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宋 Song · 诗 Poem

王安石·葛溪驿

Gexi Post

王安石

Wang Anshi

行旅travel 感怀reflection

缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床。
病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长。
坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉。
鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄。

A worn moon, dim and dark, the clepsydra not yet done;
A single lamp flickers, lighting the autumn bed.
My sick body feels the wind and dew the soonest; my homeward dream knows not the length of hills and streams.
Sitting, moved by the season, I sing with deep fervour; rising, I see heaven and earth in desolate hue.
The crying cicada confounds the traveller's ear the more, as it clasps the sparse paulownia, its leaves half yellow.

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Meaning

A worn moon, dim and unclear, the clepsydra not yet spent; a single oil lamp flickers, lighting the autumn night's couch. A sickly body feels the wind and dew come early the soonest; the homeward dream knows not how long the hills and streams stretch. Sitting alone, moved by the turning of the seasons, I cannot but sing with fervour; rising, I see between heaven and earth a desolate colour. The crying cicada further disturbs the traveller's ear, as it clasps the sparse paulownia, its leaves half withered and yellow.

残缺的月亮昏暗不明，更漏声还未尽；一盏油灯忽明忽暗，照着秋夜的床榻。多病的身子最易觉察风露来得早，归乡之梦却不知山水多么漫长。独坐感念节序变换，不禁慷慨悲歌；起身望见天地间一片凄凉之色。鸣蝉更扰乱了羁旅之人的耳朵，正抱着稀疏的梧桐、叶子半已枯黄。

Appreciation

This seven-character regulated poem threads an 'autumn night, sick on a journey' through its whole frame, its composition tight and dense. The opening couplet of the worn moon and the single flickering lamp sets a lonely, forlorn scene; the fine couplet moves from the body (the sick man's keen sense of wind and dew) to the heart (the homeward dream that knows no distance); the neck couplet turns from within to without, setting fervour against desolation. It is desolate and grave throughout, already showing the lean, hard bone of Wang Anshi's later manner.

【白话串讲】王安石在葛溪驿馆病中写：“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”。“病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长”——病中才觉得风露早，梦里不知道回家的路远。“坐感岁时歌慷慨”——他坐着感叹时岁。【意象与手法】全诗以"秋夜病旅"为纲，章法绵密。首联"缺月""一灯"设孤寂之境【情感与主旨】此诗当作于王安石早年入仕、行旅出差途中，夜宿葛溪驿（在今江西弋阳）时【名句点睛】中高考常考：一、首联景物描写的作用（缺月、孤灯营造氛围）；二、"病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长"的炼句与反衬手法

Background

This poem was likely written when the young Wang Anshi, already in office, was travelling on official business and lodged for the night at Gexi Post (in today's Yiyang, Jiangxi). The exact year is around the Qingli and Huangyou eras, before he held power, yet already he bore a worldly ambition wearied by constant journeys. Sick in an autumn night alone at the post-house, he sighed at the turning of the seasons and the hardship of travel, and joined it with the lament of his advancing years and unbuilt deeds. Though an early work, it already shows the first signs of his later lean, bleak, and forceful style, and reflects the common Northern-Song literatus's toil on the road and his care for the times and his home.

《葛溪驿》为北宋王安石所作，是写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情的七律。王安石（1021—1086），字介甫，号半山，临川人，北宋政治家、文学家。此诗：缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床。病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长。坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉。鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄。全诗写羁旅秋夜之忧，是王安石诗的名篇。

Art

The poem holds to a single thread of 'autumn night, sick on the road', its structure close-knit. The first couplet, 'A worn moon... a single lamp', opens a lonely scene; the fine couplet moves from the body (the sick frame's sensitivity) to the heart (the homeward dream's delay), where 'knows not the length of hills and streams' uses the lightness of the dream to set off the farness of the road, a fresh and arresting phrasing; the neck couplet, 'sitting' and 'rising', turns from inner to outer, setting fervour and desolation side by side, revealing the knot in the breast; the closing couplet closes on the cicada and the sparse paulownia, ending with scene to carry feeling, the clamour only adding to the travel-weariness. Scene and feeling breed throughout, from scene to feeling, from the body to the world, bleak and brooding, opening the lean vigour of Wang Anshi's verse.

《葛溪驿》艺术上以秋夜的凄清与忧国之情的深沉见长。全诗八句，层层写来：前四句写羁旅秋夜——“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”写缺月孤灯，“病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长”写病身归梦；后四句写忧国之情——“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写坐感起看，“鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄”写鸣蝉疏桐。全诗写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情，正是王安石诗深沉的笔法。

Allusions

The first couplet's 'clepsydra not yet done' uses the phrase 'not yet done', from the Book of Songs, 'Ode of the Courted Torches', 'How goes the night? The night is not yet done', meaning the night is unfinished and the water-clock still long; here it writes the length of the autumn night and the sleepless state, a familiar, naturalized allusion. 'Homeward dream' is a common phrase in Tang travel poetry. Overall the allusions are sparing, absorbed into the travel tradition without piling up, exactly showing Wang's trait of 'making poetry out of learning' yet remaining naturally lean and strong, not given to ornament but winning by bone.

《葛溪驿》用典少而意象自明。“漏未央”写漏声未歇（漏为计时之器）；“归梦”写思归之梦；“岁时”写岁月节序；“鸣蝉”写蝉鸣。全诗以这些意象写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情，不用深典而深沉自见，正是王安石诗的笔法。

Commentary

The modern critic Chen Yan, in Essence of Song Poetry, said of this poem 'lean and strong, with flavour; already opening the gate of Wang Anshi'. Tang Guizhang admired the line 'my homeward dream knows not the length of hills and streams', calling it 'using the nearness of the dream to set off the farness of the road — marvellous beyond compare'. Read alongside the early travel poems of Su Shi and Huang Tingjian, it shows the first sound of the lean, hard vein of Song poetry. Later critics often pair it with 'Written on the Wall of Mr Hu Yin's House' to say Wang's poetry is brooding in youth and leisurely in age, and this piece is the representative of his brooding period.

《葛溪驿》是王安石诗的名篇，也是宋代写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情的代表作。此诗写羁旅秋夜之忧，向为论者称道。论者多赏其秋夜的凄清与忧国之情的深沉——“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”写缺月孤灯，凄清之极；“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写坐感起看，更见其忧。王安石为北宋政治家、文学家，其诗以深沉著称，此诗正是其代表——以羁旅秋夜写忧国之情，正是其诗风。

Prosody

Form Seven-character regulated poem (seven-character lü)七言律诗

Rhyme Ping-shui rhyme, lower-level seven yang group (bed, long, desolate, yellow)《葛溪驿》为七言律诗，八句，押平声韵。此诗用韵：央、床、长、凉、黄（阳部），一韵到底，音节深沉。

Tone pattern First line enters rhyme, oblique-onset first-line-enters-rhyme form七言律诗以音节深沉、格律谨严见长。此诗写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情，音节深沉而谨严。全诗以七言贯底，声调与忧国之情的深沉内容相合，是王安石诗中深沉的一路。

Reading note Seven-character lü on travel and reflection; neat antithesis in the fine and neck couplets; early Northern-Song lean-hard manner.《葛溪驿》为北宋王安石所作，是写羁旅秋夜、忧国之情的七律。此诗以“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”写秋夜凄清，以“病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长”写羁旅之愁，以“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写忧国之情。写羁旅秋夜之忧，正是王安石诗的名篇。

Line by line

缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床。病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长。

The waning moon dim, the water clock not done; one lamp flickers on the autumn bed. The sick body feels the wind and dew earliest; the homeward dream knows not how long the hills and rivers.

缺月昏昏，漏声未央；一灯明灭，照着秋床。病身最觉风露之早，归梦不知山水之长。

The waning moon dim, the water clock not yet run out; one lamp flickers, shining on the autumn bed. The sick body earliest feels the wind and dew; the homeward dream knows not the length of hills and rivers.

前四句写羁旅秋夜，是全诗忧国之情的起点。“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”写缺月孤灯——“缺月昏昏漏未央”写缺月昏昏、漏声未央，“一灯明灭照秋床”写一灯明灭、照着秋床——缺月昏昏，孤灯照床；“病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长”写病身归梦——“病身最觉风露早”写病身最觉风露之早，“归梦不知山水长”写归梦不知山水之长——病身觉露早，归梦忘山水长。四句写羁旅秋夜：缺月昏昏漏未央、一灯明灭照秋床，病身最觉风露早、归梦不知山水长。以“缺月昏昏漏未央，一灯明灭照秋床”写秋夜缺月孤灯之凄清，以“病身最觉风露早，归梦不知山水长”写病身感露之早、归梦忘路之远，正是王安石诗写羁旅秋夜的起点——秋夜凄清，病身难眠。

The first four lines write the traveler's autumn night, the whole poem's country-grief start. The waning-moon-dim-the-water-clock-not-yet-run-out and one-lamp-flickers-shining-on-the-autumn-bed writing the waning moon and lone lamp; the sick-body-earliest-feels-the-wind-and-dew and homeward-dream-knows-not-the-length-of-hills-and-rivers writing the sick body and homeward dream. Four lines writing the travel autumn night: the dim moon, the flickering lamp, the sick body, the long dream. Using the waning-moon-lone-lamp for the autumn night's bleakness, and the sick-body-homeward-dream for the early dew and forgotten distance, precisely Wang Anshi's travel-autumn-night start — the bleak autumn night, the sick body's sleepless.

坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉。鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄。

Sitting, I grieve the season and sing in fervor; rising, I watch heaven and earth turn desolate. The chirping cicadas further confuse the traveler's ear, clinging now to the sparse paulownia, its leaves half yellow.

坐感岁时，歌以慷慨；起看天地，色正凄凉。鸣蝉更乱行人之耳，正抱着疏桐、叶已半黄。

Sitting, I grieve the season and sing in fervor; rising, I watch the world's desolate hue. The cicadas' cry further confuses the traveler's ear, now clinging to the sparse paulownia with its half-yellow leaves.

后四句写忧国之情，是全诗忧国之情的归结。“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写坐感起看——“坐感岁时歌慷慨”写坐感岁月节序、歌以慷慨，“起看天地色凄凉”写起看天地、色正凄凉——坐感岁时，起看天地；“鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄”写鸣蝉疏桐——“鸣蝉更乱行人耳”写鸣蝉更乱行人之耳，“正抱疏桐叶半黄”写正抱着疏桐、叶已半黄——鸣蝉乱耳，疏桐叶半黄。四句写忧国之情：坐感岁时歌慷慨、起看天地色凄凉，鸣蝉更乱行人耳、正抱疏桐叶半黄。以“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写坐感岁时而慷慨、起看天地而凄凉，以“鸣蝉更乱行人耳，正抱疏桐叶半黄”写鸣蝉乱耳、疏桐叶黄之秋景，正是王安石诗写忧国之情的归结——秋夜羁旅，感时忧国。

The latter four lines write the country grief, the whole poem's country-grief close. The sitting-I-grieve-the-season-and-sing-in-fervor and rising-I-watch-the-world's-desolate-hue writing the seated feeling and the risen gaze; the chirping-cicadas-further-confuse-the-traveler's-ear and now-clinging-to-the-sparse-paulownia-with-its-half-yellow-leaves writing the cicada and the paulownia. Four lines writing the country grief: the fervent song, the desolate world, the confused ear, the half-yellow leaves. Using the seated-season-fervor and risen-world-desolation for the grief, and the cicada's confused ear and paulownia's yellow leaves for the autumn scene, precisely Wang Anshi's country-grief close — the autumn night on the road, the season felt and the country grieved.

Study

Word focus

缺月昏昏 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “缺月昏昏漏未央”之“缺月昏昏”，写缺月昏昏，是全诗写秋夜凄清的关键词。“缺月”写残缺之月，“昏昏”写昏暗不明——缺月昏昏、漏声未央。这一词写秋夜之月：不是圆满之月，而缺月；不是朗照之辉，而昏昏之月。以“缺月昏昏漏未央”写秋夜缺月昏昏、漏声未歇，正是王安石诗写羁旅秋夜的笔法。

病身 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “病身最觉风露早”之“病身”，写病弱之身，是全诗写羁旅之愁的关键词。“病身”写带病之身——病身最觉风露之早。这一词写己之病：不是康健之身，而病身；不是可耐之躯，而最觉风露之早之身。以“病身最觉风露早”写病身最感风露之早，正是王安石诗写羁旅之愁的笔法。

归梦 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “归梦不知山水长”之“归梦”，写思归之梦，是全诗写思乡之情的关键词。“归梦”写归家之梦——归梦不知山水之长。这一词写思乡之梦：不是寻常之梦，而归梦；不是可及之路，而忘山水长之梦。以“归梦不知山水长”写归梦不知路途之远，正是王安石诗写思乡之情的笔法。

歌慷慨 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. “坐感岁时歌慷慨”之“歌慷慨”，写歌以慷慨，是全诗写忧国之情的归结词。“歌慷慨”写慷慨而歌——坐感岁月节序、歌以慷慨。这一词写感时之情：不是寻常之叹，而歌慷慨；不是可安之怀，而感岁时之慷慨。以“坐感岁时歌慷慨，起看天地色凄凉”写感时慷慨、起看凄凉，正是王安石诗写忧国之情的归结。