Listen to this article张海 行书：元稹《西归绝句十二首》（其二）
【释文】五年江上损容颜，今日春风到武关。两纸京书临水读，小桃花树满商山。
【款识】右录元慎诗。丁亥年夏，张海。
【简析】
这首诗作于元和十年（815）元稹自唐州（今河南省唐河县）奉召还京途中。诗题下原注：“得复言、乐天书。”诗中抒发的便是归途捧读友人书信的兴奋喜悦之情。
诗的首句“五年”忆昔日之愁。诗人本在帝都长安任监察御史，由于得罪权贵，元和五年（810）被贬为职位卑微的江陵府（府治在今湖北江陵）士曹参军。人世间的屈辱沉沦，长江边上的风风雨雨，使他身心交瘁，不由得发出“五年江上损容颜”的慨叹。
次句“春风”露今日之喜。诗人奉召还京，沿唐河，浮汉水，越武关（在今陕西省商县东），溯丹河，水陆兼程，时序又正是春天，更觉喜出望外，心情舒畅。“今日春风到武关”，正是于叙事中衬出诗人此时欣喜的心情。
一、二两句，直叙其事，遣词造境平而无奇。然而，三句“临水”一转，顿起诗情；四句“小桃”一结，更饶画意。原来，诗人欲以巧胜人，故意先出常语，而把力量用在结尾两句上，终使诗的后半部分胜境迭出。
奉召西归，是一喜；途中又接到李复言、白居易寄自长安的书信，更是一喜。君恩友情，交织心头，这就加添了“两纸京书”的感情容量。“临水”二字一点，全诗皆活，意境毕呈：清清流水，照见了诗人此时欣喜的神色；粼粼波光，映出了诗人此刻欢乐的心情。诗中不着一字，而诗人捧读音书时盼归念友的那种急切、兴奋、激动、喜悦的情状，跃然纸上。试想：如果把“临水读”，改成“舱内读”或“灯畔读”，那诗中的气氛情韵、意境就完全不一样了。结句又偏不进一步从正面写喜悦之情，却一下子跳到商山（今陕西省商县东）小桃花树上，以景语收住全篇。诗人临水读罢友人书信，猛一抬眼，忽见岸上嫣红一片，惊喜中不禁吟出：“小桃花树满商山”！这桃花，开在山上，也开在诗人心田。至此，全诗戛然而止，画面上只留下一片花光水色。不言人的心情如何，只用彩笔点染商山妍丽春色，而人的愉快之情已自流露。
这首诗以叙事抒情，以写景结情，别有一种独特的风致和情韵。临水读，见桃花，是诗人这次春江舟行中实有之事，并非故意造境设色。然而，诗人摄取这两个特写镜头，恰到好处地表现出特定场合下的特有心情。诗句清而不淡，秀而不媚，柔和隽永，色调和谐，成功地显示了这首绝句所特有的一种清丽之美。
【Simple Translation】
This poem was written in the tenth year of Yuanhe (815) when Yuan Zhen was on his way back to the capital from Tangzhou (Tanghe County, Henan Province) after being summoned. The original note under the title of the poem reads, “I got the letter of Fuyan and Lotian.” The poem expresses the excitement and joy of reading his friend’s letter on the way back.
The first line of the poem, “five years”, recalls the sorrow of the past. The poet, who was originally a supervisor of the imperial court in the imperial capital Chang’an, was relegated to a lowly position as a cadet in Jiangling Prefecture (the prefecture in present-day Jiangling, Hubei) in the fifth year of Yuanhe (810) because he had offended the powerful. The humiliation and degradation in the world and the stormy weather on the Yangtze River made him physically and mentally exhausted, and he could not help but lament, “Five years on the river, I lost my face”.
The next line “spring breeze” reveals the joy of today. The poet was summoned to return to the capital, along the Tang River, floating on the Han River, crossing the Wu Pass (in the east of Shang County, Shaanxi Province), and traversing the Dan River, traveling both by land and water, and it was spring. The poet’s joyful mood is set off by the narrative “Today the spring breeze arrives at Wuguan”.
The first and second lines are a straightforward account of the events, and the wording is plain and unexceptional. However, in the third line, the poetic mood is raised with the turn of “Lin Shui”, and in the fourth line, the poem is concluded with “Little Peach”, which is even more picturesque. It turns out that the poet wanted to win with ingenuity, so he deliberately spoke the usual words first, but used his strength in the last two lines, which finally made the second half of the poem a victory.
It is a joy to be called to return to the west; it is an even greater joy to receive letters from Li Fuyan and Bai Juyi on the way from Chang’an. This adds to the emotional capacity of the “two capital letters”. The word “water”, the whole poem is alive, the mood is presented: clear flowing water, the poet’s joyful look; sparkling waves, reflecting the poet’s joyful mood at this moment. The poem does not contain a single word, but the poet’s eagerness, excitement, excitement and joy when he reads the audio book and looks forward to returning to his friends, jumping off the page. Imagine: if the “reading on the water” is changed to “reading in the cabin” or “reading by the lamp”, the atmosphere and mood of the poem will be completely different. The concluding lines do not go further to write about the joyful feelings, but jump to the small peach blossom tree on Shang Mountain (now Shang County East, Shaanxi Province), closing the whole poem with scenic words. After reading a letter from a friend, the poet looks up and suddenly sees a red field on the shore, and in surprise, he can’t help but recite: “The small peach blossom trees are all over Shang Mountain”! The peach blossoms are on the mountain, and also in the poet’s heart. At this point, the whole poem ends abruptly, leaving only a piece of flowering water on the screen. The poem does not say how people feel, but only uses the colorful brush to color the beautiful spring colors of Shang Mountain, while people’s happy feelings are already revealed.
This poem has a unique style and rhythm, with the narrative expressing emotions and the scenery ending with emotions. The reading of the poem on the water and the sight of peach blossoms are things that actually happened during the poet’s boat trip on the spring river, not intentionally creating the scene and setting the colors. However, the poet has taken these two close-up shots to show the unique mood of the particular occasion. The verses are clear but not light, beautiful but not flattering, soft and timeless, and harmonious in tone, successfully displaying the beauty of this poem’s unique clarity and beauty.
