Listen to this article萧娴 隶书：陆龟蒙《怀宛陵旧游》
【释文】陵阳佳地昔年游，谢脁青山李白楼。唯有日斜溪上思，酒旗风影落春流。
【款识】辛酉季春于南京，萧娴时年八十。
【简析】
这是一首山水诗，但不是即地即景之作，而是诗人对往年游历的怀念。宛陵是汉代设置的一个古县城，隋时改名宣城（即今安徽宣城）。它三面为陵阳山环抱，前临句溪、宛溪二水，绿水青山，风景佳丽。南齐诗人谢朓曾任宣城太守，建有高楼一座，世称谢公楼，唐代又名叠嶂楼。盛唐诗人李白也曾客游宣城，屡登谢公楼畅饮赋诗。大概是太白遗风所致，谢公楼遂成酒楼。陆龟蒙所怀念的便是有着这些名胜古迹的江南小城。
清人沈德潜很欣赏这诗的末句，评曰：“佳句，诗中画本。”（《唐诗别裁》）此评不为无见，但其佳不止在描摹山水如画，更在于溶化着诗人深沉的感慨。通观全诗，前二句是平叙宛陵旧游的怀念，说自己从前曾到陵阳山的那个好地方游历，那里有谢朓、李白的游踪遗迹。后二句是回忆当年留下的最深刻的印象：傍晚，在句溪、宛溪旁缓步独行，夕阳斜照水面，那叠嶂楼的倒影映在水中，它那酒旗仿佛飘落在春天流水中。那情景，最惹人思绪了。为什么惹起思绪？惹起了什么思绪？诗人没有说，也无须说破。前二句既已点出了诗人仰慕的谢朓、李白，后二句描摹的这帧山水图所蕴含的思绪感慨，不言而喻，是与他们的事迹相联系的。
谢朓出任宣城太守时，很不得意，“江海虽未从，山林于此始”（《始之宣城郡》）。李白客游宣城，也是牢骚满腹，“抽刀断水水更流，举杯销愁愁更愁”（《宣州谢朓楼饯别校书叔云》）。然而谢朓毕竟还有逸兴，李白更往往是豪游，青青的陵阳山上，那幢谢朓所筑、李白酣饮的高楼，确令人思慕向往。而自己一介布衣，没没无闻，虽然也游过这陵阳佳地，却不能为它再增添一分风韵雅胜。于个人，他愧对前贤；于时世，他深感没落。因此，回想当年旧游，只有那充满迷惘的时逝世衰的情景，给他难忘的深刻印象。这就是西斜的落日，流去的春水，晚风中飘摇的酒旗，流水中破碎的倒影，构成一幅诗意的画境，惹引无限感慨的思绪。由此可见，这首怀念旧游的山水诗，实质上是咏怀古迹、感时伤世之作。
这首诗的艺术特色显然在于炼词铸句，熔情入景，因而风物如画，含蓄不尽。前二句点出时间、地点，显出名胜、古迹，抒发了怀念、思慕之情，语言省净，含意丰满，形象鲜明，已充分显示诗人老到的艺术才能。后二句深入主题，突出印象，描写生动，以实见虚，在形似中传神，堪称“画本”，而重在写意。李商隐《锦瑟》中“此情可待成追忆，只是当时已惘然”的那种无望的迷惘，在陆龟蒙这首诗里得到了十分相似的表露。也许这正是本诗的时代特色。诗歌艺术朝着形象地表现某种印象、情绪的方向发展，在晚唐是一种相当普遍的趋势，这诗即其一例。
【Simple Translation】
This is a landscape poem, but it is not a poem about the place and the scenery, but a poet’s nostalgia for his travels in the past. Wanling was an ancient county set up in the Han Dynasty and renamed Xuancheng in the Sui Dynasty (now Xuancheng, Anhui Province). It is surrounded by Lingshangshan Mountain on three sides, and in front of the two waters of Juxi and Wanxi, with green water and green hills and beautiful scenery. The Southern Qi poet Xie Wei, who was the governor of Xuancheng, built a high building, which was called Xie Gonglou in the Tang Dynasty. Li Bai, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, also visited Xuancheng and repeatedly drank and wrote poems in Xie Gong Lou. Probably due to the legacy of Taibai, Xie Gong Lou became a restaurant. Lu Guimeng misses the small city in the south of the Yangtze River with these famous monuments.
The Qing dynasty’s Shen Deqian admired the last line of the poem and commented, “A good line, a picture in a poem.” （This comment is not without insight, but its beauty lies not only in the picturesque description of the landscape, but also in the poet’s deep emotions. Throughout the poem, the first two lines are about the nostalgia of the old trip to Wanling, saying that he once visited the nice place in Lingshangyang Mountain, where there are the traces of Xie Wei and Li Bai’s trips. The second two lines are to recall the most profound impression left by that year: in the evening, walking slowly and alone beside Juxi and Wanxi, the sunset shining on the water, the reflection of the stacked rooftop reflected in the water, and the wine flag seemed to float down in the spring flowing water. That scene is the most thought-provoking. Why does it evoke thoughts? What kind of thoughts are aroused? The poet did not say, and there is no need to say it. The first two lines have already pointed out Xie Wei and Li Bai, whom the poet admires, and the thoughts and emotions contained in the landscape picture described in the second two lines are self-evidently related to their deeds.
When Xie was the governor of Xuancheng, he was very unhappy, “Although the river and the sea have not yet come from here, the mountains and forests have begun here” (“The Beginning of Xuancheng County”). When Li Bai visited Xuancheng, he was also full of complaints, “the water flowed even more when the knife was broken, and the sorrow was even more when the glass was raised” (“Xuanzhou Xie Xuelou can bid farewell to schoolmaster Shu Yun”). However, after all, Xie Wei still has the pleasure, Li Bai tends to be a boozy traveler, and the building on the green Lingshangshan Mountain, where Xie Wei built and Li Bai drank, really makes people think and long for it. Although he had travelled to this wonderful place, he could not add one more point of charm and elegance to it. In personal, he is ashamed of his predecessors; in the current world, he is deeply depressed. Therefore, when he thought back to his old trip, only the confused scene of the passing of the time and the world gave him an unforgettable and deep impression. The sunset in the west, the spring water flowing away, the wine flag waving in the evening breeze, and the broken reflection in the flowing water, form a poetic picture, which attracts infinite sentimental thoughts. It is clear that this poem is a nostalgic poem about the old travels in the landscape, but it is essentially a poem about chanting and remembering monuments and feeling sad about the world.
The artistic feature of this poem obviously lies in the refinement of the words and the melting of emotions into the scenery, thus making the scenery picturesque and inexhaustible. The first two lines point out the time and place, reveal the famous scenic spots and monuments, and express the feelings of nostalgia and longing, with provincial language, full of meaning and distinctive image, which has fully demonstrated the poet’s sophisticated artistic talent. The last two lines go deeper into the theme, highlighting the impressions, describing vividly, seeing the imaginary with the real, conveying the spirit in the resemblance, which can be called “painting book”, and the emphasis is on writing. The hopeless confusion in Li Shangyin’s “Jinse”, in which “this feeling can be remembered, but at that time it was already confused”, is very similar to that expressed in this poem by Lu Guemeng. Perhaps this is the characteristic of the poem’s time. It was a common trend in the late Tang Dynasty to develop the art of poetry in the direction of figurative expression of certain impressions and emotions.
