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诗人初到凉州，面对黄河、边城的辽阔景象，又耳听着《折杨柳》曲，有感而发，写成了这首表现戍守边疆的士兵思念家乡情怀的诗作。
诗的前两句描绘了西北边地广漠壮阔的风光。首句抓住自下（游）向上（游）、由近及远眺望黄河的特殊感受，描绘出“黄河远上白云间”的动人画面：汹涌澎湃波浪滔滔的黄河竟像一条丝带迤逦飞上云端。写得真是神思飞跃，气象开阔。诗人的另一名句“黄河入海流”，其观察角度与此正好相反，是自上而下的目送；而李白的“黄河之水天上来”，虽也写观望上游，但视线运动却又由远及近，与此句不同。“黄河入海流”和“黄河之水天上来”，同是着意渲染黄河一泻千里的气派，表现的是动态美。而“黄河远上白云间”，方向与河的流向相反，意在突出其源远流长的闲远仪态，表现的是一种静态美。同时展示了边地广漠壮阔的风光，不愧为千古奇句。
次句“一片孤城万仞山”出现了塞上孤城，这是此诗主要意象之一，属于“画卷”的主体部分。“黄河远上白云间”是它远大的背景，“万仞山”是它靠近的背景。在远川高山的反衬下，益见此城地势险要、处境孤危。“一片”是唐诗习用语词，往往与“孤”连文（如“孤帆一片”、“一片孤云”等等），这里相当于“一座”，而在词采上多一层“单薄”的意思。这样一座漠北孤城，当然不是居民点，而是戌边的堡垒，同时暗示读者诗中有征夫在。“孤城”作为古典诗歌语汇，具有特定涵义。它往往与离人愁绪联结在一起，如“夔府孤城落日斜，每依北斗望京华”（杜甫《秋兴》）、“遥知汉使萧关外，愁见孤城落日边”（王维《送韦评事》）等等。第二句“孤城”意象先行引入，为下两句进一步刻画征夫的心理作好了准备。
“羌笛何须怨杨柳”，在这样苍凉 的环境背景下，忽然听到了羌笛声，所吹的曲调恰好又是《折杨柳》，这不禁勾起戍边士兵们的思乡之愁。因为“柳”和“留”谐音，所以古人常常在别离的时候折柳相赠表示留念。北朝乐府《鼓角横吹曲》中有《折杨柳枝》：“上马不捉鞭，反拗杨柳枝。蹀座吹长笛，愁杀行客儿。”就提到了行人临别时折柳。这种折柳送别风气在唐朝尤其盛行。士兵们听着哀怨的曲子，内心非常惆怅，诗人也不知道该如何安慰戍边的士兵，只能说，羌笛何必总是吹奏那首哀伤的《折杨柳》曲呢？春风本来就吹不到玉门关里的。既然没有春风又哪里有杨柳来折呢？这句话含有一股怨气，但是又含无可奈何语气，虽然乡愁难耐，但是戍守边防的责任更为重大啊。一个“何须怨”看似宽慰，但是，也曲折表达了那种抱怨，使整首诗的意韵变得更为深远。这里的春风也暗指皇帝，因为皇帝的关怀到达不了这里，所以，玉门关外士兵处境如此的孤危和恶劣。诗人委婉地表达了对皇帝不顾及戍守玉门关边塞士兵的生死，不能体恤边塞士兵的抱怨之情。
本首诗调苍凉悲壮，虽写满抱怨但却并不消极颓废，表现了盛唐时期人们宽广豁达的胸襟。诗文中对比手法的运用使 诗意的表现更有张力。用语委婉精确，表达思想感情恰到好处。▲
appreciation
When the poet first arrived in Liangzhou, facing the vast scene of the Yellow River and the border city, he listened to the song “Breaking Willows” and wrote this poem to express the homesickness of soldiers guarding the border.
The first two sentences of the poem describe the vast and magnificent scenery in the northwest. The first sentence captures the special feeling of looking at the Yellow River from the bottom (swim) to the top (swim), from the near to the far, and depicts the moving picture of “the Yellow River is far above the white clouds”: the surging and surging Yellow River flies up to the clouds like a ribbon. It is really a leap of mind and a broad atmosphere. Another famous poem of the poet, “The Yellow River flows into the sea”, its observation angle is just the opposite, which is from top to bottom; Li Bai’s “The water of the Yellow River comes up from heaven” is different from this sentence, although it also writes to watch the upstream, but the line of sight moves from far to near. “The Yellow River flows into the sea” and “the water of the Yellow River comes up from heaven” both deliberately exaggerate the momentum of the Yellow River, showing the dynamic beauty. While “the Yellow River is far above the white clouds”, the direction is opposite to the direction of the river, which is intended to highlight its leisurely appearance with a long history, showing a static beauty. At the same time, it shows the vast and magnificent scenery of the border area, which is worthy of being a strange sentence for thousands of years.
The second sentence, “An isolated city stands on a mountain”, appears the isolated city on the fortress, which is one of the main images of this poem and belongs to the main part of the “picture scroll”. “The Yellow River is far above the white clouds” is its grand background, and “Wanren Mountain” is its close background. In contrast to the mountains in Yuanchuan, I can see that the city is in a dangerous and isolated situation. “One piece” is an idiom of Tang poetry, often linked with “solitary” (such as “a piece of solitary sail”, “a piece of solitary cloud”, etc.), which is equivalent to “one piece”, and has a more “thin” meaning. Such an isolated city in northern desert is certainly not a residential area, but a fortress on the border of Xuzhou. It also implies that there is a crusader in the reader’s poetry. As a vocabulary of classical poetry, “isolated city” has a specific meaning. It is often associated with the sadness of leaving people, such as “the sunset in the isolated city of Kui Prefecture is declining, and every time you look at Beijing from the Big Dipper” (Qiu Xing by Du Fu), “you can know the Han envoy outside Xiaoguan from afar, and you will be sad to see the sunset in the isolated city” (See Wei Ping Shi by Wang Wei), and so on. The second sentence introduces the image of “isolated city” first, preparing for the next two sentences to further depict the psychology of Zhengfu.
“Why should the Qiang flute complain about willows?” In such a bleak environment, I suddenly heard the sound of the Qiang flute, and the tune it played was just “Breaking willows”, which could not help but arouse the homesickness of the border guards. Because “Liu” and “Liu” are homophonic, the ancients often gave willows as gifts to commemorate their parting. In the Music House of the Northern Dynasty, “The Drum Horn blows horizontally”, there is “Breaking the willow branches”: “Get on the horse and don’t catch the whip, but bend the willow branches. You can play the flute on the seat of the ladder and worry about killing travelers.” It was mentioned that pedestrians broke willows when they left. This custom of parting at the willow was particularly popular in the Tang Dynasty. The soldiers listened to the sad music and felt very sad. The poet did not know how to comfort the soldiers guarding the border. He could only say, why does the Qiang flute always play the sad song “Breaking Willows”? The spring breeze could not reach the Yumen Pass. Since there is no spring breeze, where can willows be folded? This sentence contains a sense of resentment, but also a tone of helplessness. Although homesickness is unbearable, the responsibility of guarding the border is even more important. A “Why complain” seems to be comforting, but it also twists and turns to express that kind of complaint, which makes the whole poem more profound. The spring breeze here also implied the emperor. Because the emperor’s care could not reach here, the soldiers outside the Yumen Pass were in such a dangerous situation. The poet tactfully expressed his complaint that the emperor ignored the life and death of the soldiers guarding the Yumen Pass and could not sympathize with the soldiers.
This poem is bleak and solemn. Although it is full of complaints, it is not negative and decadent. It shows people’s broad and open-minded mind in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. The use of contrast in poetry and prose makes poetic expression more tense. The words are euphemistic and precise, and the expression of thoughts and feelings is just right. ▲
