宋 Song · 诗 Poem
示三子
To My Three Sons
时来与物逝，路穷非我止。
与汝各执手，留连至更尔。
属声呼汝父，明日复如此。
忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔。
别离用旬月，少壮几时耳。
The road runs out, but it is not I who choose to stop.
You and I each take the other by the hand,
Lingering on until the night watches are late.
You call out loudly for your father,
Saying that tomorrow will be like this again.
Suddenly it all turns like a cartwheel;
Life at a roadside inn is only ever so.
Parting takes no more than ten days or a month,
But how long does a man stay young?
Meaning
Su Zhe writes to his three children during a brief reunion that is about to end. He holds their hands late into the night, hears them promise that tomorrow will be the same, and reflects that partings are short while youth is shorter.
时运到来便与物一同逝去，路到尽头并非我愿停步。 与你各自执手，留连直到更深。 高声呼唤你们的父亲，说明日还要这样相聚。 忽然像车轮般转过，暂寄逆旅聊且如此。 别离只用旬月，少壮又能有几时。
Appreciation
The poem is written in the plainest possible language, and its power depends on that plainness. Su Zhe opens with a statement about being carried along by circumstance, so that the tenderness which follows is already shadowed. The children's cry that tomorrow will be like this again is the most affecting line precisely because the reader knows it will not be. Two figures, the turning cartwheel and the roadside inn, place this one family scene inside a general view of life as lodging and motion. The last question is asked quietly and left unanswered, which is how a family poem becomes a poem about time.
【白话串讲】 苏辙写给孩子们：“时来与物逝，路穷非我止”——“与汝各执手，留连至更尔”——他和孩子们握手道别。“属声呼汝父，明日复如此”——“别离用旬月，少壮几时耳”——他叹离别和时光。 【意象与手法】 以家常语写父子情，平淡中见沉痛。车轮转喻世路流转，逆旅喻人生寄居；结以少壮几时收，于絮语中藏沧桑。苏辙诗淡而弥永。 【情感与主旨】 抒发与儿女聚少离多、身世漂泊、时光易逝的慈父之悲，亦含人生如寄的达观。 【名句点睛】 别离用旬月，少壮几时耳——以极淡之语写极深之悲，最见苏门亲情诗的真淳。
Background
Su Zhe was the younger brother of Su Shi and one of the three Su writers. This poem records a short reunion with his children followed by another separation, written during the years of official travel when meetings were brief and departures frequent.
《示三子》为宋代苏辙所作，是写久别还家、示子之情深意挚的诗。苏辙（1039—1112），字子由，号颍滨遗老，眉山人，宋代文学家。此诗：时来与物逝，路穷非我止。与汝各执手，留连至更尔。属声呼汝父，明日复如此。忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔。别离用旬月，少壮几时耳。全诗写久别还家、示子之情，是苏辙诗的名篇。
Art
The five-character ancient style is kept deliberately unadorned, so that the diction sounds like household speech while the feeling runs deep. The cartwheel and the inn serve as figures for a life in transit, and the poem moves from gathering to parting rather than the other way round. Restraint is the method: the plainer the surface, the heavier the closing question falls. The manner owes a good deal to Tao Qian.
《示三子》艺术上以还家示子的描摹与骨肉之情的深挚见长。全诗十句，层层写来：首写时来与物逝——“时来与物逝，路穷非我止”写时来与物逝、路穷非我止；中写执手留连——“与汝各执手，留连至更尔”写与汝各执手、留连至更尔，“属声呼汝父，明日复如此”写属声呼汝父、明日复如此；末写离聚之慨——“忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔”写忽若车轮转、逆旅聊复尔，“别离用旬月，少壮几时耳”写别离用旬月、少壮几时。全诗以还家示子写骨肉之情，正是苏辙诗深挚的笔法。
Allusions
The roadside inn is the old figure for human life as temporary lodging, a place one stays in rather than belongs to. Ten days or a month is a set expression for a short interval, used here to measure the distance of the coming separation. The closing question about how long youth can last belongs to a long tradition of laments over the speed with which the years go.
《示三子》用典在“逆旅”“车轮转”。“逆旅”写客舍（《庄子》逆旅）；“车轮转”写车轮旋转（喻聚散）。全诗以这些意象写还家示子、离聚之慨，用典自然而深挚自见，正是苏辙诗的笔法。
Commentary
Su Zhe's poetry has never enjoyed the reputation of his prose, but its quietness wears well and rewards rereading. Read alongside Su Shi's poems to family members, this piece shows the shared temper of the household: affection stated without display. It is a good example of how much weight ordinary language can carry.
《示三子》是苏辙诗的名篇，也是宋诗中写骨肉之情的代表作。此诗写久别还家、示子之情，向为论者称道。论者多赏其还家示子的描摹与骨肉之情的深挚——“时来与物逝，路穷非我止”写时来路穷、身不由己，深挚之极；“与汝各执手，留连至更尔”写各执手、留连至更，更见其情；“属声呼汝父，明日复如此”写属声呼父、明日复聚，尤见其亲；“别离用旬月，少壮几时耳”写别离旬月、少壮几时，尤见其慨。此诗作于苏辙被贬归来与子女相见时，正是其代表——以还家示子写骨肉之情，正是其诗风。
Prosody
Line by line
时来与物逝，路穷非我止。与汝各执手，留连至更尔。
Time passes and things fade; the road's end is not my own choosing. Hand in hand with you, we linger deep into the night watch.
时来与物逝，路穷非我止。与汝各执手，留连至更尔。
Time flows and things pass away; the road's end is not my stopping by choice. I clasp your hands one by one, lingering deep into the night.
首写时来与物逝、执手留连，是全诗写还家示子的起点。“时来与物逝，路穷非我止”写时来路穷、身不由己——“时来与物逝”写时运到来与万物同逝，“路穷非我止”写路到尽头并非我愿停步——时来与物逝，路穷非我止；“与汝各执手，留连至更尔”写各执手、留连至更——“与汝各执手”写与你们各自执手，“留连至更尔”写留连直到更深——与汝各执手，留连至更尔。四句写时来与物逝、执手留连：时来与物逝，路穷非我止。与汝各执手，留连至更尔。以“时来与物逝，路穷非我止”写身不由己、时运流转，以“与汝各执手，留连至更尔”写与子执手、留连至深夜，正是苏辙诗写还家示子的起点——执手相看，留连至更。
The opening writing time-passes-and-things-fade and the hand-clasp lingering, the whole poem's return-home-and-showing-sons starting point. Time-passes-and-things-fade the road's-end-not-my-stop writing the time's coming and things' passing together, the road's-end-not-my-stop writing the road to its end and yet not my will to stop — time flows and things fade, the road's end not my choice; and-hand-in-hand-with-you-linger-deep-into-the-watch writing the clasped hands and the lingering to the deep night — the hand-in-hand-with-you writing the one-by-one hand-clasping, the lingering-to-the-watch writing the lingering until the deep watch. Four lines writing time and the clasped hands: time passes and things fade; the road's end not my choosing. Hand in hand with you, we linger deep into the watch. Using time-and-things-fade and road's-end-not-my-stop for the body's not-self-determination and the time's flowing, using the hand-clasp and the lingering for the son's hand-clasp and the lingering to the deep night, precisely Su Zhe's return-home-and-showing-sons starting point — the clasped hands' face-to-face gazing, the lingering to the deep watch.
属声呼汝父，明日复如此。
The children call out for their father and say tomorrow will be the same; their confidence is what makes the line painful.
属声呼汝父，明日复如此。
Calling out in loud voices for your father, tomorrow we shall gather again just like this.
此二句写属声呼汝父、明日复如此，是全诗写骨肉之情的深化。“属声呼汝父”写属声呼汝父——“属声呼汝父”写高声呼唤你们的父亲——属声呼汝父；“明日复如此”写明日复如此——“明日复如此”写明夜还要这样相聚——明日复如此。二句写属声呼汝父、明日复如此：属声呼汝父，明日复如此。以“属声呼汝父”写高声呼唤汝父、亲近之态，以“明日复如此”写明日复聚、皆大欢喜，正是苏辙诗写骨肉之情的深化——呼父之声，明日复聚。
These two lines writing the loud-calling-of-your-father and the tomorrow-again-like-this, the whole poem's flesh-and-blood feeling deepening. The loud-calling-of-your-father writing the loud calling of your father; the tomorrow-again-like-this writing tomorrow night's still-such-gathering. Two lines writing the loud call and the tomorrow's re-gathering: the loud voice calls your father, and tomorrow we shall gather again. Using the loud-calling for the high voice's calling and the closeness, using the tomorrow-again for the next day's re-gathering and the shared joy, precisely Su Zhe's flesh-and-blood feeling deepening — the father-calling voice, the morrow's re-gathering.
忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔。别离用旬月，少壮几时耳。
Suddenly, like a turning wheel, the wayside inn is but a brief lodging. Partings stretch to weeks and months; how long does youth last?
忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔。别离用旬月，少壮几时耳。
Suddenly like a turning wheel, the inn but a temporary lodging. Partings take weeks and months; how brief are the young years?
末写忽若车轮转、别离少壮，是全诗写离聚之慨的归结。“忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔”用逆旅之典写车轮旋转、逆旅暂寄——“忽若车轮转”写忽然像车轮般旋转，“逆旅聊复尔”用逆旅之典写暂寄客舍聊且如此——车轮旋转，逆旅暂寄；“别离用旬月，少壮几时耳”写别离旬月、少壮几时——“别离用旬月”写别离动辄旬月，“少壮几时耳”写少壮能有几时——别离旬月，少壮几时。四句写忽若车轮转、别离少壮：忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔。别离用旬月，少壮几时耳。以“忽若车轮转，逆旅聊复尔”用逆旅之典写聚散无常、身如过客，以“别离用旬月，少壮几时耳”写别离旬月、少壮无多之慨，正是苏辙诗写离聚之慨的归结——聚散如轮，少壮几何。
The close writing the wheel-like turning and the parting's youth's-briefness, the whole poem's parting-and-gathering-sigh's gathering. Suddenly-like-a-turning-wheel, the wayside-inn-but-a-brief-lodging uses the inn allusion for the wheel's turning and the lodging's briefness — the suddenly-like-a-turning-wheel writing the sudden wheel-like rotation, the wayside-inn-but-a-brief-lodging using the inn allusion for the brief inn-lodging and the just-so; the parting-takes-weeks-and-months, how-brief-the-young-years writing the parting's weeks-and-months and the youth's few times — the parting-takes-weeks-and-months writing the parting's often weeks and months, the how-brief-the-young-years writing the youth's how-long. Four lines writing the wheel turning and the youth's brevity: suddenly like a turning wheel, the inn but a brief lodging. Partings stretch to weeks and months; how long does youth last? Using the wheel-and-inn allusion for the gathering-and-scattering's no-fixed-rule and the body's passer-by, using the parting-and-youth for the parting's weeks and months and the youth's few sigh, precisely Su Zhe's parting-and-gathering-sigh's gathering — the gathering-and-scattering like a wheel, the youth's how much.
Study
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Related Reading
Compare this related work with the poem above through theme, imagery, tone, and emotional movement.
苏辙《谢人惠千叶牡丹》写咏花谢赠之情，与本首同为苏辙诗。差异在主题：示三子写骨肉亲情；谢人惠千叶牡丹写咏花酬赠。一写“情”之深，一写“咏”之雅。两者并读，可见苏辙诗写日常情事的两种主题。
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