All poems

唐 Tang · 诗 Poem

劳劳亭

The Laolao Pavilion

李白

Li Bai

送别Farewell 羁旅Life on the road

天下伤心处，劳劳送客亭。
春风知别苦，不遣柳条青。

The saddest spot beneath the sky
Is the Laolao Pavilion where guests are seen off.
The spring wind knows the bitterness of parting,
And will not let the willow branches turn green.

Listen

Meaning

Li Bai turns an ordinary farewell pavilion into the emblem of parting sorrow. The opening line names Laolao Pavilion the saddest place under heaven, and the closing couplet gives the poem its unforgettable twist: the spring wind, knowing how parting hurts, refuses to let the willows turn green, so that no one will have to break a twig to say goodbye. The poem's power lies in this impossible yet perfect fancy, where grief is so deep that even nature conspires to postpone the spring of departure.

天下最令人伤心的地方，就是这劳劳送客的长亭。春风似乎也懂得离别的痛苦，特意不肯把柳条吹得发青。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The saddest place in all the world is this pavilion, the Laolao Pavilion where travelers are farewelled. The spring wind understands the pain of parting, and so it will not allow the willow twigs to grow green. [Structure] The poem is built on a bold progression. The first line makes a sweeping, superlative claim — the saddest place under heaven — and the second anchors it in a specific place, the Laolao Pavilion. The third line personifies the spring wind as one who understands parting, and the fourth gives that personification its striking consequence: no green willows, and therefore no broken willow branch at parting. [Imagery and Technique] The key is the impossible yet perfect conceit. In Tang custom, breaking a willow twig at farewell was the standard gesture, since willow sounds like to remain. By having the wind keep the willows bare, Li Bai inverts the custom: there will be nothing to break because there should be no parting at all. What looks like a whimsical paradox is the purest expression of grief.

【白话串讲】李白写《劳劳亭》：“天下伤心处，劳劳送客亭”——劳劳亭是天下最伤心的地方。“春风知别苦，不遣柳条青”——春风知道离别苦，不让柳条变青——连柳树都不忍送别。【意象与手法】此诗借古乐府曲名《劳劳亭》为题，以送别之所起笔，极写别情之深。起句「天下伤心处」以总冒法立骨，气魄阔大，将一座普通的长亭升华为天下离愁的汇聚之所；次句点出「劳劳送客亭」，古音「劳劳」即惆怅忧伤之意，叠字与亭名相映成趣。后两句翻空出奇，将春风拟人化：「知别苦」三字赋予无情的春风以有情的心灵，「不遣柳条青」更是反用折柳送别之俗——柳条不青，则无人可折柳赠别，仿佛天地万物都在替离别者遮掩悲伤。全诗短短二十字，由实入虚、由物及情，以「春风不遣柳青」这一出人意料的反写，把离愁写到骨子里，是李白绝句中以情驭景、无理而妙的典型。【情感与主旨】此诗作于天宝年间李白客居金陵时期，金陵城南有劳劳亭，为古代送别之所。诗人借送客亭这一常见意象，抒写天涯行役、聚散无常的离愁别恨。与一般送别诗直抒胸臆不同，此诗妙在把主观情感投射到春风之上，不说自己不忍折柳相送，反说春风怕人伤心而故意不使柳青，以物之有情反衬离情之深，愈转愈奇、愈奇愈苦。其中既有对友情的珍重，也有李白一生漂泊、屡经离别的身世之感，读来令人低回不已。【名句点睛】常考「春风知别苦，不遣柳条青」的拟人手法与无理而妙之趣，以及「天下伤心处」以总冒句起笔、直抵主题的写法；同时注意「劳劳」叠字的情感色彩，与折柳送别的文化传统相勾连。

Background

The Laolao Pavilion stood south of Jinling (present-day Nanjing), the ancient capital on the Yangtze. Established during the Three Kingdoms period of Wu, it took its name from the old yuefu song Laolao Qu, in which laolao means sorrowful and weary of parting, and it served for centuries as the city's most famous farewell spot. Li Bai visited Jinling repeatedly during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, especially after his departure from court in 744, and the pavilion's accumulated centuries of partings gave him a ready-made symbol. The custom of breaking willow branches at farewell, and the pavilion's own sorrowful name, supplied the twin traditions that this twenty-character poem transforms.

劳劳亭，故址在今江苏南京市南郊，是六朝以来金陵城南著名的送别之地。三国吴时于此设亭，供行人憩息饯别，因《劳劳曲》古乐府名而得名，唐人诗文中多以此亭为送别伤离的象征。李白于唐玄宗开元、天宝年间多次往来金陵，尤以天宝年间赐金放还后客居金陵时期最为频繁。此时李白已看透朝堂的虚伪，转而纵情山水、广交游、重然诺，金陵作为当时东南形胜、商旅辐辏之地，正是诗人迎来送往、聚散离合的人生舞台。劳劳亭前，李白不知送走过多少友人，也无数次作为行者告别金陵。唐人行旅以舟船为主，金陵襟江带淮，舟楫往来如织，渡口长亭便成为离情最集中的处所。此诗正是李白在金陵送客时所作，借劳劳亭这一特殊空间，将个人离别体验升华为普天下共同的离愁。值得注意的是，唐人折柳送别本为习俗，柳与「留」谐音，折柳相赠寓意挽留；诗人却反其道而行之，说春风「不遣柳条青」，正是要在这个约定俗成的意象上翻出新意，以此表现离愁之深——连春风都不忍让柳条青翠供人攀折，可见别苦已浸润天地。此诗虽仅二十字，却浓缩了李白对人间别离最深的体察，其构思之新、用情之深，在历代送别诗中独树一帜，被后世推为「题亭送别」题材的绝唱。

Art

The poem's art is compression and inversion. In twenty characters it completes a full arc: a superlative claim, a specific location, a personification, and an impossible action. The impossible yet perfect logic is the soul of the poem: the spring wind, a mindless force of nature, is credited with compassion, and its compassion takes the paradoxical form of withholding spring itself. Li Bai also layers sound and sense: the doubled laolao in the pavilion's name echoes like a sigh. Nothing is stated directly; every effect comes through the wind and the willow, making this small poem a perfect demonstration of the five-character quatrain's power.

此诗的艺术匠心主要体现在三个方面。其一，总冒法与空间经营。起句「天下伤心处」不作任何铺垫，劈空而出，以最高级的情感判断为全诗立骨，把一座具体的长亭推向「天下」这一无限时空，先声夺人；第二句「劳劳送客亭」才落回实处，点明题目，一虚一实、一总一分，章法极见功力。其二，无理而妙的拟人。后两句「春风知别苦，不遣柳条青」是全诗的灵魂。春风本是自然之物，不知人情，诗人却偏说它「知别苦」，并且「不遣柳条青」——柳条不青，则春色未浓，折柳赠别便无从谈起。这看似悖于物理、不合常情，却正是「无理而妙」的诗学真谛：正因为春风被写成通晓人情、体恤离愁，才反衬出人间离别的痛苦深到连无情的自然都要回避。其三，以乐写哀的反衬。全诗无一字直说「悲」，但「伤心」「别苦」二词层层递进；尤其结句「不遣柳条青」，在春日将临的生机里硬生生掐断一抹青色，以春景之缺反写离愁之满，哀而不伤、余味无穷。李白绝句善用虚字与翻空语，此诗即典型：二十字中，起句总冒、次句点题、三句转奇、四句收束，起承转合无一处松懈，堪称五绝章法的完美示范。

Allusions

Two traditions converge here. First, the pavilion itself: the old yuefu Laolao Qu and the long history of Jinling's farewell pavilion made Laolao a byword for the sorrow of parting. Second, the willow: breaking a willow twig at farewell was a Tang custom, willow being a homophone for to remain, so the gesture meant stay. The poem's audacity is its reversal of that custom: rather than breaking a branch to say goodbye, the wind refuses to grow the branch at all. The opening line's claim also echoes the long tradition of farewell writing from the Li Sao and Jiang Yan's Fu of Parting onward, gathering centuries of parting sorrow into a single pavilion.

此诗用典与民俗均围绕「送别」展开。「劳劳亭」之名本身即含典故：古乐府有《劳劳曲》，「劳劳」古义为惆怅忧伤之貌，后世遂以「劳劳」代指离别之愁，李白化用亭名，一石二鸟，既点明地点，又暗含离忧。「送客亭」呼应古代长亭送别制度，秦汉以来十里一亭、五里一邮，供行旅歇息，后世「长亭送别」遂成为文学中离别的重要场景。「折柳送别」是唐诗中最重要的离别民俗意象：《诗经·小雅·采薇》已有「昔我往矣，杨柳依依」，汉代《三辅黄图》载灞桥折柳赠别，唐人更有「柳条折尽花飞尽，借问行人归不归」之句，柳与「留」谐音，折柳即寓挽留之意。此诗妙处正在于对这一熟典的反用：一般折柳是惜别挽留，诗人却写春风不让柳条发青，让人连折柳的机会都没有，将「想留而不能留」的绝望写到极致。此外，「伤心」二字暗承江淹《别赋》「黯然销魂者，唯别而已矣」的文学传统，以「天下伤心处」总括千古别情，使这一处亭台凝聚起自《楚辞》以来的全部离愁，用典而不着痕迹，融典于情，正见李白化用传统、推陈出新的大家手笔。

Commentary

This poem has long been treated as the supreme Tang poem of the pavilion farewell theme. The Ming critics Zhong Xing and Tan Yuanchun wrote that its first line carries infinite sorrow the moment it is read, and the Qing critic Shen Deqian observed that the poem's whole design lies in its final couplet, where spring scenery and parting sorrow are locked together. In the lineage of farewell poetry it stands between Wang Wei's warm urging and Li Shangyin's tangled longing, yet it is unique in refusing to describe the farewell itself: instead of wine, words, or tears, it shows only the wind and the un-greened willow, using landscape to carry emotion.

此诗历来被视为李白绝句中「以无理之语写至深之情」的代表作。明人钟惺、谭元春《唐诗归》评此诗云：「天下伤心处，读之便有无限伤心。」清人沈德潜《唐诗别裁》更称其「命意全在末二句」，「不遣柳条青」五字，将春景与别情相扭结，以反常之笔写常态之情，遂成千古名句。从送别诗的发展脉络看，此诗上承王维「劝君更尽一杯酒，西出阳关无故人」的深情叮咛，下开李商隐「相见时难别亦难」的缠绵悱恻，但别具一格之处在于它不写眼前宴饮，不写临别赠言，而是把镜头对准春日的柳条，以景写情、以物传心，别开生面。历代选本如《唐绝句选》《万首唐人绝句》均收录此诗，其在民间亦广为传诵，可见其艺术生命力。此诗在李白集中的特殊价值在于：它集中体现了太白绝句「清新俊逸」与「蕴藉沉挚」两面中的后者——世人多知李白豪放飘逸的一面，而此诗证明李白写离愁同样能够婉转入微、情深一往。对于今人而言，此诗又提供了一个理解「情景交融」「无理而妙」这些古典诗学概念的最佳范本：短短二十字间，情感之深、构思之巧、语言之炼，都达到了五言绝句的极致，读之再三，味之愈永。

Prosody

Form A five-character quatrain in the ancient style五言绝句（古体，押平声韵）

Rhyme The poem rhymes on ting (pavilion) and qing (green), both in the level-tone qing rhyme group. The first line ends on the oblique-tone chu and does not rhyme, following the pattern of a non-rhyming first line. The two rhymes are bright and prolonged, yet their clarity contrasts with the sorrowful content, producing the poem's characteristic tension.押下平九青韵，韵脚为「亭」「青」。首句「处」字仄声不入韵，「处」属去声六御韵，与韵脚「青」不同部，属首句不入韵之格。两个韵脚「亭」「青」皆为青部字，韵音清越悠长，正与离愁的低回相谐。

Tone pattern The tonal pattern roughly follows the five-character quatrain: level-oblique-level-level-oblique, level-level-oblique-level-level, level-level-oblique-oblique-oblique, oblique-oblique-oblique-level-level. The doubled laolao is all level tone and lingers like a sigh, while the first line's closing oblique tone gives a heavy cadence against the level endings of the following lines.天下伤心处，平仄平平仄；劳劳送客亭，平平仄仄平；春风知别苦，平平平仄仄；不遣柳条青，仄仄仄平平。全诗平仄大体合于五绝格律，但「劳劳」二字叠用，皆平声，音节舒缓绵长；首句以仄声「处」字收，顿挫有力，与后三句平收形成对比，诵读时自有一股沉郁顿挫之气。

Reading note Although cast in five-character quatrain form, the poem follows Li Bai's habit of writing freely rather than strictly observing the tonal rules of regulated verse. Its four lines are independent yet progressive: the first makes the sweeping claim, the second names the place, the third personifies the wind, and the fourth delivers the paradox. The title borrows the old yuefu name of the pavilion, so the poem wears the frank body of a music-bureau song in the compact shape of a quatrain, fusing the directness of yuefu with the concentration of recent-style verse.此诗虽以五绝形式写成，但李白之作多率意任情，不尽守近体粘对之规，此诗亦然。全诗二十字，四句各自独立又层层递进：起句以「天下」总冒，气象阔大；次句点题，声情并茂；三四句转出奇境，由实入虚。在声律上，押平声青韵，韵脚清亮，而句内平仄多拗，尤以「劳劳」叠平、「不遣」仄仄相续为特色，读来拗峭而不失流畅，正见李白以古入律、不主故常的作风。就体式而言，此诗题用乐府旧题「劳劳亭」（南朝乐府有《劳劳曲》），实则以近体五绝之形行乐府言情之实，将乐府的真率质朴与近体的凝练含蓄熔为一炉，是其绝句「大巧若拙」的又一例证。吟诵时，宜以低沉舒缓的语调诵读前两句，于「伤心」「劳劳」处加重语气；后两句转入轻柔婉转，突出「知别苦」「不遣」的拟人意味，使春日的生机与离别的愁绪在声调起伏间交错呈现。

Line by line

天下伤心处，劳劳送客亭。

The saddest spot beneath the sky is this Laolao Pavilion where guests are seen off.

天下最令人伤心的地方，就是这劳劳送客的长亭。

The most heart-breaking place under heaven is this Laolao Pavilion, where we speed the parting guest.

这两句以总冒起笔，劈空而下，先以「天下伤心处」五字定下全诗的悲剧基调，把一座具体的长亭推向无限的时空，仿佛普天之下的离愁都集中在这一处；随即以「劳劳送客亭」落回实处，点明题目。妙处在「劳劳」二字：它既是亭名，又是叠字状情的形容词，古义即惆怅忧伤之貌，亭名与离愁天然重合，读来顿生「一亭一泪」之感。两句一总一分、一虚一实，「天下」极言其大，「劳劳」极言其苦，大与苦相对照，更显得这小小亭台承载着人间最沉重的别绪。而「送客」二字又暗中点出诗人的身份与处境——他不是路过此地，而是身处送别的现场，亲眼看着友人离去，故其伤心乃是有切身体验的伤心，非泛泛抒写。起句即已情满天地，为后文翻空出奇蓄足了势。

These two lines open with a sweeping preamble, cleaving the air, first fixing the poem's tragic tone in the five words 'the most heart-breaking place under heaven', pushing a concrete pavilion into infinite time and space, as if all the world's grief of parting were gathered at this one spot; then 'this Laolao Pavilion, where we speed the parting guest' returns to the fact, naming the title. The beauty lies in 'Laolao': it is both the pavilion's name and a doubled adjective for the mood, the old meaning of wistful sorrow, the name and the grief naturally coinciding, the reader feeling at once 'one pavilion, one tear'. One line sweeping, one line particular, one virtual one real, 'under heaven' the extreme of breadth, 'Laolao' the extreme of grief, breadth against grief, making the small pavilion carry the world's heaviest parting. And 'speed the parting' secretly names the poet's own state — he is not passing through, but standing in the scene of farewell, watching the friend leave, so his grief is the grief of experience, not a generic utterance. The opening already fills heaven and earth with feeling, storing momentum for the fantasy below.

春风知别苦，不遣柳条青。

The spring wind knows the bitterness of parting and will not let the willow branches turn green.

春风似乎也懂得离别的痛苦，特意不肯把柳条吹得发青。

The spring wind knows the pain of parting; it will not let the willow branches turn green.

这两句是全诗的点睛之笔，妙在「无理而妙」。按常理，春风一吹，柳条自然泛青，这是再平常不过的自然现象；诗人却偏说春风「知别苦」，故「不遣柳条青」——把无情的春风写成通晓离愁的仁者，把柳条的发青与否说成春风的有意安排。这样写看似悖于物理，实则合乎人情：正因为离别的痛苦深到极致，诗人才会想象连春风都不忍心让柳条青翠——柳条不青，则无人折柳相送，离别便仿佛不曾发生。这一反写，将诗人不忍离别、不愿面对离别的心理，通过春风与柳条的对话曲折传出，比直说「不忍折柳」更深一层。同时，「柳条青」暗扣折柳赠别的民俗，柳与「留」谐音，青柳本应系住行人的衣袖，如今柳不青，连最后一点挽留的凭借都被剥夺，绝望之情见于言外。以春景写别情，以无情写有情，愈转愈深，余韵不尽。

These two lines are the eye of the poem, the art of 'unreasoning yet exquisite'. By ordinary reason, when the spring wind blows, the willow branches naturally turn green, the commonest thing; yet the poet says the spring wind 'knows the pain of parting', and therefore 'will not let the willow branches turn green' — writing the feelingless spring wind as a sage who knows the grief of parting, and making the greening of the branches the wind's deliberate arrangement. This seems against physics, yet true to human feeling: precisely because the pain of parting is at its utmost, the poet imagines even the spring wind cannot bear to let the branches turn green — if the branches are not green, no one will break a willow to speed the guest, and the parting will seem never to have happened. This reversed writing transmits the poet's inability to bear parting, his refusal to face it, through the dialogue of wind and willow, one layer deeper than a plain 'I cannot bear to break the willow'. And 'the willow branches turn green' secretly touches the folk custom of breaking the willow at parting, the willow sounding like 'to stay'; the green willow should hold the traveler's sleeve, yet now the willow is not green, and even the last hold on parting is taken away, the despair between the lines. Writing parting grief through spring scenery, writing feeling through the feelingless, turning deeper and deeper, the aftersound unending.

Study

Word focus

劳劳 Laolao — the pavilion's name and also an old word for the weariness and sorrow of parting; the doubled syllable echoes like a sigh, letting the place name itself carry emotion. 「劳劳」二字是全诗的题眼，也是一处精妙的双关。它本是劳劳亭的亭名，但古义为惆怅忧伤、劳神伤心之貌，《玉台新咏》古诗有「举手长劳劳，二情同依依」之句，正以「劳劳」状离别时心神劳瘁的情态。李白于此将亭名与词义熔铸为一：读者初读以为只是点名，细品则离愁扑面，亭名即情语，一语双关，浑然无迹。叠字的使用亦见功力——「劳劳」二字叠出，音节低回往复，如叹息之声，读来倍觉惆怅。此外，亭名「劳劳」与下一句「送客」相衔接，劳劳之亭、劳劳之人、劳劳之情三者叠映，一个叠字将地名、人物、情感全部笼罩其中，正是李白炼字而不见炼字痕迹的高妙之处。若换成「离离」「凄凄」等其他叠字，则失其双关之妙，可见此字不可移易。

不遣 Will not send, will not allow — the wind is imagined as a willful agent that withholds spring's green from the willows out of pity for those who part. 「不遣」二字是后两句翻空出奇的关键，妙在主动与被动之间。遣，意为派遣、使令；「不遣柳条青」字面意思是春风不肯派遣柳条发青，实则暗写诗人对自然的一种「哀求式的想象」——他希望柳条不要青，希望春天慢一点来，希望离别不要发生。一个「遣」字把春风写成有意志的主体，仿佛它全知全能，懂得人间别苦，特意行使它支配草木的权柄来体恤离人。这一写法将抽象的情感具象化为春风的行为，把「不忍别」的心理外化为「柳不青」的景象，无理而妙、无理而情深。同时，「不遣」与上句「知」相呼应：因为「知」，所以「不遣」，因果相承，逻辑虽悖于物理，情感却顺理成章。二字看似轻描淡写，实则重逾千钧，把全诗的情感推向了高潮，也使这首二十字的小诗成为千古送别绝唱。

劳劳亭