Listen to this article萧娴 隶书：许浑《谢亭送别》
【释文】劳歌一曲解行舟，红叶青山水急流。日暮酒醒人已远，满天风雨下西刘（楼）。
【款识】萧娴于南京之玄武湖畔，时年八十。
【注释】劳歌：在劳劳亭送客时唱的歌。劳劳亭旧址在南京，是古代着名的送别之地。
【简析】
这是许浑在宣城送别友人后写的一首离别诗。谢亭，又叫谢公亭，在宣城北面，南齐诗人谢脁任宣城太守时所建。他曾在这里送别朋友范云，后来谢亭就成为宣城着名的送别之地。李白《谢公亭》诗说：“谢亭离别处，风景每生愁。客散青天月，山空碧水流。”重复不断的离别，使优美的谢亭风景也染上一层离愁别恨了。
第一句写友人乘舟离去。古代有唱歌送行的习俗。“劳歌”，本指在劳劳亭（旧址在今南京市南面，也是一个着名的送别之地）送客时唱的歌，后来遂成为送别歌的代称。劳歌一曲，缆解舟行，从送别者眼中写出一种匆匆而无奈的情景气氛。
第二句写友人乘舟出发后所望见江上景致。时值深秋，两岸青山，霜林尽染，红叶丹枫，映衬着一江碧绿的秋水，显得色彩格外鲜丽。这明丽之景乍看似与别离之情不大协调，实际上前者恰恰是对后者的有力对衬。景色愈美，愈显出欢聚的可恋，别离的难堪，大好秋光反倒成为添愁增恨的因素了。江淹《别赋》说：春草碧色，春水绿波，送君南浦，伤如之何！”借美好的春色反衬别离之悲，与此同一机杼。
这也正是王夫之所揭示的：“以乐景写哀，以哀景写乐，一倍增其哀乐”（《姜斋诗话》）的艺术辩证法。
这一句并没有直接写到友人的行舟 。但通过 “水急流”的刻画，舟行的迅疾自可想见，诗人目送行舟穿行于夹岸青山红叶的江面上的情景也宛若在目。
“急”字暗透出送行者“流水何太急”的心理状态，使整个诗句所表现的意境带有一点忧伤不安的意味。这和诗人当时那种并不和谐安闲的心境是相一致的。
诗的前后联之间有一个较长的时间间隔。朋友乘舟走远后，诗人并未离开送别的谢亭，而是在原地小憩了一会。别前喝了点酒，微有醉意，朋友走后，心绪不佳，竟不胜酒力睡着了。一觉醒来，已是日暮时分。天色变了，下着雨，四望一片迷蒙。眼前的江面，两岸的青山红叶都已经笼罩在浓浓雨雾和沉沉暮色之中。朋友的船呢？此刻更不知道随着急流驶到云山雾嶂之外的什么地方去了。暮色的苍茫黯淡，风雨的迷蒙凄凉，酒醒后在朦胧仿佛中追忆别时情景所感到的怅惘失落，使诗人此刻的情怀特别凄黯孤寂，感到无法承受这种环境气氛的包围，于是默默无言地独自从风雨笼罩的西楼上走了下来 。（西楼即指送别的 谢亭，古代诗词中“南浦 ”、“西楼”都常指送别之处。）
第三句极写别后酒醒的怅惘空寂，第四句却并不接着直抒离绪，而是宕开写景。但由于这景物所特具的凄黯迷茫色彩与诗人当时的心境正相契合，因此读者完全可以从中感受到诗人的萧瑟凄楚情杯。这样借景寓情，以景结情，比起直抒别情的难堪来，不但更富含蕴，更有感染力，而且使结尾散发着一种不言而神伤的情韵。
这首诗前后两联分别由两个不同时间和色调的场景组成。前联以青山红叶的明丽景色反衬离绪，后联以风雨凄楚的黯淡景色正衬离情，笔法富于变化。而一、三两句分别点出舟发与人远，二、四两句纯用景物烘托渲染，则又异中有同，使全篇在变化中显出统一。
【Simple Translation】
This is a parting poem written by Xu Hun after bidding farewell to his friend in Xuancheng. Xie Ting, also called Xie Gong Ting, is located in the north of Xuancheng and was built by Xie Chan, a poet of Southern Qi Dynasty, when he was the governor of Xuancheng. He used to send off his friend Fan Yun here, and later Xie Pavilion became a famous place to send off in Xuancheng. Li Bai’s poem “Xie Gong Ting” says, “The place where Xie Ting leaves is a place of sadness. The moon in the green sky is scattered by the guests, and the mountain is empty and blue with water flowing.” The repeated parting makes the beautiful scenery of Xie pavilion tainted with a layer of sadness and hate.
The first line is about the departure of friends by boat. In the ancient times, it was a custom to sing to see them off. The song “Laogao” originally refers to the song sung at the Laogao Pavilion (formerly located in the south of present-day Nanjing, which is also a famous place for farewell), and later became a synonym for the farewell song. The song is sung as the boat is being untied, bringing out a hurried and helpless atmosphere from the eyes of the farewellers.
The second line is about the view of the river after the departure of the friend in the boat. It was late autumn, and the green hills on both sides of the river were dyed with red leaves and maples, reflecting the turquoise water of the river, making the colors extraordinarily vivid. This bright and beautiful scenery at first glance seems to be not very harmonious with the feelings of parting, but in fact the former is precisely a powerful counterpoint to the latter. The more beautiful the scenery, the more obvious the gathering of love, parting the embarrassment, the good autumn light has become a factor that adds sorrow and hate. The “Farewell Fugue” of Jiang Yan says: “The spring grass is blue, the spring water is green, sending you off to Nanpu, hurt as in what!” The beautiful spring colors are used to contrast the sadness of parting, which is the same loom.
This is precisely the artistic dialectic that Wang Fuzhi reveals: “to write sorrow with a happy scene, to write happiness with a sad scene, and to multiply its sorrow and happiness” (“Jiang Zhai Poetry”).
This line does not directly write about the friend’s rowing boat . But through the portrayal of the “rapid flow of water”, the swiftness of the boat is conceivable, and the scene of the poet seeing off the boat through the red leaves of the green hills on the banks of the river is also as if in sight.
The word “rapid” implies the psychological state of the senders of the boat, “Why is the flow of water too rapid?”, which makes the mood of the whole poem a bit sad and uneasy. This is consistent with the poet’s state of mind, which was not harmonious and peaceful at that time.
There is a long time lapse between the first and second couplets of the poem. After his friend left by boat, the poet did not leave the farewell pavilion, but took a short break in the same place. He drank some wine before the farewell and was slightly drunk, but after his friend left, he was in a bad mood and fell asleep. When I woke up, it was already sunset. The sky had changed, it was raining, and it was misty to look around. The river in front of you, the green hills on both sides of the red leaves have been shrouded in thick rain and fog and sunken twilight. Where is my friend’s boat? At the moment, I do not know with the rapids sailed to the clouds, mountains and fog beyond what place to go. The pale bleakness of the twilight, the misty bleakness of the wind and rain, and the disappointment and loss felt after waking up and recalling the parting scene in the haze, made the poet’s mood particularly bleak and lonely at this moment, and he felt unable to bear the surroundings of this atmosphere. (The West Tower refers to the Xie Pavilion, which is the place of farewell, and in ancient poems, “Nanpu” and “West Tower” are often used to refer to the place of farewell.)
The third line is about the despair and loneliness of waking up after the farewell, but the fourth line does not go on to express the emotion of leaving, but opens up to write about the scenery. However, the poet’s state of mind at the time is matched by the bleak and confusing colors of the scene, so the reader can feel the poet’s sorrowful and miserable feelings. The poem is not only more meaningful and infectious than the embarrassment of expressing farewell feelings directly, but also makes the ending emit a kind of rhyme that is unspoken and sorrowful.
The first and second couplets of the poem are composed of two scenes of different times and tones, respectively. The first couplet uses the bright scenery of the red leaves of the green hills to contrast the feelings of separation, while the second couplet uses the bleak scenery of the wind and rain to set off the feelings of separation. The first and third lines point out that the boat and the people are far away, while the second and fourth lines are purely rendered by the scenery, making the whole piece unified in its variations.
