Listen to this article徐邦达 行书：宋之问《题大庾岭北驿》
【释文】阳月南飞雁，传闻至此回。我行殊未已，何日复归来。江静潮初落，林昏瘴不开。明朝望乡处，应见陇头梅。
【款识】宋之问诗，一九八八年夏六月书于武昌，徐邦达。
【注释】阳月：阴历十月。瘴：旧指南方山林间湿热致病之气。陇头梅：其地气候和暖，故十月即可见梅，旧时红白梅夹道，故有梅岭之称。陇头：即为“岭头”。
【简析】
这是诗人在被贬岭南途经大庚岭时所作。首句就用鸿雁飞到这里也要折回，极状了谪途的艰险和不如大雁还能转飞回去的痛苦心情，还写出自己虽苦而仍要安慰亲人，感情十分真实动人。
这是宋之问流放钦州（治所在今广西钦州东北）途经大庾岭时，写在岭北驿的一首五律。大庾岭在今江西大庾，岭上多生梅花，又名梅岭。古人认为此岭是南北的分界线，因有十月北雁南归至此，不再过岭的传说。
本来，在武后、中宗两朝，宋之问颇得宠幸，睿宗执政后，却成了谪罪之人，发配岭南，其心中的痛苦哀伤自是可知。所以当他到达大庾岭北驿时，眼望那苍茫山色、长天雁群，想到明日就要过岭，一岭之隔，与中原便咫尺天涯，顿时迁谪失意的痛苦，怀土思乡的忧伤一起涌上心头。悲切之音脱口而出：“阳月南飞雁，传闻至此回。我行殊未已，何日复归来？”阳月（即农历十月）雁南飞至此而北回，而我呢，却象“孤雁独南翔”（曹丕《杂诗》），非但不能滞留，还要翻山越岭，到那荒远的瘴疠之乡；群雁北归有定期，而我呢，何时才能重来大庾岭，再返故乡和亲人团聚！由雁而后及人，诗人用的是比兴手法。两两相形，沉郁、幽怨，人不如雁的感慨深蕴其中。这一鲜明对照，把诗人那忧伤、哀怨、思念、向往等等痛苦复杂的内心情感表现得含蓄委婉而又深切感人。
人雁比较以后，五六两句，诗人又点缀了眼前景色：“江静潮初落，林昏瘴不开。”黄昏到来了，江潮初落，水面平静得令人寂寞，林间瘴气缭绕，一片迷蒙。这景象又给诗人平添了一段忧伤。因为江潮落去，江水尚有平静的时候，而诗人心潮起伏，却无一刻安宁。丛林迷瞑，瘴气如烟，故乡何在？望眼难寻；前路如何，又难以卜知。失意的痛苦，乡思的烦恼，面对此景就更使他不堪忍受。
恼人的景象，愁杀了这位落魄南去的逐臣，昏暗的境界，又恰似他内心的迷离惝恍。因此，这二句写景接上二句的抒情，转承得实在好，以景衬情，渲染了凄凉孤寂的气氛，烘托出悲苦的心情，使抒情又推进一层，更加深刻细腻，更加强烈具体了。
最后二句，诗人又从写景转为抒情。他在心中暗暗祈愿：“明朝望乡处，应见陇头梅。”明晨踏上岭头的时候，再望一望故乡吧！虽然见不到她的踪影，但岭上盛开的梅花该是可以见到的！《荆州记》载，南朝梁时诗人陆凯有这样一首诗：“折梅逢驿使，寄与陇头人。江南何所有，聊赠一枝春。”显然，诗人暗用了这一典故。虽然家不可归，但他多么希望也能寄一枝梅，安慰家乡的亲人啊！
情致凄婉，绵长不断，诗人怀乡之情已经升发到最高点，然而却收得含吐不露。宋人沈义父说：“以景结情最好”，“含有余不尽之意”。（《乐府指迷》）这一联恰好如此，诗人没有接续上文去写实景，而是拓开一笔，写了想象，虚拟一段情景来关合全诗。这样不但深化了主题，而且情韵醇厚，含悠然不尽之意，令人神驰遐想。
全诗写的是“愁”，却未着一“愁”字。尽管如此，人们还是感到愁绪满怀，凄恻缠绵。为什么会产生这样的艺术魅力呢？因为“善道景者，绝去形容，略加点缀”，“善言情者，吞吐深浅，欲露还藏”（陆时雍《诗镜总论》）。这首诗正是在道景言情上别具匠心。诗人以情布景，又以景衬情，使情景融合，写出了真实的感受，因而情真意切，动人心弦。
【Simple Translation】
This poem was written when the poet was relegated to the south of the country and was passing through Dagengling. In the first line, the poet uses the idea that the geese have to turn back even though they have flown here to describe the hardships of the relegation and the painful feeling that the geese can not fly back as well.
This is a poem written by Song Zhiwen when he was in exile in Qinzhou (the capital is northeast of Qinzhou, Guangxi) and passing through Dayu Ridge. Dayu Ridge is in Dayu, Jiangxi province, and is also known as Plum Ridge because of the many plum blossoms on the ridge. The ancients believed that this ridge is the boundary between the north and the south, because there is a legend that in October, the northern geese return south to this area and no longer cross the ridge.
Originally, Song Zhiwen was favored by Empress Wu and King Zhongzong, but after Rui Zong’s reign, he became a relegated person and was sent to the south of the mountain, so his pain and sorrow were obvious. Therefore, when he arrived at the north post of Dayu Mountain, he looked at the pale mountains and the long sky of geese, and thought that he would cross the mountain tomorrow, and the distance between the mountain and the Central Plains would be far from each other, and the pain of relegation and the sorrow of missing his hometown came to his heart. The sorrowful voice came out of his mouth: “The geese are flying south in the sunny moon, and it is heard that they will return here. My journey has not yet ended, when will I return?” The geese fly south in the Yang month (that is, the tenth month of the lunar calendar) and return to the north, while I, like “the lone goose flying south” (Cao Pi’s “Miscellaneous Poems”), not only cannot stay, but also have to cross the mountains and mountains to the faraway country of miasma; the geese return to the north at regular intervals, while I, when can I come back to Dayu Ling and reunite with my relatives in my hometown again! From the geese to the people, the poet uses the technique of simile. The poet uses the technique of simile, in which the two are in contrast to each other, and the feeling that man is not as good as the geese is deeply embedded. The poet’s painful and complicated inner feelings of sorrow, grief, longing and yearning are expressed in a subtle and touching way.
After the comparison, the poet embellished the scenery in the fifth and sixth lines: “The tide of the river is still, and the miasma is not open.” Dusk is coming, the river tide is falling, the water is so calm that it is lonely, and the forest is drenched in miasma, a misty. This scene adds a sadness to the poet. The poet’s heart was in turmoil, but there was no moment of peace. The jungle is misty and the miasma is like smoke. It was hard to find; it was hard to know the way ahead. The pain of disillusionment and the worries of homesickness made him even more unbearable in the face of this scene.
The annoying scenery is so sad that it kills this despondent southbound minister, and the dim realm is just like his inner confusion and uncertainty. Therefore, these two lines of scenery follow the lyricism of the previous two lines, which is a good segue, using the scenery to set off the emotion, rendering the atmosphere of desolation and loneliness, bringing out the mood of sorrow and suffering, making the lyricism advance another layer, more profound and delicate, more intense and specific.
In the last two lines, the poet shifts from writing about the scene to expressing his feelings. He secretly prayed in his heart: “Tomorrow morning when I look at my hometown, I should see Longtou plum.” Tomorrow morning when I step on the hill, I will look at my hometown again! Although I can’t see her, but the plum blossoms on the ridge should be able to see! According to “The Records of Jingzhou”, the poet Lu Kai of the Southern Liang Dynasty wrote a poem like this: “Folding plums to meet the postman, and sending them to the people in Longtou. What can I find in Jiangnan, I will give you a spring.” Obviously, the poet alluded to this allusion. Although he cannot return home, how he wishes he could send a plum to comfort his relatives back home!
The poet’s nostalgia for his hometown has reached its highest point, yet he has collected it without revealing it. The Song dynasty’s Shen Yifu said, “It is best to end a poem with a scene,” and “it contains an incomplete meaning. （The poet did not follow the above to write about the actual scene, but opened up a piece of imagination and wrote a virtual scene to close the poem. This not only deepens the theme, but also has a mellow rhythm, containing a long and endless meaning, which makes people think about it.
The whole poem is about “sorrow”, but there is no word “sorrow”. Despite this, one feels that the poem is full of sorrow and sorrowful. Why does it have such artistic charm? The reason is that “those who are good at describing the scenery will never describe it, but slightly embellish it”, and “those who are good at expressing emotions will stammer the depths and want to reveal them but still hide them” (Lu Shiyong’s “General Discussion of Poetry Mirror”). This poem is unique in the way it speaks of emotions. The poet sets the scene with emotion, and sets off the emotion with the scene, making the scene blend, and writing the real feeling, so the emotion is true and heartfelt.
