotic man of the Southern Song, sharing the same aim with Xin Qiji. In the winter of the fifteenth year of Chunxi, Chen Liang came specially to Shangrao to visit Xin Qiji, and the two talked at length of the great plan of the resistance against the Jin and the recovery, staying together for ten days, known in the history as the meeting of the Goose Lake. After the parting, Xin Qiji wrote this ci and sent it to Chen Liang, hence the title 'written for Chen Tongfu.' Xin Qiji in his early years participated in the anti-Jin righteous army led by Geng Jing, and at twenty-three, with fifty horsemen, broke into the Jin camp and captured alive the traitor Zhang Anguo; after his return south, he urged the northern expedition, yet was repeatedly pushed aside by the advocates of the peace, and was long left idle. This ci, with the grandeur of the dream of the battlefield, writes his desire of the recovery of the lost territory, and the grief of the white hair of the dismissed hero.

《破阵子·为陈同甫赋壮词以寄之》作于宋孝宗淳熙十五年（1188年）前后，时辛弃疾罢官闲居江西上饶带湖。陈同甫即陈亮，字同甫，是南宋著名的爱国志士，与辛弃疾志同道合。淳熙十五年冬，陈亮专程到上饶拜访辛弃疾，二人纵谈抗金恢复大计，相聚旬日，史称鹅湖之会。别后，辛弃疾写下此词寄给陈亮，故题为为陈同甫赋壮词以寄之。辛弃疾早年曾参加耿京领导的抗金义军，二十三岁时率五十骑突入金营，生擒叛徒张安国，南归后力主北伐，却屡遭主和派排挤，长期投闲置散。此词正是他借梦中沙场的壮阔，抒写其收复失地的雄心与壮志难酬的悲愤。据传词中的梦境，正是辛弃疾对自己青年时代抗金生涯的追忆。此词以壮语写悲情，是辛弃疾豪放词风的极致，也是南宋爱国词中的不朽名篇。此词既是寄友之作，也是辛弃疾以词言志、以词写史的自白，在稼轩词中占有特殊的地位。

Art

The art is the great rise and the great fall of the structure and the grandeur writing the desolation: the first eight sentences write the grandeur of the dream of the military life—the trimming of the lamp, the horns of the camp, the sharing of the roast, the fifty strings, the mustering of the troops, the swift horse, the twanging bow, and the fame—and the last sentence 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown' turns abruptly, the great emotional gap, the grandeur writing the desolation, doubling the desolation.

此词在艺术上最突出的特点是结构上的大起大落与以壮写悲的手法。全词九句，前八句极写梦中军旅生活的壮阔，末句可怜白发生，陡然一转，跌入现实的悲凉，形成巨大的情感落差，以壮写悲，倍增其悲。上片写梦境中的军营：醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营，从醉意与梦境入手，虚实相生；八百里分麾下炙，五十弦翻塞外声，写犒赏三军、奏乐助威，场面宏大；沙场秋点兵，五字点出季节、地点与事件，如一幅气势磅礴的点兵图。下片写激战场面：马作的卢飞快，弓如霹雳弦惊，连用两个比喻，写尽战马的迅疾与弓箭的威猛；了却君王天下事，赢得生前身后名，直抒杀敌报国的壮志。然而末句可怜白发生，五字如兜头冷水，把梦境与壮志全部打碎，回到白发苍苍的现实。全词以梦为线，由醒入梦、由梦转醒，结构精巧，对比强烈，充分展现了辛弃疾豪放词沉郁顿挫的特色。

Allusions

The allusions of the ci are apt and natural, showing the power of Xin Qiji's 'the words as the ci' and his driving of the classics and the histories. 'The eight hundred leagues of the roast are shared to the men of the command': the eight hundred leagues refers to the ox, from the 'Profligate Extravagance' of the New Words of the World: Wang Kai had an ox called the Eight Hundred Leagues Piebald, and Wang Ji, gambling with him at the archery, hit the target with one arrow and had the ox's heart cut and roasted; here the eight hundred leagues stands for the roast beef, writing the heroism of the reward of the three armies. 'The fifty strings play the tunes beyond the frontier': the fifty strings refers to the zither, from the Records of the Grand Historian's 'Feng and Shan': the Great Emperor made the Plain Maiden play the fifty-string zither... the grief so sad that the emperor broke it into the twenty-five strings, and here the fifty strings stands for the various instruments, the music of the frontier, the grandeur of the camp. 'My horse runs fast like the Dili': the Dili was the famous horse of Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms, 'the jumping over the Tan Creek three zhang wide,' here for the swift horse of the battle.

此词用典贴切而自然，显示出辛弃疾以文为词、驱使经史的功力。八百里分麾下炙，八百里指牛，典出《世说新语·汰侈》：王恺有牛名八百里驳，王济与之赌射，一箭中的，遂命人割牛心而炙，此处以八百里代指烤牛肉，写犒赏三军的豪迈。五十弦翻塞外声，五十弦指瑟，语出《史记·封禅书》太帝使素女鼓五十弦瑟，李商隐《锦瑟》亦有锦瑟无端五十弦之句，此处以五十弦代指军中乐器，写奏出雄壮的塞外之音。马作的卢飞快，的卢为三国时刘备的骏马，传说曾一跃三丈跳过檀溪，典出《三国志·先主传》裴注，以的卢写战马之神骏。弓如霹雳弦惊，霹雳喻弓弦之声，语出《北史·长孙晟传》与《旧唐书》，形容弓力之强、弦声之烈。四个典故皆切军旅之事，融入梦境而不着痕迹，充分展现了辛弃疾融典入词、以典故助豪情的艺术造诣，也使此词在豪放之中更见学养的深厚。辛弃疾用典之密，世称稼轩驱使庄骚经史，无一点尘俗气，此词虽用典不多，而每用必切，已见其风范。

Commentary

The ci is one of the most famous chapters of Xin Qiji's ci and a representative work of the heroic ci of the Southern Song. The value of the ci lies first in the unique art of the grandeur writing the desolation: the first eight sentences write the dream of the military life with what grandeur and heroism—the sharing of the roast, the playing of the music, the mustering of the troops, the swift riding, the shooting of the arrows, the fame accomplished, the heart's content—and the five characters of the last sentence 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown,' however, like the abrupt breaking of the string of the zither, the dream and the reality, the hero and the aged, the grief of the dismissed hero written to the utmost, the dream of the battlefield of the resistance against the Jin and the grief of the reality of the dismissal in the one ci.

《破阵子·为陈同甫赋壮词以寄之》是辛弃疾词中最著名的篇章之一，也是南宋豪放词的代表作。此词的价值首先在于以壮写悲的独特艺术：前八句把梦中的军旅生活写得何等壮阔豪迈——分炙、奏乐、点兵、驰马、射箭，功成名就，志得意满，末句可怜白发生五字，却如一声长叹，把全部豪情打回现实，壮与悲的巨大反差，正是辛弃疾一生壮志难酬的缩影。其次在于真切的情感：此词虽是赋壮词寄陈亮，却处处可见辛弃疾自己的影子，醉里挑灯看剑，正是他闲居中不改初心的写照，了却君王天下事，更是他与陈亮共同的理想，以词寄友，情真意切。再次在于深远的影响：此词与《永遇乐·京口北固亭怀古》并称辛词双璧，千百年来激励着无数爱国志士。清人评辛词慷慨纵横，有不可一世之概，此词正是最好的证明。它把个人壮志的悲歌，唱成了整个时代失意英雄的共鸣。

Prosody

Form Tune 'Breaking the Battle Formation,' double, sixty-two characters词牌破阵子，双调六十二字

Rhyme Five sentences and three level rhymes in each half: ying, sheng, bing, jing, ming, sheng, the rhyme-words all of the eighth rhyme of the level tone, one rhyme to the end, the tone loud and stirring, fitting for the expression of the heroic feeling上下片各五句三平韵，营、声、兵、惊、名、生诸韵脚皆属平水韵下平八庚，一韵到底，音调洪亮激昂，宜于抒发豪壮之情。

Tone pattern The 'drunk, I trim the lamp' is low, the 'the eight hundred leagues of the roast' is grand, the 'mustering the troops in the autumn fields' is firm, the 'the bow twangs like the thunder' is fierce, and the 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown' is desolate—the whole from the dream to the reality, the great rise and the great fall carried by the loud rhyme全词句式以六言、七言、五言相间，如醉里挑灯看剑（六言）、八百里分麾下炙（七言）、沙场秋点兵（五言），节奏起伏；上下片末句皆五言，声情于激越中见顿挫。

Reading note The loud and stirring rhyme carries the dream of the battlefield, the grief of the great fall of the white hair.破阵子为唐教坊曲名，后用作词牌，又名十拍子，双调六十二字，上下片各五句三平韵。此词原为军乐，故其曲调本有雄壮激昂的特点。全词押平声庚韵，营、声、兵、惊、名、生六韵皆为洪亮之音，与词中沙场点兵、金戈铁马的题材相得益彰，读来铿锵有力。词中以六言句为主，如醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营，节奏平稳而有力；间以七言句如八百里分麾下炙，五十弦翻塞外声，铺展描写；五言句如沙场秋点兵，短促收束，如号令一声。下片马作的卢飞快，弓如霹雳弦惊，六言两句，节奏急促，与战斗的激烈相称。全词音律的妙处在于以声助情：豪壮处音节高亢，转折处声调陡落，可怜白发生五字，以短句收束，声情沉痛，与上文的激越形成鲜明对照，充分体现了破阵子词牌雄壮与悲凉兼备的声情特色。

Line by line

醉里挑灯看剑，梦回吹角连营。

Drunk, I trim the lamp and look at my sword, and in the dream I am back at the camp where the horns blow from tent to tent. (The opening of the dream: the drunken trimming of the lamp and the looking at the sword, the horns of the camp of the dream, the real and the void mutually born.)

醉意中挑亮油灯细看宝剑，梦回军营，号角声连成一片。

In my cups, I trim the oil lamp and gaze on the sword; dreams bring back the bugles of the linked camps.

首二句写醉中看剑、梦里闻角，是词人精神世界的缩影，也是全词的起笔。醉里挑灯看剑，五个动作连写：醉、挑、看，写出一个满怀心事的人深夜难眠、把玩宝剑的形象，剑是杀敌的武器，也是辛弃疾一生报国理想的象征，醉里看剑，可见其壮志未泯；挑灯二字，细节生动，仿佛能看到灯花被挑亮的一瞬。梦回吹角连营，由醒转梦，梦回写梦境的展开，吹角连营写军营中号角声声、营帐相连的壮阔景象，这是辛弃疾青年时代抗金生涯的记忆，也是他魂牵梦萦的理想图景。这两句虚实结合，以醉与梦为媒介，把现实与理想交织在一起，为全词奠定了慷慨悲壮的基调。

The opening two lines write the drunk sword-gazing and the dream bugle-hearing, the poet's inner world's miniature, and the ci's opening. In my cups, I trim the oil lamp and gaze on the sword, five actions in a row: drunk, trim, gaze, writing the heart-laden man's late sleeplessness and the sword-handling image, the sword the enemy-killing weapon, and Xin Qiji's whole life's country-serving ideal symbol, the drunk sword-gazing showing the ambition's not yet gone; the trim the lamp's vivid detail, as if seeing the lamp-wick trimmed bright moment. Dreams bring back the bugles of the linked camps, from the waking to the dream, the dreams-bring-back writing the dream's unfolding, the bugles-of-the-linked-camps writing the camp's bugle sounds and linked tents' grand sight, this Xin Qiji's youth's Jin-resistance memory, and his soul-haunted ideal picture. These two lines real-and-void fused, using the drunk and the dream as the medium, interweaving the reality and the ideal, setting the whole ci's impassioned, heroic-grief tone.

八百里分麾下炙，五十弦翻塞外声。

The eight hundred leagues of the roast are shared to the men of the command, and the fifty strings play the tunes beyond the frontier. (The camp: the reward of the roast of the eight hundred leagues and the music of the fifty strings, the grandeur of the scene.)

把八百里烤牛肉分给部下享用，五十弦瑟奏出塞外雄壮的乐曲。

The roast of the Eight-hundred-li ox is shared among the command; the fifty strings play the frontier air.

这两句写梦中军营的犒赏与奏乐，是沙场点兵的前奏。八百里分麾下炙，用八百里牛的典故代指烤牛肉，写将军把烤肉分给部下，一个分字，写出上下同甘共苦的军旅情谊，也写出慷慨豪迈的气概；五十弦翻塞外声，以五十弦瑟代指军中乐器，翻字写出演奏的激昂，塞外声点出这是边塞雄壮的乐曲，烘托出肃杀的战斗气氛。两句对仗工整，八百里对五十弦，麾下炙对塞外声，一写军食一写军乐，一实一虚，把军营中的犒赏盛宴与雄壮乐声写得如在眼前。这两句紧承吹角连营而来，角声、乐声、炙香交织，一幅生动壮阔的军旅生活画卷徐徐展开，为沙场秋点兵蓄足了气势，也写出了辛弃疾理想中的军旅生活。

These two lines write the dream camp's rewards and music, the battlefield mustering's prelude. The roast of the Eight-hundred-li ox is shared among the command, using the Eight-hundred-li ox allusion for the roast beef, writing the general's sharing the roast with the men, the one word share writing the commander-and-men's common lot's military friendship, and the impassioned bearing; the fifty strings play the frontier air, the fifty-stringed se metonym for the military instruments, the word play writing the performance's fervor, the frontier air naming the border's martial tune, setting off the killing-weather battle atmosphere. Two lines in steady parallelism, the Eight-hundred-li against the fifty strings, the command's roast against the frontier air, one the military food one the military music, one real one void, writing the camp's reward feast and the martial music as if before the eyes. These two lines closely inherit the linked-camps bugles, the bugle sound, the music sound, the roast's aroma interwoven, a vivid, grand military life scroll slowly unrolling, storing the force for the autumn battlefield mustering, and writing Xin Qiji's ideal military life.

马作的卢飞快，弓如霹雳弦惊。

My horse runs fast like the Dili, my bow twangs like the thunderclap and the bowstring startles. (The battle: the swiftness of the horse and the force of the bow, the vigor of the battle, the heroism of the dream.)

战马像的卢马一样飞快，弓弦像霹雳一样令人心惊。

The warhorses race like the Dilu; the bowstrings startle like the thunderbolt.

这两句写沙场上的激战场面，是全词动态最强、气势最盛之处。马作的卢飞快，以的卢骏马喻战马之迅疾，的卢是三国名马，曾助刘备跃过檀溪，以此入喻，既写战马之神骏，也暗含将士的英勇；弓如霹雳弦惊，以霹雳喻弓弦之声，霹雳是震天动地的雷声，以此形容拉弓放箭之声，写尽弓力之强、军威之壮。两句一写马一写弓，一写动一写声，用比喻与夸张的手法，把两军激战的场面写得惊心动魄，仿佛能看到战马奔腾、箭矢如雨的沙场。这两句也是词人对青年时代抗金战斗的追忆，是他一生中最壮怀激烈时刻的艺术再现。在音节上，的卢飞快、霹雳弦惊，短促有力的节奏与战斗的激烈相称，声情并茂，是豪放词中写战斗场面的典范。

These two lines write the battlefield's fierce battle, the ci's strongest motion, the most powerful bearing. The warhorses race like the Dilu, figuring the warhorse's swiftness through the Dilu steed, the Dilu the Three Kingdoms' famous horse, once helping Liu Leap over the Tan stream, this metaphor at once writing the warhorse's spirit and the soldiers' bravery; the bowstrings startle like the thunderbolt, figuring the bowstring's sound through the thunderbolt, the heaven-shaking thunder, this describing the drawn-bow and loosed-arrow sound, exhausting the bow's strength and the army's might. Two lines, one the horse one the bow, one the motion one the sound, using metaphor and exaggeration, writing the two armies' fierce battle to the heart-stopping point, as if seeing the charging warhorses and the arrow-rain battlefield. These two lines also the poet's youth's Jin-resistance battle memory, the artistic reproduction of his life's most impassioned moment. In syllables, the Dilu's speed and the thunderbolt's startle, the short forceful rhythm matching the battle's fierceness, the voice and feeling together, the heroic ci's battle-scene model.

了却君王天下事，赢得生前身后名。

I have finished the great matters of the sovereign under heaven, and won the fame after life and before death. (The accomplishment of the dream: the great matters of the state finished and the fame of the life won, the utmost of the hero's dream.)

完成君王收复失地统一天下的大事，赢得生前身后的英名。

To settle the ruler's world's affairs, and win a name alive and after death.

这两句是全词情感的高潮，直抒杀敌报国、建功立业的壮志。了却君王天下事，写完成收复中原、统一天下的大事，君王天下事，把个人的抱负与国家的命运紧紧相连，可见辛弃疾的爱国情怀之深；赢得生前身后名，写由此赢得生前身后的英名，生前身后，表明这种功业与名声将传之久远。两句对仗工整，了却对赢得，天下事对身后名，语气坚定，充满豪情，把梦境推向最壮阔的顶点——这不仅是辛弃疾的理想，也是他与陈亮共同的抱负，更是南宋爱国志士的共同心声。然而这两句越是豪迈，下句可怜白发生的转折便越是沉痛，理想越高，现实的落差越大，这两句正是为末句蓄势，以最昂扬的声调为最悲凉的结局作铺垫，艺术效果极为强烈。

These two lines are the ci's emotional climax, directly uttering the enemy-killing-and-country-serving and the achievement-making lofty will. To settle the ruler's world's affairs writes the completion of the central-plain-recovery and the world-unification great affair, the ruler's world's affairs binding the personal ambition and the national fate tightly, showing Xin Qiji's patriotic depth; and win a name alive and after death, writing the hence-won alive-and-after-death fame, the alive-and-after-death showing this achievement and fame's long transmission. Two lines in steady parallelism, settle against win, the world's affairs against the after-death name, the tone firm, full of the heroism, pushing the dream to the grandest peak — this not only Xin Qiji's ideal, but his and Chen Liang's common ambition, and the Southern Song patriotic men's common voice. And the more impassioned these two lines, the below's alas, white hairs have grown's turn the more grief-stricken, the higher the ideal, the greater the reality's fall, these two lines precisely storing the force for the close, using the most spirited tone as the most bleak ending's ground, the artistic effect extremely strong.

Study

Word focus

挑 To trim. The word of the lamp: 'drunk, I trim the lamp and look at my sword'—the trimming of the lamp of the drunken night, the looking at the sword, the beginning of the dream of the hero, the detail of the insomnia of the hero. 醉里挑灯看剑之挑字，写尽深夜看剑的细节，是全词起笔最传神的一字。挑本指用细长之物拨动，此处写挑亮灯芯，使灯光更亮，以便看剑。其妙有三：一是动作的细腻，挑灯不是点灯，是灯将尽而拨亮，暗示夜已深、人未眠，看剑之久；二是气氛的营造，昏黄的灯光下，醉眼朦胧的人挑亮灯火细看宝剑，画面感极强，孤独而悲壮的气氛油然而生；三是心理的暗示，深夜挑灯看剑，正是壮士心事难平的表现，剑在灯下闪着寒光，辛弃疾看的其实是自己未竟的报国壮志。一个挑字，把时间、人物、心境都写了出来，若换点字便少了那份深夜独处的意味，可见辛弃疾炼字之精，一字而境界全出。

翻 To play (to turn). The word of the music: 'the fifty strings play the tunes beyond the frontier'—the playing of the tunes of the frontier by the fifty strings, the grandeur of the camp, the music of the dream. 五十弦翻塞外声之翻字，写尽乐声的激昂，是炼字传神的一笔。翻本有翻动、翻腾之意，此处形容演奏乐器，写出乐声的起伏跌宕、气势奔腾，仿佛能看到琴师指法翻飞、乐声如浪涛翻涌。其妙有二：一是以动写声，乐声本无形，翻字却让它有了翻腾奔涌的动感，塞外声的雄壮豪迈由此跃然纸上；二是与全词的气氛相合，翻字与分麾下炙的分字相对，一个写分肉，一个写奏乐，都是大开大合的动作，共同渲染出军旅生活的豪壮。若用奏字便平淡无奇，用弹字则失雄壮，唯翻字既有动作的力度，又有乐声的奔放，把五十弦瑟奏出的塞外之声写得如在耳畔。辛弃疾以文为词，用字不求纤巧而求力度，翻字正是其豪放词风的典型用字。

惊 To startle. The word of the bow: 'my bow twangs like the thunderclap and the bowstring startles'—the twanging of the bowstring like the thunder, the force of the bow of the battle, the vigor of the dream. 弓如霹雳弦惊之惊字，写尽弓弦之声的震撼，是夸张手法中传神的一笔。惊本指惊动、震惊，此处写弓弦之声如霹雳一般令人心惊。其妙有三：一是以声写势，弓弦之声本有限，惊字却让它有了震慑人心的力量，仿佛天地为之震动，写出弓力之强、军威之壮；二是以主观写客观，惊是听者的感受，把弓弦之声对人的震撼直接写出，比单纯形容声音更见力度；三是与上句的飞快相呼应，马飞快写视觉的迅疾，弦惊写听觉的震撼，视听结合，把沙场激战的场面写得惊心动魄。一个惊字，既写弓弦之声的猛烈，又写听者心理的震动，字面简练而内涵丰富，是辛弃疾豪放词以力取胜的典型用字，也把梦境中的战斗推向了高潮。

可怜 It is a pity. The word of the turn: 'but it is a pity, the white hair has grown'—the pity of the white hair, the grief of the aged hero, the five characters of the turn, the whole ci's grief gathered in the two characters. 可怜白发生之可怜二字，是全词情感转折的枢纽，以最平易的字眼写出最沉痛的感慨。可怜在此是可惜、可叹之意，与今义可怜悯不同。其妙有三：一是语调的骤然跌落，前八句何等豪壮，可怜二字一出，如高崖坠石，把梦境与壮志全部拉回现实，转折之陡，正是全词艺术力量之所在；二是情感的复杂，可怜既是叹自己白发丛生、壮志难酬，也是叹岁月无情、国事未了，一字之中，含无限悲凉；三是与醉里挑灯看剑遥相呼应，醉里看剑是壮志未泯，可怜白发是壮志难酬，首尾对照，更见悲愤之深。辛弃疾不用沉痛激烈之语，而用可怜这一看似平淡的字眼，以轻写重，以淡写浓，把一生的悲愤凝于二字，正是举重若轻的大手笔。