谢无量 行书:刘禹锡《堤上行三首》(其二)
【释文】江南江北望烟波,入夜行人相应歌。桃叶传情竹枝怨,水流无限月明多。
【款识】止园先生正挽,无量。
【简析】
《堤上行》三首大约写于任夔州刺史到和州刺史时,即长庆二年(822)到长庆四年。
《堤上行》的第二首重在描写长江两岸的风俗人情,具有浓郁的地方色彩。诗写入夜时堤上见闻。夜色中隔江相望,烟波渺茫。“烟波”二字,把迷蒙的夜色和入夜时的江景写得很美。在静态的景色描绘之后,继而写出江边堤上歌声四起,相和相应,打破了静夜的沉寂。他们唱的是什么歌呢?诗人用一句诗作了概括:“《桃叶》传情《竹枝》怨”,都是巴山楚水人民爱唱的民歌。句中的“情”和“怨”,很值得体味,可以想见,这歌声对遭贬谪、受打击的诗人来说,自然会牵动自身的“情”与“怨”的,这也是“含思宛转”之处。诗的结句高妙,有意境。“水流无限月明多”是写眼前所见之景,切合江边和夜色。同时也是比喻,以流水和月光的无限来比喻歌中“情”与“怨”的无限。这句诗是以视觉来写听觉的,流水与月光,既含飞动之势,又具明丽之性,这是用眼可以看到的,是视觉的感受;但是优美、动人的歌曲也能给人飞动、流丽的艺术感受,两者(指视觉与听觉)能引起“通感”。这种描写创造了优美的艺术境界,能取得良好的美学效果,手法是高超的。
这两首诗,形象鲜明,音调婉谐,清新隽永,写景如画;有浓厚的乡土味和浓郁的生活气息,代表了刘禹锡学习民歌所取得的新成就。
【Simple Translation】
The three songs on the Embankment were written around the time when he was the governor of Kui Prefecture to the governor of He Prefecture, i.e. from the second year of Changqing (822) to the fourth year of Changqing.
The second poem of “A Walk on the Embankment” focuses on the customs and people on both sides of the Yangtze River and has a strong local flavor. The poem is about what we see on the embankment at night. The poem is about the view of the Yangtze River at night, and the smoke and the waves are far away. The word “smoke and waves” beautifully describes the misty night and the river scene at nightfall. After the static scenery is depicted, it is then written that the songs on the riverside embankment rise up in harmony with each other, breaking the silence of the quiet night. What kind of songs are they singing? The poet sums it up in one line: “Peach Leaves” transmits love and “Bamboo Branches” complains, all of which are folk songs loved by the people of Ba Mountain and Chu Water. It is conceivable that the songs would naturally touch the poet’s own “feelings” and “grievances” when he was relegated and battered. “This is also the point where the poem “contains thoughts that are in a twist”. The final lines of the poem are subtle and have a meaning. The poem “The water is infinite and the moon is bright” is a description of the scene in front of us, which fits the river and the night. At the same time, it is also a metaphor, using the infinite flow of water and moonlight to compare the infinite “love” and “grievance” in the song. This verse is a visual description of the sense of hearing. The flowing water and moonlight, which contain both the momentum and the brightness, can be seen with the eyes and are visual sensations; however, the beautiful and moving song can also give people the artistic sensation of flying and flowing beauty. This description creates a beautiful artistic realm and achieves a good aesthetic effect, and the technique is superb.
These two poems, with their distinctive images, harmonious tones, freshness and timelessness, and picturesque scenes, have a strong flavor of the countryside and a rich flavor of life, and represent Liu Yuxi’s new achievement in learning folk songs.