和晋陵陆丞早春游望

Meaning

A wandering official greets the new spring with a start, then finds that the more vivid the season, the sharper his homesickness; a tune heard at the outing releases the longing until his kerchief is wet with tears. Transmitted under Wei Yingwu's name, the poem matches Lu Cheng's early spring outing poem and stands very close in wording to Du Shenyan's celebrated poem on the same title.

独有宦游人偏惊物候新云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] Only the wanderer in office is startled anew by each shift of the seasons. Dawn clouds and light rise from the sea; plum and willow carry spring across the river. The mild air hurries the orioles; the clear sunlight shines on the green duckweed. Then, suddenly, a bitter tune is heard, and thoughts of home are enough to soak the kerchief. [Structure] The regulated-verse arc is complete: thesis in the opening couplet, three couplets of spring scenery, emotional release in the closing couplet. [Imagery] The dawn clouds over the sea and the plum and willow crossing the river give spring motion and continental scale; the shining light on the duckweed is a quieter, more stationary image than the turning duckweed of the parallel version, and the bitter tune heard at the end deepens the note of sorrow.

【白话串讲】 韦应物写《和晋陵陆丞早春游望》：“独有宦游人，偏惊物候新”——“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”——“淑气催黄鸟，晴光照绿苹”——“忽闻歌苦调，归思欲沾巾”——他写早春——偏惊物候新。 【意象与手法】 “独有宦游人，偏惊物候新”写宦游惊物候；“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”写云霞梅柳；“淑气催黄鸟，晴光照绿苹”写淑气晴光；结以“忽闻歌苦调，归思欲沾巾”写归思沾巾。明丽早春。 【情感与主旨】 韦应物和早春游望之作，写宦游见早春物候而触发归思，与杜审言同题之作相近，是写早春游望的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“云霞出海曙，梅柳渡江春”写早春之景；“淑气催黄鸟，晴光照绿苹”写淑气催黄鸟。

Allusions

The references follow the conventions of spring-outing poetry. The wanderer in office is the stock figure of the uprooted official; the turning seasons are the solar terms and seasonal signs felt most sharply far from home. The yellow oriole and green duckweed are the standard vocabulary of early spring. The tune heard at the outing is the friend Lu's poem, heard as a melody; in this version the adjective bitter gives the melody an explicit tone of sorrow, and wetting the kerchief is the classical expression of homesickness so deep it soaks the sleeve. The opening phrase about the wanderer startled by the seasons echoes the famous line of Du Shenyan's poem on the same title, one of the permanent themes of Chinese poetry.

诗中「独有宦游人偏惊物候新」「云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春」「淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹」「忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾」等语，皆含典故故实。「独有宦游人偏惊物候新」写独有宦游人偏惊物候新；「云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春」写云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春；「淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹」写淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹；「忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾」写忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾。诗人以云霞、梅柳等语入诗，不着痕迹，而把早春游望之情写得真切可感，是善于熔铸典故的体现。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。此等用典之法，熔铸古今而不着痕迹，既不炫博以示学，亦不拘泥于旧解，正见诗人学养之深与运思之巧。读者于此等处尤当细心玩味，方能领会其言外之旨与味外之味。

Commentary

This version of the poem is chiefly interesting as a case of textual transmission: the same early spring outing answer poem circulated under two names, Wei Yingwu's and Du Shenyan's, with two telling variants. Where Du Shenyan's version has the clear light turns the green duckweed and the old tune, this version shines on the duckweed and bitter tune, small changes that soften the third couplet's dynamism and sharpen the last couplet's sorrow. Anthologies have always preferred the Du Shenyan text, but the Wei Yingwu transmission shows how regulated verses circulated, were adapted, and reattributed in the Tang. Read together, the two versions are a lesson in how a few characters can alter a poem's whole complexion.

这首《和晋陵陆丞早春游望》，是韦应物写早春游望之作，写独有宦游人、云霞出海曙、淑气催黄鸟、归思欲沾巾之情，明丽早春。起「独有宦游人偏惊物候新」——独有宦游人偏惊物候新。写独有宦游人：独有宦游人、偏惊物候新——宦游人、物候新；「云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春」——云霞出海曙梅柳渡江春。写云霞出海曙：云霞出海曙、梅柳渡江春——出海曙、渡江春；「淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹」——淑气催黄鸟晴光照绿苹。写淑气催黄鸟：淑气催黄鸟、晴光照绿苹——催黄鸟、照绿苹；结「忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾」——忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾。写归思欲沾巾：忽闻歌苦调、归思欲沾巾——歌苦调、欲沾巾。这「忽闻歌苦调归思欲沾巾」，是全诗之结：以归思欲沾巾写其游望。全诗明丽早春，以春写情，正是韦应物诗中的名篇。综观全诗，情真、景切、理深，三者浑融无迹，故能于短短数语之中寄无限深意，令人百读不厌。其含蓄蕴藉之处，正是中国古典诗歌以少总多、言有尽而意无穷的美学精神的生动体现。

Prosody

Line by line

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