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唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

代悲白头翁

In Place of a White-Haired Old Man's Lament

刘希夷

Liu Xiyi

闺怨Theme 人生Life 感时Theme 古体诗poetry

洛阳城东桃李花，飞来飞去落谁家。
洛阳女儿惜颜色，坐见落花长叹息。
今年花落颜色改，明年花开复谁在。
已见松柏摧为薪，更闻桑田变成海。
古人无复洛城东，今人还对落花风。
年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同。
寄言全盛红颜子，应怜半死白头翁。
此翁白头真可怜，伊昔红颜美少年。
公子王孙芳树下，清歌妙舞落花前。
光禄池台开锦绣，将军楼阁画神仙。
一朝卧病无相识，三春行乐在谁边。
宛转蛾眉能几时，须臾鹤发乱如丝。
但看古来歌舞地，惟有黄昏鸟雀悲。

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Meaning

A meditation on the transience of youth and beauty, contrasting the eternal return of blossoms with the irreplaceable passing of human life.

洛阳城东的桃花李花，飞来飞去不知飘落谁家。洛阳城里的女子爱惜容颜，坐看落花不禁长声叹息。今年花落容颜已改，明年花开又有谁还在。已看见松柏被伐作柴薪，又听说桑田变成了沧海。古人不再悲叹洛城之东，今人却仍对着落花之风。年年岁岁花开花落依旧相似，岁岁年年看花之人却已不同。寄语正当盛年的红颜子弟，应当怜悯这半死的白头老翁。这老翁白发苍苍真可怜，想当年也是红颜美少年。公子王孙在芳树下寻欢，清歌妙舞在落花前流连。光禄池台织就锦绣，将军楼阁绘满神仙。一朝卧病在床无人相识，三春的行乐又在哪里。婉转的蛾眉能有几时，须臾之间鹤发便乱如丝。且看古来歌舞之地，唯有黄昏的鸟雀空自悲啼。

Appreciation

Liu Xiyi's 'Daibei Baitou Weng' (Lament for the White-Haired Old Man) is a yuefu-style meditation on the transience of youth and beauty. Its ingenuity lies in a framing device: a young Luoyang woman who sighs over falling blossoms becomes the mouthpiece for an old man's lament, so that personal sorrow widens into a universal law of time. The pivot is the immortal couplet 'Year after year the flowers look alike; year after year the people are not the same,' which sets nature's eternal return against the irreplaceable passing of human life. The first half voices a woman's fear of fading beauty; the second half contrasts the old man's former splendor — aristocratic gardens, song and dance — with his present lonely illness, sharpening the theme of mutability through parallel structure and repeated characters (nian, sui). Fluent, musical, and gently elegiac, the poem rises above the ornate manner of early-Tang court verse with a clear, fresh voice. The couplet was so celebrated that a legend claims Liu's uncle Song Zhiwen envied it and caused his death. Its influence reaches forward to the great spring-lamenting, age-grieving lyrics of later poets, including the sorrowful passages of 'Dream of the Red Chamber.'

【白话串讲】 “洛阳城东桃李花，飞来飞去落谁家”——刘希夷写代悲白头翁：洛阳桃李花。“年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同”——这句成了千古名句。传说他舅舅宋之问想抢这句诗，他不给，后来被杀害。“但看古来歌舞地，惟有黄昏鸟雀悲”——他写红颜易老。【意象与手法】以“洛阳城东桃李花，飞来飞去落谁家”起笔，由落花联想到人生；以“年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同”贯通全篇，既写自然之永恒又写生命之短暂；前半写女子对红颜易老的忧惧，后半写老翁昔日繁华今日孤寂的对照。音韵和谐，语言优美而略带感伤，善于对比、叠字强化抒情。【情感与主旨】拟古乐府，将青春易逝、富贵无常的感慨抒写得回环婉转，“寄言全盛红颜子，应怜半死白头翁”点明题旨。在初唐诗坛绮靡风气中独标清音，对《红楼梦》“枉凝眉”等伤春悲老之作影响深远。【名句点睛】常考“年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同”以花相似人不同写生命短促；“但看古来歌舞地，惟有黄昏鸟雀悲”以歌舞地衰歇写盛衰无常。

Background

Liu Xiyi's best-known poem; the couplet '年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同' became instantly famous. A legend says his uncle Song Zhiwen envied it and caused his death — likely apocryphal.

《代悲白头翁》一作《代白头吟》，是初唐诗人刘希夷的传世名篇，约作于其晚年。诗为拟古乐府，以洛阳女子感伤落花起笔，转而咏叹白头老翁的沦落，将青春易逝、富贵无常的感慨抒写得回环婉转。刘希夷少有文名，善为从军、闺情之诗，然一生不遇，仅官纻尉，年未三十而卒，其遭际之短促，与此诗所咏盛衰之叹恰成残酷对照。创作上，诗人由落花联想到人生，以年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同这一联贯通全篇，既写自然之永恒，又写生命之短暂，成为传诵千古的哲理名句。值得注意的是，此诗约作于初唐诗风由绮靡向骨力转变之际，希夷独以清音写悲老，于上官体秾丽之外别开一境。相传希夷作此诗后叹其似谶，未及周岁而遇害，诗谶之说虽涉怪异，亦足见此诗动人至深，而其人其诗，遂成文学史上一段凄美的公案，更为此篇添了一层宿命般的苍凉。要之，读懂此诗，须将其放回具体的历史语境与诗人的身世脉络之中，方能体会字句之下的深沉寄托与时代投影。要之，读懂此诗，须将其放回具体的历史语境与诗人的身世脉络之中，方能体会字句之下的深沉寄托与时代投影。故论此诗，不可孤立视之，当与诗人一生的出处行藏相印证，其寄托乃愈见分明。由此观之，此篇虽若小品，实乃时代心理与个人遭际交汇的产物，值得细加玩味。要之，读懂此诗，须将其放回具体的历史语境与诗人的身世脉络之中，方能体会字句之下的深沉寄托与时代投影。

Art

Uses a framing device: a young woman mourning fallen flowers becomes the mouthpiece for an old man's lament, widening from personal sorrow to a universal law of time.

全诗采用乐府歌行体，音韵和谐，善于以对比、叠字强化抒情，构思独创。前半写洛阳女儿对红颜易老的忧惧：坐见落花长叹息，今年花落颜色改，明年花开复谁在，由花及人，层层逼进；后半写老翁昔日繁华、今日孤寂的对照：伊昔红颜美少年与今之半死白头翁相对，公子王孙芳树下与一朝卧病无相识相形，盛衰之落差触目惊心。寄言全盛红颜子，应怜半死白头翁二句点明题旨，揭示红颜终将成白头、盛衰相互转化的必然。艺术上最值得称道者，一是回环结构：以花起，以花结，今人还对落花风与古人无复洛城东呼应，使全篇如一环；二是叠字对仗：年年岁岁对岁岁年年，以字序之颠倒写时序之流转，巧夺天工；三是以乐景写哀、以哀景衬乐的反复腾挪。其情致之婉转、章法之圆熟，在初唐歌行中罕有其匹，已开盛唐长篇歌行之先声，亦为后世伤春悲老之作立一范式。综而论之，此诗技法浑成，情景相生，于平淡中见匠心，足为后世取法。其章法之密、用笔之妙，正在不露痕迹处见真章，非熟于诗法者不能到。

Allusions

桑田变成海 (mulberry fields becoming sea) — the idiom 沧海桑田 for immense change over time. 白头翁 / 红颜 — the contrast of white-haired old age versus rosy youth.

此诗虽以落花为喻，其意象却根植深厚。落花在六朝诗中已是伤春传统，如庾信《枯树赋》昔年种柳、悲不自胜，已开衰荣之叹；刘希夷以落花写人，是把自然之代谢坐实为生命之代谢。松柏摧为薪用古诗十九首安知松柏摧为薪，而《古诗》此句本写友朋零落，希夷移以写岁月之无情；桑田变成海用葛洪《神仙传》麻姑沧海桑田之典，极言变迁之巨。最著者年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同，虽似脱口，实则暗合《楚辞》悲回风之思与《古诗》人生寄一世之慨，而以前后字序颠倒成绝对，实为创格。又，白头翁本指白发老者，亦是一种鸟名，诗人兼用其双关，使翁既是人亦是物，增添一层苍凉。这些典故与意象经诗人融裁，不着痕迹地服务于盛衰之旨，足见初唐诗人对汉魏六朝传统的熟稔，亦见其以故为新、以熟见奇的本领，于一脉伤春传统中自成奇绝，遂成唐人警句之冠。综上，诗中典故与意象经诗人融裁，皆服务于题旨，足见其学养与手腕。用典之妙，在化用无痕，使古事与今情浑然一体，各有其命脉所系。

Commentary

The poem's power lies in its plain, repeating parallelism: flowers return, people do not. The shift to the 'white-haired old man' who was once a 'rosy youth' drives the memento-mori home without sermonizing.

此诗在初唐诗坛绮靡风气中独标清音，历来被视为叹老嗟卑、警醒世人的经典名篇，传唱不绝。相传希夷作此诗后叹其似谶，未及周岁而遇害，宋人尤袤、《唐诗纪事》皆载其说，虽涉怪异，亦足见此诗动人至深。明人胡应麟《诗薮》称初唐短调，希夷最著，谓其以清丽之笔写沉痛之怀，于上官体之外别立一体。近人论唐诗流变，每以此诗与张若虚《春江花月夜》并提，以为皆初唐歌行摆脱齐梁、转向兴象的转折点；而其年年岁岁一联，更被推为唐人警句之冠，谓其以十四字写尽宇宙与人生之对照。更有论者指出，此诗以花喻人、以今证昔的回环结构，直接启发了后世如《红楼梦》枉凝眉等伤春悲老之作。在初唐诗风流变中，此篇具有承前启后的意义：上接六朝伤逝，下开盛唐歌行，其以浅语写至悲的本领，至今仍为论诗者所重，亦为拟作所取法，影响直至明清闺情诸作。要之，此诗在文学史上影响深远，向来为论者所重，具有不可替代的地位。故后世品题此诗，多许其得体要，以为足窥作者之性情与时代之风会。

Prosody

Form English explanation is being prepared.初唐乐府歌行体（拟《白头吟》，杂言长篇，近古体）

Rhyme English explanation is being prepared.全诗随情换韵，花、家、嗟、改、在、海、风、同、翁、年、前、仙、边、丝、悲等分押不同韵部，具歌行转韵之恣。

Tone pattern English explanation is being prepared.杂言歌行，句度长短随意，不依平仄粘对，以气驱辞，存乐府古质而兼清丽。

Reading note Seven-character old-style poem (七古), flowing and song-like; the famous couplet uses near-chiasmus (年年岁岁 / 岁岁年年) for an incantatory effect.刘希夷此诗为初唐乐府歌行，句式以七言为主，间以杂言，不宜以唐人律格绳之。其体制本于汉魏乐府与六朝吴声，讲究的是回环往复、随情转韵，而非字面的平仄粘对。用韵上，它随情节段落自由换韵：写女子叹花用花、家、嗟，写老翁沦落换年、前、仙、边、丝，写歌舞地之悲落回悲，转韵处恰与情绪起伏相应，读来如闻歌者当筵一唱三叹、低回不已。平仄更不循常，句中平平仄仄全任自然，唯求声调清丽、出口有情。值得注意的是，此诗虽为歌行，而声情尤近清婉，与盛唐歌行之纵横稍异，正见初唐过渡之貌。后世论者每叹希夷以清丽之笔写沉痛之怀，其清正在声、其痛正在情，声情相得，遂成绝调。若强绳以律，反失其回环哀婉之本色，亦失初唐歌行方变齐梁、未入盛唐的特有风调，此篇正其显例。

Line by line

洛阳城东桃李花，飞来飞去落谁家。

By the east of Luoyang city the peach and plum blossoms blow; flitting to and fro, into whose garden will they fall?

洛阳城东的桃花李花，飞来飞去不知飘落谁家。

East of Luoyang the peach and plum blossoms fly, flying now here, now there - in whose yard will they fall?

起笔先布一幅洛阳春景，桃李花开本是热闹，飞来飞去却写出花之无主、落之无定，落谁家三字更把春光化为疑问，暗含漂泊无依的隐喻。这一联的好处，在以乐景起、以愁意收：花开愈盛，落处愈茫，热闹中已伏凄凉。更可玩者，花落谁家本是物理之问，诗人却用以暗指人命之飘零——青春如花，终不知落于何处。起笔即把自然之春，悄悄接上人生之秋，为后文白头之叹张本，是歌行起兴最浑成处，亦见希夷以景引情、不露痕迹的腕力，于极明媚处伏极深沉的悲。

The opening first spreads a picture of Luoyang spring; the peach and plum blooming is originally lively, yet flying now here, now there writes the flowers' having no owner and the falling's uncertainty, the three words in whose yard turning the spring into a question, secretly meta-phoring the drifting without support. The beauty of this couplet lies in opening through joyous scenery and closing through grief: the more splendid the bloom, the vaguer the falling, the desolation already hidden within the bustle. What is further to enjoy is that in whose yard will they fall is originally a question of physics, yet the poet uses it to secretly point the drifting of human life - youth like a flower, at last not knowing where it will fall. The opening at once quietly links the spring of nature to the autumn of life, laying a ground for the later sigh at the white head, the most fused place of the song's rising, and showing Xiyi's wrist of leading feeling through scenery without a trace, hiding the deepest grief at the brightest point.

年年岁岁花相似，岁岁年年人不同。

Year after year the blossoms look the same; year after year the people are not the same.

年年岁岁花开花落依旧相似，岁岁年年看花之人却已不同。

Year after year the flowers are much the same; year after year the people are not.

这是全诗的灵魂，也是传诵千古的哲理名句。年年岁岁与岁岁年年，仅字序颠倒，却写出时间的循环与人事的推移：花依时序而开落，故相似；人随岁月而老死，故不同。十四字，以最浅白的对照，道尽自然之永恒与生命之短暂这一根本悲剧。其妙在不动声色：不喊悲，不诉苦，只把花与人并置，让读者自见其残酷。更可玩者，相似与不同互为反衬，花之不变反衬人之必变，越写花之恒，越显人之脆。这一联所以能动人千载，正因其以少总多、以常写痛，把人人心中有而口中无的浩叹，凝成了十四字的定格，遂成唐人警句之冠。

This is the soul of the whole, the philosophical line renowned through the ages. Year after year and year after year, only the word order reversed, yet writing the cycle of time and the change of human affairs: the flowers bloom and fall by the season, hence the same; men grow old and die with the years, hence different. Fourteen characters, in the plainest contrast, utter the whole fundamental tragedy of nature's eternity and life's brevity. The beauty lies in the quiet: not crying grief, not complaining, but only setting the flower and the man side by side, letting the reader see the cruelty himself. What is further to enjoy is that the same and the different set off each other, the flower's unchanging setting off man's inevitable change, the more writing the flower's constancy, the more showing man's fragility. This couplet can move a thousand years precisely because it sums the many in the few and writes the pain through the constant, condensing the long sigh that all hold in the heart yet cannot speak into the fixed frame of fourteen characters, becoming the crown of Tang warning lines.

Study

Word focus

年年岁岁 / 岁岁年年 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 这八个字是此诗最惊人的炼语，也是唐人叠字对仗的绝唱。年年岁岁言时间之绵延，岁岁年年仅颠倒其序，便生出回环往复、永无休止的韵律感，仿佛时光在耳边潺潺流过。诗人不另铸新词，只把四个字调个次序，就写出了时序流转中那股推人老去、无可抗拒的力量。叠字之用，本于古诗与乐府，而希夷以此成绝对，前无古人；它既加重了咏叹的语气，又形成声音的回旋，读来如叹如诉。炼的是字序，写的是天命，落八字面全篇生色，足证初唐诗人于声情之讲求已臻化境，亦开盛唐歌行叠字之风，十四字遂成千古定格。

相似 / 不同 A key expression in the poem. Read it as an image, mood, or grammar point in context. 相似与不同是这一名联的眼目，也是哲理落点。花相似写自然之恒常：桃李依时开落，千年如一日；人不同写生命之脆变：看花者岁岁更替，红颜终成白头。二字相对，以不变衬必变，以物的永恒反逼人的短暂，悲剧性由此而生。值得玩味的是，诗人不说人老、人亡，而说不同，最含蓄也最沉痛——不同者，非止容颜，亦兼生死、遭际、盛衰之全异。炼此二词，把浩渺的宇宙感慨，收束成两个极朴素的形容词，正是浅语写至悲的典范，亦见希夷以少胜多、以常见奇的本领，十四字以最浅白之对照写最深沉之浩叹，遂能动人千载而不衰。