PoemBridge
Start learning
All poems

元 Yuan · 曲 Qu song

醉高歌·感怀

Zuigaoge: Reflections on Life

姚燧

Yao Sui

十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影。
西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景。
荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并。
人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省？
岸边烟柳苍苍，江上寒波漾漾。
阳关旧曲低低唱，只恐行人断肠。
十年旧剑长吁，一曲琵琶暗许。
月明江上别湓浦，愁听兰舟夜雨。

Ten years of song beneath the moon of Yan;
a few white specks of frost in my hair.
The west wind wakes the longing for the perch of home —
yet I am already at the edge of dusk.
Rise and fall, watched from the pillow at midnight;
all four delights of the puppet stall.
Life is an illusion, is a bubble's shadow:
who, in peril, examines himself?
The misty willows on the bank are dark;
the cold waves on the river heave;
the old tune of Yangguan is sung low,
lest the departing traveller break his heart.
Ten years of an old sword, a long sigh;
a pipa melody, secretly pledged.
Parting at Penpu under the moonlit river,
listening, sadly, to the night rain in the orchid boat.
Listen

Meaning

A retired official looks back on ten years of capital life and finds only frost in his hair and illusions in his memory. The west wind, which in the old story means a longing for home, arrives too late: he is already at the edge of life's evening. Success and decline have been watched like a puppet show, and life is as empty as a bubble's shadow, so the poem asks who, in fact, ever examines himself in time. The second half turns to what is left — misty willows, cold waves, a low farewell air sung for travelling friends, an old sword sighed over, a plaintive pipa, a parting at a riverside under moonlight, and a night rain heard in a boat.

十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影。西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景。荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并。人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省？岸边烟柳苍苍，江上寒波漾漾。阳关旧曲低低唱，只恐行人断肠。十年旧剑长吁，一曲琵琶暗许。月明江上别湓浦，愁听兰舟夜雨。

Appreciation

[Plain Paraphrase] The first stanza is a summary of a life: ten years of singing under northern moons, a head turned white, an old age arrived before the homecoming, all the fortunes of the world watched from a pillow at midnight, and the conclusion that life is a phantom. The second stanza abandons the summary and gives the poet's actual surroundings — river, willows, a farewell song, a boat in the rain — which are what remain when ambition has evaporated.<br>[Structure] The poem is formally a pair of stanzas of unequal weight, and the hinge is the rhetorical question in the middle: who, in peril, examines himself? Everything before it is meditation, everything after it is scene. That sudden turn from argument to landscape is the poem's most striking artifice.<br>[Imagery] The images of the second half are all associated with parting — willows, the Yangguan tune, the orchid boat, the night rain — so that the poem's philosophy of illusion is delivered against a background that is itself farewell. The word pictures are ordinary and slightly faded, which is exactly right: they are the scenery of a man who has lived and lost.

【白话串讲】 姚燧写《醉高歌·感怀》：“十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影”——“西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景”——“荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并”——“人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省”——“阳关旧曲低低唱，只恐行人断肠”——他写感怀——人生幻化如泡影。 【意象与手法】 “十年燕月歌声、几点吴霜鬓影”写十年燕月歌声；“西风吹起鲈鱼兴、已在桑榆暮景”写西风吹起鲈鱼兴；“荣枯枕上三更、傀儡场头四并”写荣枯枕上三更；结以“人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省”写那个临危自省。苍凉叹逝。 【情感与主旨】 姚燧写感怀叹逝之作，写十年燕月歌声与人生幻化如泡影的感慨，是姚燧曲中的名篇。 【名句点睛】 常考“十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影”写岁月之叹；“人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省”写人生幻化。

Background

Yao Sui (1238–1313), styled Duanfu and called Muyuan, was a Luoyang-born official and man of letters who served in the secretariat of the early Yuan and rose to Grand Academician, a post he owed largely to the patronage of the prince who became Chengzong. The Sanqu 'Zuigaoge' on reflection on life is one of the few of his lyrics to survive widely, and it is typical of the Yuan docus that it mixes high official memory with the vocabulary of retirement. The scenes of boats, rain and willows are the standard equipment of Yuan cy of the southern school.

《醉高歌·感怀》为元代文人姚燧所作曲。姚燧（1238—1313），字端甫，号牧庵，洛阳人，元代文学家，官至翰林学士承旨。此曲写感怀叹逝，为咏怀之作。曲中「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」写十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影；「西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景」写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景；「荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并」写荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并；「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」写人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省。姚燧此曲以感怀叹逝、那个临危自省写其叹逝之情，苍凉叹逝，是姚燧曲中的名篇。此篇《醉高歌·感怀》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。此篇《醉高歌·感怀》在历代选本中多被收录，其艺术价值与流传之广，正可见此诗在同类题材中的重要地位。诗人以匠心独运之笔写寻常之情事，遂使此作历千载而犹有生气，为后人所称赏不绝。

Art

The poem's main technique is the accumulation of allusions so densely that they behave like images rather than like scholarship: in a short lyric it can name the perch of home, the puppet stall, the bubble, the Yangguan air, the pipa, Penpu, and the orchid boat, and the reader is expected to recognise each rather than to examine it. The second device is the change of register between the two stanzas, from the abstract (life is a phantom, who examines himself) to the concrete (willows, waves, a boat in the rain), which leaves the poem to be closed by scenery rather than by argument. A third is the recurrence of 'ten years' — twice — which converts an abstraction into a measure of a particular man's time, and of the poem's regret.

此曲艺术上以「苍凉叹逝、以幻写情」见长。全曲由十年燕月歌声而西风吹起鲈鱼兴而荣枯枕上三更。起「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」写十年燕月歌声：十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影；「西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景」写西风吹起鲈鱼兴：西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景；「荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并」写荣枯枕上三更：荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并；结「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」写那个临危自省：人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省。全曲以幻写情，由十年燕月歌声而那个临危自省，苍凉叹逝，是姚燧曲中的名篇。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。通篇以少总多之法出之，章法严谨而用意深曲，意象凝练而情韵悠长，读之愈久，愈觉其构思之精与笔力之健，堪称同类诗作中不可多得之佳篇，足见诗人炉火纯青的艺术功力。

Allusions

The compressed references carry the poem. The west wind and the perch belong to the story of an official who saw the wind rise in Luoyang, thought of the perch soup of home, and went back; the poem borrows the image and then denies it by adding that he was already at dusk. The puppet stall belongs to the idea that public life is a show, and the four delights gathered there are the four pleasures that the stage is said to offer. The bubble's shadow is the image of emptiness from the Diamond Sutra. The old air of Yangguan is the farewell tune of the western frontier. Penpu is the river mouth outside Jiujiang where the great poet of the Tang parted with a friend; and the orchid boat is the gilt-prowed boat of the southern song tradition. Nothing is explained, and none of it needs to be.

曲中「十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影」「西风吹起鲈鱼兴已在桑榆暮景」「荣枯枕上三更傀儡场头四并」「人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省」等语，皆含典故故实。「十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影」用燕月、吴霜之典（燕月写京都，吴霜写风霜），写十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影；「西风吹起鲈鱼兴已在桑榆暮景」用鲈鱼之典（鲈鱼写思归），写西风吹起鲈鱼兴已在桑榆暮景；「荣枯枕上三更傀儡场头四并」用傀儡之典（傀儡写人生如戏），写荣枯枕上三更傀儡场头四并；「人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省」用泡影之典（泡影写人生虚幻），写人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省。曲人用鲈鱼、傀儡、泡影之典入曲，不着痕迹，而把感怀叹逝之情写得真切可感，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。

Commentary

The lyric is read as a representative piece of the Yuan docus of disenchantment: it turns on the same comparison that Song and Yuan poets kept making between public ambition and emptiness, and it does so without the philosophical apparatus of the Song. Its reputation rests less on any single line than on its proportion — a short stanza of meditation and then eleven lines of scenery — and readers have long noted that the ending refuses to resolve the argument it has just made. It is usually printed with 'Prelude to Water Melody' and 'Eight Beats of a Galloping Horse', which have the same habit of beginning in landscape and arriving at self-indictment.

这首《醉高歌·感怀》，是姚燧写感怀叹逝之作，写十年燕月歌声、西风吹起鲈鱼兴、荣枯枕上三更、那个临危自省之情，苍凉叹逝。起「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」——十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影。写十年燕月歌声：十年燕月歌声、几点吴霜鬓影——燕月歌声、吴霜鬓影；「西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景」——西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景。写西风吹起鲈鱼兴：西风吹起鲈鱼兴、已在桑榆暮景——鲈鱼兴、桑榆暮景；「荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并」——荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并。写荣枯枕上三更：荣枯枕上三更、傀儡场头四并——枕上三更、场头四并；结「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」——人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省。写那个临危自省：人生幻化如泡影、那个临危自省——如泡影、自省。这「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」，是全曲之结：以那个临危自省写其叹逝。全曲苍凉叹逝，以幻写情，正是姚燧曲中的名篇。

Prosody

Form Yuan docus of the tune Zuigaoge (a short lyric in the central-flute mode)曲（散曲·中吕·醉高歌）
Rhyme The lyric rhymes in the oblique tone of the qing/ling group and again in the same series: white, dusk, and later willows, waves and rain. The chosen rhymes are the dark, closing ones, and the change of rhyme in the second half opens the poem out towards the river scenes.此曲为散曲，属中吕宫【醉高歌】曲牌。押韵：「影」「景」「省」「唱」「许」「雨」等部。句式长短错落，衬字自然，正与写感怀叹逝的苍凉叹逝相称，也见其以散曲写叹逝的灵动。
Tone pattern The first stanza speaks slowly and coolly, as a summary; the rhetorical question is the only sharp inflection; and the second stanza relaxes into the tone of a farewell, softer at the willows and heavier at the rain.句式上，「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」写十年燕月歌声，音节苍凉；「西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景」写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，音节沉郁；「荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并」写荣枯枕上三更，音节低回；结「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」写那个临危自省，音节冷峻。全曲音节随情起伏，由苍凉而沉郁、由低回而冷峻，正合散曲「灵动」之妙，读来如感怀叹逝、那个临危自省之音，苍凉而动人。
Reading note The lyric is a formal sanqu with fixed line-places, but its music is that of speech — a man talking to himself at night. The rhyme is the element that carries the mood, since nearly every rhyme-word is dark and strung; the reader should notice how the long line of the river stanzas is held by the rhyme on willows, waves and rain. Recitation should be unhurried and without emphasis: the poem's regret is expressed by the plainness of the voice, and the effect comes from the sound of the rhymes arriving one after another rather than from anything said at the end.此曲为散曲，是姚燧写感怀叹逝之作，也是其曲中的名篇。全曲的艺术特色在于「苍凉叹逝、以幻写情」：「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」写十年燕月歌声、「西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景」写西风吹起鲈鱼兴、「荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并」写荣枯枕上三更、「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」写那个临危自省。全曲苍凉叹逝，以幻写情。尤为精妙者，是「西风吹起鲈鱼兴」用鲈鱼之典；而「人生幻化如泡影」用泡影之典，正是姚燧曲「苍凉叹逝」的典范，为历代选本所常收。《醉高歌·感怀》一诗之所以读来声情并茂，正在于诗人以声韵配合情思、以节奏烘托意境，音节之长短、平仄之起伏，皆与诗意相为表里，此亦可见中国古典诗歌声律之美与匠心之工。

Line by line

十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影。

Ten years of song beneath the moon of Yan; a few white specks of frost in my hair.

十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影。

Ten years of Yan-land moonsong; a few touches of Wu-land frost on the temples.

起句写十年燕月歌声，起笔即见其十年。「十年燕月歌声」用燕月之典写十年燕月歌声，「十年燕月」写十年燕月、「歌声」写歌声；「几点吴霜鬓影」用吴霜之典写几点吴霜鬓影，「几点吴霜」写几点吴霜、「鬓影」写鬓影。一句写十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影，以十年燕月歌声写歌声、以几点吴霜鬓影写鬓影，写尽十年燕月歌声、几点吴霜鬓影之情。以燕起兴，苍凉而叹逝，是「以燕起兴」的妙笔。

The opening writes the ten years: 'ten years of Yan-land moonsong' the ten years' singing; 'a few touches of Wu-land frost on the temples' the graying hair. Yan as springboard, bleak and mourning the years - a fine stroke.

西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景。

The west wind wakes the longing for the perch of home — yet I am already at the edge of dusk.

西风吹起鲈鱼兴，已在桑榆暮景。

The west wind stirs the perch-herring longing; already I am in the sunset of my years.

此句写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，是全曲写鲈鱼之态的关键。「西风吹起鲈鱼兴」用鲈鱼之典写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，「西风吹起」写西风吹起、「鲈鱼兴」写鲈鱼兴；「已在桑榆暮景」写已在桑榆暮景，「已在桑榆」写已在桑榆、「暮景」写暮景。一句写西风吹起鲈鱼兴已在桑榆暮景，以西风吹起鲈鱼兴写鲈鱼兴、以已在桑榆暮景写暮景，写尽西风吹起鲈鱼兴、已在桑榆暮景之情。以风写情，苍凉而叹逝，是「以风写情」的点睛之笔。

This line writes the perch longing: 'the west wind stirs the perch-herring longing' - the homeward thought; 'already I am in the sunset of my years' - life's dusk. Writing feeling through wind, bleak and mourning the years - the telling stroke.

荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并。

Rise and fall, watched from the pillow at midnight; all four delights of the puppet stall.

荣枯枕上三更，傀儡场头四并。

Rise and fall, on the pillow at the third watch; the four blessings together, on the puppet stage.

此句写荣枯枕上三更，是全曲写荣枯之态的关键。「荣枯枕上三更」写荣枯枕上三更，「荣枯枕上」写荣枯枕上、「三更」写三更；「傀儡场头四并」用傀儡之典写傀儡场头四并，「傀儡场头」写傀儡场头、「四并」写四并。一句写荣枯枕上三更傀儡场头四并，以荣枯枕上三更写三更、以傀儡场头四并写四并，写尽荣枯枕上三更、傀儡场头四并之情。以枕写情，苍凉而叹逝，是「以枕写情」的点睛之笔。

This line writes rise and fall: 'rise and fall, on the pillow at the third watch' - the night thoughts; 'the four blessings together, on the puppet stage' the puppet-show allusion, life's pageant. Writing feeling through the pillow, bleak and mourning the years - the telling stroke.

人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省？

Life is an illusion, is a bubble's shadow: who, in peril, examines himself?

人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省？

Life's transformation is like a bubble or shadow; who, at the brink, reflects on himself?

结句写那个临危自省，是全曲立意的落点。「人生幻化如泡影」用泡影之典写人生幻化如泡影，「人生幻化」写人生幻化、「如泡影」写如泡影；「那个临危自省」写那个临危自省，「那个」写那个、「临危自省」写临危自省。一句写人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省，以人生幻化如泡影写如泡影、以那个临危自省写自省，写尽人生幻化如泡影、那个临危自省之情。以幻写情，苍凉而叹逝，是全曲最动人处，也是「以幻写情」的点睛之笔。

The closing lands the poem's meaning: 'life's transformation is like a bubble or shadow' the Buddhist metaphor; 'who, at the brink, reflects on himself?' the question. Writing feeling through illusion, bleak and mourning the years - the most moving point, the finishing stroke.

Study

Word focus

燕月 Yan yue, the moon over Yan, means the moon of the northern capital where the poet spent his ten years of office. It is not a separate image from the song: ten years of singing under that moon is the whole of his public life in one phrase, and the frost in the hair is what the same moon has since shown him. 「燕月」写十年燕月歌声，是写燕月之态的关键。「十年燕月歌声」着一「燕月」，写燕月——着一「燕月」，写十年燕月歌声，见其月之燕。两字写尽燕月之态，是「以词写月」的妙笔。「燕月」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
吴霜 Wu frost, the white specks of frost attributed to the Wu lands — theSpeaker's own region — is a figure for grey hair made out of a place rather than a mirror. It lets the poet complain of age without mentioning age, and it rhymes with the capital's moon, so that north and south, ambition and decay, are held in the one couplet. 「吴霜」写几点吴霜鬓影，是写吴霜之态的关键。「几点吴霜鬓影」着一「吴霜」，写吴霜——着一「吴霜」，写几点吴霜鬓影，见其霜之吴。两字写尽吴霜之态，是「以词写霜」的点睛之词。「吴霜」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
鲈鱼 The perch of the title image is the fish of the old story of the official who longed for the perch soup of home; because that story attaches the fish to the west wind and to a late decision, the poet borrows it as a sign that the wish to return came too late. It is the poem's only allusion that is a complete small narrative, and it is what makes the couplet sad. 「鲈鱼」写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，是写鲈鱼之态的关键。「西风吹起鲈鱼兴」着一「鲈鱼」，写鲈鱼——着一「鲈鱼」，写西风吹起鲈鱼兴，见其鱼之鲈。两字写尽鲈鱼之态，是「以词写鱼」的点睛之词。「鲈鱼」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。
泡影 Pao ying, a bubble's shadow, is the Buddhist image of emptiness — dream, bubble, shadow, morning dew — and here it is applied to life itself as a verdict. The poem's argument rests entirely on this one comparison: if life is as empty as a bubble, then the question of who examines himself in danger is the only one that matters. 「泡影」写人生幻化如泡影，是写泡影之态的关键。「人生幻化如泡影」着一「泡影」，写泡影——着一「泡影」，写人生幻化如泡影，见其影之泡。两字写尽泡影之态，是「以词写影」的点睛之词。「泡影」一字之用而全篇生色，与诗中情韵相为表里，正见诗人炼字之精与匠心之独运。读者于此等处若细细体会，自能领会其于平淡之中见功力、于寻常处见神奇之妙。

Related Reading

水调歌头·明月几时有 Prelude to Water Melody: When Will the Bright Moon Appear? 苏轼 · 同写叹逝感怀、苍凉旷达，一写人有悲欢离合、一写人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省，皆于叹逝之中见苍凉 Both are long lyrics on the vanity of human hope, both mixed with the Song and Yuan habit of closing on philosophy rather than on event

Su Shi's 'Prelude to Water Melody', with 'so men in sorrow part, and the moon wanes and waxes, and this has been true since of old', accepts change as the order of things and consoles himself and the reader with the moon that happens to be shining. Yao Sui's lyric reaches the same recognition about life — that it is a bubble's shadow — and instead of consoling asks who ever examines himself in peril. The Song poem ends by raising a cup; the Yuan lyric ends by listening to rain in a boat. Both treat the same insight differently because of the century that separates them, and the comparison shows how much of Chinese poetry is a series of variations on the vanity of hoping.

苏轼《水调歌头·明月几时有》「人有悲欢离合，月有阴晴圆缺，此事古难全」，写叹逝感怀、苍凉旷达，是宋词长调的名篇；姚燧《醉高歌·感怀》则以「人生幻化如泡影，那个临危自省」「西风吹起鲈鱼兴」写如泡影、鲈鱼兴。两曲同写叹逝感怀、苍凉旷达：一写人有悲欢离合、以悲欢写离合，一写人生幻化如泡影那个临危自省、以泡影写叹逝；一为苏轼之旷达、一为姚燧之苍凉，并读正可见诗曲写「叹逝感怀」的两种笔法，皆于叹逝之中见苍凉。

 八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天 Eight Beats of a Galloping Horse: Over the Drizzling Evening Rain that Sweeps the Sky 柳永 · 同写江上凝望、苍凉清丽，一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、一写十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影，皆于江上之中见凝望 Both open on a river in autumn weather and move to an accusation of the self; the scenery is in both cases the thing that cannot answer

Liu Yong's long lyric begins with the rain sweeping a sky washed clean of autumn and then describes the wanderer who leans on the horizon and regrets that a pursuit has made him a stranger in his own country — the scenery is used as the stage on which a complaint is acted out. Yao Sui's lyric also begins in weather, passes through river, willows, a farewell air and a boat in the rain, and arrives at the same self-problem: who, in peril, examines himself? The difference is that Liu Yong's complaint is that he has spent his life travelling, while Yao Sui's is that he has spent it in office and in illusion. Read together, the two poems show the same river with two different regrets.

柳永《八声甘州·对潇潇暮雨洒江天》「对潇潇暮雨洒江天，一番洗清秋」，写江上凝望、苍凉清丽，是宋词写羁旅的名篇；姚燧《醉高歌·感怀》则以「十年燕月歌声，几点吴霜鬓影」「岸边烟柳苍苍」写吴霜鬓影、烟柳苍苍。两曲同写江上凝望、苍凉清丽：一写对潇潇暮雨洒江天、以暮雨写清秋，一写十年燕月歌声几点吴霜鬓影、以燕月写叹逝；一为柳永之清丽、一为姚燧之苍凉，并读正可见诗曲写「江上凝望」的两种笔法，皆于江上之中见凝望。