Listen to this article陆俨少 行书：李白《静夜思》
【释文】床前明月光，疑是地上霜。举头望明月，低头思故乡。
【款识】松茂先生正。俨少。
【注释】又作：床前看月光，疑是地上霜。举头望山月，低头思故乡。举：抬。
【简析】
胡应麟说：“太白诸绝句，信口而成，所谓无意于工而无不工者。”（《诗薮·内编》卷六）王世懋认为：“（绝句）盛唐惟青莲（李白）、龙标（王昌龄）二家诣极。李更自然，故居王上。”（《艺圃撷馀》）怎样才算“自然”，才是“无意于工而无不工”呢？这首《静夜思》就是个样榜。所以胡氏特地把它提出来，说是“妙绝古今”。
这首小诗，既没有奇特新颖的想象，更没有精工华美的辞藻；它只是用叙述的语气，写远客思乡之情，然而它却意味深长，耐人寻绎，千百年来，如此广泛地吸引着读者。
一个作客他乡的人，大概都会有这样的感觉吧：白天倒还罢了，到了夜深人静的时候，思乡的情绪，就难免一阵阵地在心头泛起波澜；何况是月明之夜，更何况是明月如霜的秋夜！
月白霜清，是清秋夜景；以霜色形容月光，也是古典诗歌中所经常看到的。例如梁简文帝萧纲《玄圃纳凉》诗中就有“夜月似秋霜”之句；而稍早于李白的唐代诗人张若虚在《春江花月夜》里，用“空里流霜不觉飞”来写空明澄澈的月光，给人以立体感，尤见构思之妙。可是这些都是作为一种修辞的手段而在诗中出现的。这诗的“疑是地上霜”，是叙述，而非摹形拟象的状物之辞，是诗人在特定环境中一刹那间所产生的错觉。为什么会有这样的错觉呢？不难想象，这两句所描写的是客中深夜不能成眠、短梦初回的情景。这时庭院是寂寥的，透过窗户的皎洁月光射到床前，带来了冷森森的秋宵寒意。诗人朦胧地乍一望去，在迷离恍惚的心情中，真好象是地上铺了一层白皑皑的浓霜；可是再定神一看，四周围的环境告诉他，这不是霜痕而是月色。月色不免吸引着他抬头一看，一轮娟娟素魄正挂在窗前，秋夜的太空是如此的明净！这时，他完全清醒了。
秋月是分外光明的，然而它又是清冷的。对孤身远客来说，最容易触动旅思秋怀，使人感到客况萧条，年华易逝。凝望着月亮，也最容易使人产生遐想，想到故乡的一切，想到家里的亲人。想着，想着，头渐渐地低了下去，完全浸入于沉思之中。
从“疑”到“举头”，从“举头”到“低头”，形象地揭示了诗人内心活动，鲜明地勾勒出一幅生动形象的月夜思乡图。
短短四句诗，写得清新朴素，明白如话。它的内容是单纯的，但同时却又是丰富的。它是容易理解的，却又是体味不尽的。诗人所没有说的比他已经说出来的要多得多。它的构思是细致而深曲的，但却又是脱口吟成、浑然无迹的。从这里，我们不难领会到李白绝句的“自然”、“无意于工而无不工”的妙境。
另欣赏：任政 熊伯齐 祝允明
任政 行书：李白《静夜思》
【款识】李白诗静夜思一首。兰斋任政时年七十有八，书于上海。
熊伯齐 篆书：李白《静夜思》
【款识】李白诗。壬午荷月，熊伯齐。
祝允明 草书：李白《静夜思》
【款识】允明。
【Simple Translation】
Hu Yinglin said: “Taibai’s stanzas are made by the mouth, so that there is no intention to work but not work.” (Poetry Yabu – Inner Series, Vol. 6) Wang Shimao thinks: “The only two attainments in the Sheng Tang Dynasty are Qinglian (Li Bai) and Longbiao (Wang Changling). Li was more natural, so he was above Wang.” （What is considered “natural” and “not intended to work, but not unworked”? This song “Silent Night Thoughts” is a sample example. That’s why Hu specially brings it up, saying it is “wonderfully ancient and modern”.
This small poem has no strange and original imagination, nor does it have any elaborate and beautiful rhetoric; it only uses a narrative tone to write about the feelings of a distant visitor who misses his hometown, yet it is so meaningful and intriguing that it has attracted readers so widely for thousands of years.
A visitor to another country will probably feel this way: during the day, it’s fine, but when it’s late at night, the emotion of homesickness inevitably ripples in the heart; not to mention the night of the bright moon, let alone the autumn night when the moon is like frost!
The white moon and clear frost is a clear autumn night scene; describing the moonlight with frost color is also often seen in classical poetry. For example, in the poem “Xuan Pu Nai Liang” by Xiao Gang, Emperor Jianwen of Liang, there is a line “The moon is like autumn frost”; and Zhang Ruoxu, a poet of the Tang Dynasty, who was a little earlier than Li Bai, used the phrase “The frost in the air does not feel flying” to write about the clear moonlight, which gives people a three-dimensional feeling, and is especially good for conception. It gives a sense of three-dimensionality, which is a wonderful idea. However, these are all used as a rhetorical device in the poem. It is a narrative, not a mimicry, but an illusion created by the poet in a moment of time in a particular environment. Why is there such an illusion? It is easy to imagine that these two lines describe the scene when the guest cannot sleep late at night and returns from a short dream. At this time, the courtyard is silent, and the bright moonlight through the window comes to the bed, bringing a cold autumn night chill. When the poet looked at it at first, he felt as if a layer of white frost had been laid on the ground; but when he looked at it again, the surroundings told him that it was not frost but moonlight. The moonlight inevitably attracted him to look up, a round of Juan Pura is hanging in front of the window, the autumn night space is so clear! At that moment, he was fully awake.
The autumn moon is extraordinarily bright, yet it is also clear and cold. For a lonely and distant traveler, it is most likely to touch the feelings of travel and autumn, making one feel the depression and the passing of years. When you look at the moon, it is easy to think about everything in your hometown and your family members at home. Thinking, thinking, head gradually lowered, completely immersed in contemplation.
From “doubt” to “raising the head” and from “raising the head” to “lowering the head”, the poet’s inner activities are graphically revealed. The poet’s inner activities are revealed, and a vivid picture of homesickness on a moonlit night is distinctly outlined.
The poem is written in four short lines, which are fresh, simple and clear as words. Its content is simple, yet rich at the same time. It is easy to understand, yet it is inexhaustible. The poet leaves much more unsaid than he has already said. The composition is meticulous and deeply curved, yet it is off the cuff and untouched. From here, it is easy to understand the “naturalness” of Li Bai’s stanzas and the wonderful state of “not meaning to work but not working”.
