齐天乐·庾郎先自吟愁赋

Meaning

One of the supreme poems on the cricket in the language, written by the late Southern Song master Jiang Kui. The lyric begins with the wanderer Yu Xin's 'Lament,' and the poet hears, more desolate still, the private talk of the crickets — in the dew-wet places of the brass knocker, the mossy stone well, wherever they sing. The mournful sound seems to speak: the sleepless woman thinking of her man rises to seek the loom; the cold night behind the painted screens — what feelings are these? The west window blows the hidden rain, and the cricket's song breaks off and resumes, answering the washing-beetles. In the posting inns and the summer palaces, countless hearts are wounded. Then the turn: the ancient Bin poem speaks of the cricket idly, and the poet smiles at the world's boys and girls calling to catch the crickets by the hedge-lanterns — children's play, the same sound the whole world mourns with. The close: all written into the zither strings — note after note, the more bitter. The lyric is at once the most complete treatment of the cricket in Chinese poetry and a meditation on the loneliness that the cricket's song awakens in every listener.

庾郎先自吟愁赋。凄凄更闻私语。露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处。哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼。曲曲屏山，夜凉独自甚情绪。西窗又吹暗雨。为谁频断续，相和砧杵。候馆迎秋，离宫吊月，别有伤心无数。豳诗漫与。笑篱落呼灯，世间儿女。写入琴丝，一声声更苦。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The wanderer Yu sang his Lament first; then, more desolate, I hear the private talk. The dew wetting the brass knocker, the moss invading the stone well — these are the places where I heard it. The mournful sound seems to speak: just then the woman thinking of her man, sleepless, rises to seek the loom. Curve after curve of the painted screen hills — in the cold night, alone, what feelings are these? The west window again blows the hidden rain; for whom does it break off and resume, answering the washing-beetles? The posting inn welcomes autumn; the summer palace mourns the moon — apart, there are countless wounds. The Bin poem is idly made; I smile at the boys and girls calling each other by the hedge-lanterns to catch the crickets. All written into the zither strings — note after note, the more bitter. [Structure and Thought] The lyric moves from the first sound of the cricket through the places and the listeners it touches — the sleepless woman, the traveler, the palace — to the turn of the children's play and the close of the zither strings. [Key Technique] The poem's art is the expansion of the cricket's song into a universal voice: the same sound that makes the woman rise to the loom, wounds the traveler and the palace, delights the children, and becomes, in the poet's zither, note after note the more bitter. [Emotional Tone] Desolate and tender: the cricket's song is heard with the full range of the age's melancholy, and the final 'the more bitter' is the whole confession.

【白话串讲】 姜夔写《齐天乐·庾郎先自吟愁赋》：“庾郎先自吟愁赋。凄凄更闻私语”——“露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处”——“哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼”——“西窗又吹暗雨。为谁频断续，相和砧杵”——他写蟋蟀——哀音似诉。 【意象与手法】 “庾郎先自吟愁赋。凄凄更闻私语”以庾信愁赋写愁；“露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处”写蟋蟀声之所在；“哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼”写哀音似诉；“西窗又吹暗雨。为谁频断续，相和砧杵”写与砧杵相和；结以“写入琴丝，一声声更苦”写一声声更苦。咏物愁思。 【情感与主旨】 姜夔咏蟋蟀之作，借蟋蟀哀音写思妇离愁，是南宋咏物词中借物写愁的典范。 【名句点睛】 常考“哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼”以哀音似诉写思妇离愁；“写入琴丝，一声声更苦”以一声声更苦写愁之深。

Allusions

'The wanderer Yu' (Yulang) is Yu Xin, whose 'Lament' (Chou fu) is the great prose-poem of homesickness; 'the private talk' is the cricket's song, the sound more desolate still than the written lament. 'The woman thinking of her man' is the conventional figure of the autumn longing, the wife at the loom from the ancient 'Nineteen Old Poems' — 'the fair one in the far distance, I am sick with longing; the late night cannot sleep, I rise and play the clear zither.' 'The Bin poem' is the 'Seventh Month' of the Book of Songs, the Bin air that speaks of the cricket entering the house in the autumn; the poet calls it 'idly made' because the ancient poem treats the insect lightly, while the world's grief has made it heavy. 'The washing-beetles' (zhenchu) are the stone beaters of the laundry, whose sound answers the cricket in the autumn night.

词中「庾郎先自吟愁赋」「凄凄」「私语」「露湿铜铺」「苔侵石井」「曾听伊处」「哀音似诉」「思妇无眠」「机杼」「曲曲屏山」「夜凉独自」「西窗又吹暗雨」「断续」「砧杵」「候馆迎秋」「离宫吊月」「伤心无数」「豳诗漫与」「篱落呼灯」「世间儿女」「写入琴丝」「一声声更苦」等语，皆含典故故实。「庾郎先自吟愁赋」用庾信《愁赋》之典（庾信尝作《愁赋》），写庾郎吟愁；「凄凄」写凄凄之声；「私语」写私语之声；「露湿铜铺」写露水湿铜铺（铜铺为门上铜环之座）；「苔侵石井」写苔藓侵石井；「曾听伊处」写曾听其声之处；「哀音似诉」写哀音如泣诉；「思妇无眠」写思妇不眠；「机杼」写织机（用《古诗十九首》「札札弄机杼」之意）；「曲曲屏山」写屏风上曲折之远山；「夜凉独自」写夜凉独自；「西窗又吹暗雨」写西窗又吹暗雨；「断续」写声之断续；「砧杵」写捣衣之砧杵（写秋夜砧声）；「候馆迎秋」写候馆迎秋；「离宫吊月」写离宫吊月；「伤心无数」写伤心无数；「豳诗漫与」用《诗经·豳风·七月》「十月蟋蟀入我床下」之典，写豳诗；「篱落呼灯」写篱落呼灯捉蟋蟀；「世间儿女」写世间儿女；「写入琴丝」写写入琴丝；「一声声更苦」写一声声更苦。词人以庾信愁赋、思妇机杼、豳诗蟋蟀、篱落呼灯等典入词，不着痕迹，而把咏蟋蟀的愁思写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。

Commentary

This lyric is universally ranked among the greatest poems on the cricket in the language, and among the masterpieces of Jiang Kui's refined, musical art. The expansion of the insect's song into the whole scale of human feeling — from the woman at the loom to the children's play — has been admired for eight centuries, and the closing image of the zither strings, note after note the more bitter, is often cited as the perfect union of the poet's two arts, the sound and the meaning. The lyric is quoted wherever the autumn insect and the autumn heart are remembered.

这首《齐天乐·庾郎先自吟愁赋》，是姜夔写咏物愁思之作（咏蟋蟀），写庾郎吟愁、哀音似诉、一声声更苦之情，含蓄深婉。上片写庾郎吟愁与哀音似诉：「庾郎先自吟愁赋。凄凄更闻私语」——庾郎先自吟愁赋，凄凄更闻私语。写庾郎吟愁：庾郎先自吟愁赋（用庾信愁赋之典），凄凄更闻私语——庾郎先吟愁赋、更闻凄凄私语；「露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处」——露湿铜铺，苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处。写露湿铜铺：露湿铜铺、苔侵石井，都是曾听伊处——露湿铜铺、苔侵石井，皆曾听蟋蟀之处；「哀音似诉。正思妇无眠，起寻机杼」——哀音似诉，正思妇无眠，起寻机杼。写哀音似诉：哀音似诉，正思妇无眠、起寻机杼——哀音如泣诉、思妇无眠寻机杼；「曲曲屏山，夜凉独自甚情绪」——曲曲屏山，夜凉独自甚情绪。写夜凉独自：曲曲屏山、夜凉独自甚情绪——屏山曲曲、夜凉独自。下片写离宫吊月与一声声更苦：「西窗又吹暗雨。为谁频断续，相和砧杵」——西窗又吹暗雨，为谁频断续，相和砧杵。写相和砧杵：西窗又吹暗雨、为谁频断续，相和砧杵——西窗暗雨、断续相和砧杵；「候馆迎秋，离宫吊月，别有伤心无数」——候馆迎秋，离宫吊月，别有伤心无数。写离宫吊月：候馆迎秋、离宫吊月，别有伤心无数——候馆迎秋、离宫吊月、伤心无数；「豳诗漫与。笑篱落呼灯，世间儿女」——豳诗漫与，笑篱落呼灯，世间儿女。写豳诗漫与：豳诗漫与（用豳风七月蟋蟀之典），笑篱落呼灯、世间儿女——豳诗漫与、笑世间儿女呼灯捉蟋蟀；「写入琴丝，一声声更苦」——写入琴丝，一声声更苦。写一声声更苦：写入琴丝、一声声更苦——写入琴丝、一声声更苦。这「写入琴丝，一声声更苦」，是全词之结：以一声声更苦写其愁苦。全词含蓄深婉，托物寄情，正是姜夔词中的名篇。

Prosody

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