Listen to this article萧娴 隶书：李白《玉阶怨》
【释文】玉阶生白露，夜久侵罗袜。却下水晶帘，玲珑望秋月。
【款识】壬戌冬日录唐诗，于玄武湖枕琴室，萧娴。
【注释】罗袜：丝织品做的袜子。却下：还下。玲珑句：虽下帘仍望月而待，以至不能成眠。
【简析】
《玉阶怨》，见郭茂倩《乐府诗集》。属《相和歌·楚调曲》，与《婕妤怨》、《长信怨》等曲，从古代所存歌辞看，都是专写“宫怨”的乐曲。
李白的《玉阶怨》，虽曲名标有“怨”字，诗作中却只是背面敷粉，全不见“怨”字。无言独立阶砌，以致冰凉的露水浸湿罗袜；以见夜色之浓，伫待之久，怨情之深。“罗袜”，见人之仪态、身份，有人有神。夜凉露重，罗袜知寒，不说人而已见人之幽怨如诉。二字似写实，实用曹子建“凌波微步，罗袜生尘”意境。
怨深，夜深，不禁幽独之苦，乃由帘外而帘内，及至下帘之后，反又不忍使明月孤寂。似月怜人，似人怜月；若人不伴月，则又有何物可以伴人？月无言，人也无言。但读者却深知人有无限言语，月也解此无限言语，而写来却只是一味望月。此不怨之怨所以深于怨也。
“却下”二字，以虚字传神，最为诗家秘传。此一转折，似断实连；似欲一笔荡开，推却愁怨，实则经此一转，字少情多，直入幽微。却下，看似无意下帘，而其中却有无限幽怨。本以夜深、怨深，无可奈何而入室。入室之后，却又怕隔窗明月照此室内幽独，因而下帘。帘既下矣，却更难消受此凄苦无眠之夜，于更无可奈何之中，却更去隔帘望月。此时忧思徘徊，直如李清照“寻寻觅觅、冷冷清清、凄凄惨惨戚戚”之纷至沓来，如此情思，乃以“却下”二字出之。“却”字直贯下句，意谓：“却下水晶帘”，“却去望秋月”，在这两个动作之间，有许多愁思转折返复，所谓字少情多，以虚字传神。中国古代诗艺中有“空谷传音”之法，似当如此。“玲珑”二字，看似不经意之笔，实则极见工力。以月之玲珑，衬人之幽怨，从反处着笔，全胜正面涂抹。
诗中不见人物姿容与心理状态，而作者似也无动于衷，只以人物行动见意，引读者步入诗情之最幽微处，故能不落言筌，为读者保留想象余地，使诗情无限辽远，无限幽深。以此见诗家“不着一字，尽得风流”真意。以叙人事之笔抒情，恒见，易；以抒情之笔状人，罕有，难。
契诃夫有“矜持”说，也常闻有所谓“距离”说，两者颇近似，似应合为一说。即谓作者应与所写对象，保持一定距离，并保持一定“矜持”与冷静。如此，则作品无声嘶力竭之弊，而有幽邃深远之美，写难状之情与难言之隐，使读者觉有漫天诗思飘然而至，却又无从于字句间捉摸之。这首《玉阶怨》含思婉转，余韵如缕，正是这样的佳作。
【Simple Translation】
The Jade Staircase Complaint”, in Guo Maoqian’s “Collection of Poems on Music”. It belongs to the “Song of Harmony – Chu Tune”, and it is a song dedicated to “Palace Grievances”, together with “Jiyu Grievance” and “Changxin Grievance”.
Li Bai’s “Jade Steps Complaint”, although the title of the song is marked with the word “Complaint”, the poem is only backed with powder, and the word “Complaint” is missing. The independent step without words, so that the cold dew soaked socks; to see the night is thick, wait for a long time, the depth of the grievances. The “socks”, see the manners of people, identity, someone has a god. The night is cool and dewy, the socks know cold, not to say that people only see people’s grievances like a complaint. The two words seem to be realistic, practical Cao Zijian “Ling Bo Wei Bu, Luo Socks Born Dust” mood.
The night is deep, and I can’t help but feel the pain of solitude, but from outside the curtain and inside the curtain, and after the curtain is down, I can’t bear to make the moon lonely. If one does not accompany the moon, what else can accompany one? The moon has no words, and neither does man. But the reader knows that man has infinite words, and the moon also understands these infinite words, but he only looks at the moon when he writes. This is the reason why the discontent is deeper than the discontent.
The word “but under” is the most secret of poets to convey the spirit with a false word. This turn, seemingly broken actually connected; seems to want a stroke to swing away, pushing away the sorrow, but in fact, after this turn, the word less love more, straight into the subtle. But under the curtain, it seems that there is no intention to lower the curtain, but there is infinite sorrow in it. It is late in the night and deep in grievance, so I had no choice but to enter the room. After entering the room, but afraid of the moon shining through the window this indoor solitude, so down the curtain. The curtain is down, but it is more difficult to bear this miserable sleepless night, in the more helpless, but more to look at the moon through the curtain. At this point, the worry wanders, just like Li Qingzhao’s “searching, cold and clear, miserable and sad”, and such thoughts come with the word “but down”. The word “but” goes straight through the next line, meaning: “but down the crystal curtain” and “but to look at the autumn moon”, between these two actions, there are many sorrowful thoughts turning back and forth, the so-called word less emotions, to the virtual word The so-called “less words, more emotions,” and the use of imaginary words to convey the spirit. The ancient Chinese poetic art has the method of “transmitting the voice in the empty valley”, which seems to be the case. The word “exquisite” seems to be a careless brushstroke, but in fact it shows great effort. The moon’s exquisiteness is used to contrast with a person’s sorrow.
The poem does not see the characters’ posture and psychological state, and the author seems to be indifferent to them, only their actions, leading the reader into the most subtle part of the poem. This is the true meaning of the poet’s phrase “not a single word, but the fullest flow of style”. It is easy to express one’s feelings with the pen of narration, but difficult to express one’s feelings with the pen of lyricism.
Chekhov’s “reserve” and the so-called “distance” are often heard, and they are quite similar. In other words, the author should keep a certain distance from the subject he is writing about, and maintain a certain “reserve” and calmness. In this way, the work will not have the disadvantage of being hoarse, but will have the beauty of being profound and far-reaching, writing about difficult feelings and unspeakable secrets, making the reader feel that there are poetic thoughts floating in the sky, but there is no way to grasp them between words and sentences. The poem “The Jade Staircase” is a great piece of poetry that contains thoughts and rhymes.
