Listen to this article吴昌硕 篆书：李白《越中览古》
【释文】越王勾践破吴归，战士还家尽锦衣。宫女如花满春殿，只今唯有鹧鸪飞。
【款识】丁巳清明，安吉吴昌硕老缶。
【简析】
这是一首怀古之作，是诗人游览越中（唐越州，治所在今浙江绍兴）时所作。在春秋时代，吴越两国争霸南方，成为世仇。越王勾践于公元前四九四年，被吴王夫差打败，回到国内，卧薪尝胆，誓报此仇。
公元前四七三年，他果然把吴国灭了。诗写的就是这件事。
首句点明题意，说明所怀古迹的具体内容。二、三两句分写战士还家、勾践还宫的情况。消灭了敌人，洗刷耻辱，战士们凯旋而归；由于战事已经结束，大家都受到了赏赐，所以不穿铁甲，而穿锦衣。只“尽锦衣”三字，就将越王及其战士得意归来，充满了胜利者的喜悦和骄傲的神情表现了出来。越王回国以后，踌躇满志，甚至荒淫逸乐起来，如花似玉的美人，就占满了宫殿，拥簇着他，侍候着他。“春殿”的“春”字，应上“如花”，描摹美好的时光和景象，非特指春天。仅此一点，就表明越王将过去的卧薪尝胆的往事抛之脑后。都城中到处是锦衣战士，宫殿上站满了如花宫女。然而结句突然一转，过去曾经存在过的胜利、威武、富贵、荣华，现在只剩下几只鹧鸪在王城故址上飞来飞去罢了。这一句写人事的变化，盛衰的无常，以慨叹出之。统治者莫不希望他们的富贵荣华是子孙万世之业，而诗篇却如实地指出了这种希望的幻灭。
诗歌不是历史小说，绝句又不同于长篇古诗，所以诗人只能选取这一历史事件中他感受得最深的某一部分来写。他选取的不是这场斗争的漫长过程中的某一片断，而是在吴败越胜，越王班师回国以后的两个镜头。诗篇将昔时的繁盛和今日的凄凉，通过具体的景物，作了鲜明的对比。获致的效果往往能够大大地加强。所以，通过热闹的场面来描写凄凉，就更觉凄凉之可叹。如此诗前面所写从前的繁华与后面所写现在的冷落，对照极为强烈，前面写得愈着力，后面转得也就愈有力。为了充分地表达主题思想，诗人对这篇诗的艺术结构也作出了不同于一般七绝的安排。一般的七绝，转折点都安排在第三句里，而这首诗的前三句却一气直下，直到第四句才突然转到反面，就显得格外有力量，有神采。这种写法，非笔力雄健的诗人，是难以挥洒自如的。
另欣赏：刘艺
刘艺 草书：李白《越中览古》
【款识】李白越中览古，刘艺。
【Simple Translation】
This is a nostalgic piece, written when the poet visited Yuezhong (Yuezhou in the Tang Dynasty, with its capital in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province). During the Spring and Autumn Period, Wu and Yue were feuding in the south and became enemies. King Goujian of Yue was defeated by King Fucha of Wu in 494 B.C. He returned to his home country and vowed to take revenge.
In 473 B.C., he did destroy the state of Wu. The poem is about this incident.
The first stanza states the meaning of the title and the specific content of the monument. The second and third lines are about the return of the warriors to their homes and Goujian to his palace. The warriors returned home in triumph after destroying the enemy and clearing their shame; since the battle was over and everyone was rewarded, they wore brocade clothes instead of iron armor. The words “all in brocade clothes” express the joy and pride of the victorious king of Yue and his warriors. After the king returned to his country, he was full of ambition and even desolation and pleasure, and the palace was filled with beautiful women like flowers, who surrounded him and waited on him. The word “spring” in the phrase “spring palace” should be “like flowers” to describe the beautiful time and scenery, not specifically the spring. This alone shows that the King of Yue had left behind the past of lying in wait. The capital is filled with warriors in brocade and the palace is filled with flowery palace maids. However, the ending line suddenly turns to the fact that the victory, power, wealth and glory that once existed in the past are now only a few partridges flying around the former site of the king’s city. This line is about the change of personnel and the impermanence of prosperity and decline, and is expressed in a lament. The rulers all hoped that their wealth and glory would be the property of their descendants for many generations, but the poem truthfully points out the disillusionment of such hopes.
The poem is not a historical novel, and the stanza is different from a long ancient poem, so the poet can only choose a part of this historical event that he feels most deeply to write. He chose not one part of the long struggle, but two scenes after the defeat of Wu and the victory of Yue and the return of the king to his country. The poem contrasts the prosperity of the past with the desolation of today through specific scenes. The effect of the rewards can often be greatly enhanced. Therefore, the bleakness is depicted through a lively scene, which makes the bleakness even more lamentable. The contrast between the former prosperity written in the front of the poem and the present desolation written in the back is extremely strong, and the more vigorously written in the front, the more powerfully it will be turned in the back. In order to fully express the theme, the poet has made a different arrangement of the artistic structure of this poem than the usual seven stanzas. The first three lines of this poem go straight down in a single breath, and it is not until the fourth line that the poet suddenly turns to the opposite side, which makes the poem extraordinarily powerful and brilliant. The poem is written in such a way that it would be difficult for a poet with a strong pen to write it with ease.
