Listen to this articleCheering Up Oneself or Self Consolation – 自遣
When I win, I sing loudly, when I lose, I rest promptly
Woes and regrets are the unending way to sorrow
Today, drink and be drunk, this wine is still mine,
If worries come, as worries will, worry not until tomorrowA win I sing, a loss I am sullen,
Worries and regrets linger far too long.
If there is wine today, then today get drunk,
Worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes.
(Tomorrow there is time enough to worry)
“What Me Worry” would be the title if written by Mad’s Alfred E. Newman.
Luo Yin
Tang poet, Luo Yin, was by all accounts, ugly and difficult to get along with. He had much to complain of. He failed the imperial examinations ten times, and therefore gave himself the pseudonym Yin, meaning “dormant”. So ugly he was, that the following story is told. The imperial court’s grand councilor Zheng Tian had a young daughter who enjoyed Luo Yin’s poems, frequently reading them out loud to her father’s annoyance. He had her attend court and peek out from the curtains at Luo Yin’s ugly face.
She never read another one of his poems.
This poem is translated often by those more competent than myself. The nuances are slight but significant.
Luo’s rhyming pattern is abab. He uses internal repetition of words like today and tomorrow, and sorrow. Line two is a good example, speak out loud and listen – duō chóu duō hèn yì yōuyōu.
The title is most often given as Self Consolation. That works, but it might be more accurate to use, Cheering Up Oneself, a type of toast to a cup of wine.
自遣
得即高歌失即休
多愁多恨亦悠悠
今朝有酒今朝醉
明日愁來明日愁
Zì qiǎn
dé jí gāogē shī jí xiū
duō chóu duō hèn yì yōuyōu
jīnzhāo yǒu jiǔ jīnzhāo zuì
míngrì chóu lái míngrì chóu
自遣
罗隐 〔唐代〕
得即高歌失即休，多愁多恨亦悠悠。
今朝有酒今朝醉，明日愁来明日愁。
译文及注释
译文
得到的时候就放声高歌没有就由他去吧，愁恨全然不理照样乐悠悠。
今天有酒就痛快畅饮喝他个酩酊大醉，明日的忧虑就等明天再烦愁。
注释
得：指得到高歌机会。失：指失去这个机会。
悠悠：悠闲自在的样子。
今朝：今日。
赏析
该诗成功地塑造一个活脱脱的呼之欲出的纵酒高歌的旷士形象。这个形象虽有政治上失意后颓唐的一面，而其中愤世嫉俗的品格颇得人们赞叹。他除了反映旧时代知识分子一种变态的心理外，而通过人物的形象也状写出了晚唐社会的黑暗现实。
“得即高歌失即休，多愁多恨亦悠悠。”这首小诗的前两句是说，一有机会便唱否则即罢休，愁恨全然不理照样乐悠悠。
首句说不必患得患失，倘若直说便抽象化、概念化。而写成“得即高歌失即休”那种半是自白、半是劝世的口吻，尤其是仰面“高歌”的情态，则给人具体生动的感受。情而有“态”，便形象化。次句不说“多愁多恨”太无聊，而说“亦悠悠”，也就收到具体生动之效，不特是为了押韵而已。
“今朝有酒今朝醉，明日愁来明日愁。”小诗的后两句是说，今天有酒就喝个酩酊大醉，明日有忧虑就等明天再愁。
这两句更将“得即高歌失即休”一语具体化，一个放歌纵酒的狂士形象呼之欲出。这，也就是此诗造成的总的形象了。仅指出这一点还不够，还要看到这一形象的独特性。这里取象于放歌纵酒，更带迟暮的颓丧。“今朝有酒今朝醉”，总使人感到一种内在的凄凉、愤嫉之情。这样的情感既有普遍性，其形象又有个性化，所以具有典型意义。
此诗艺术表现上更其成功之处，则在于重叠中求变化，从而形成绝妙的咏叹调。
一是情感上的重叠变化。首句先括尽题意，说得时诚可高兴失时亦不必悲伤；次句则是首句的补充，从反面说同一意思：倘不这样，“多愁多恨”，是有害无益的；三、四句则又回到正面立意上来，分别推进了首句的意思：“今朝有酒今朝醉”就是“得即高歌”的反复与推进，“明日愁来明日愁”则是“失即休”的进一步阐发。总之，从头至尾，诗情有一个回旋和升腾。
二是音响即字词上的重叠变化。首句前四字与后三字意义相对，而二、六字（“即”）重叠；次句是紧缩式，意思是多愁悠悠，多恨亦悠悠，形成同意反复。
三、四句句式相同，但三句中“今朝”两字重叠，四句中“明日愁”竟然三字重叠，但前“愁”字属名词，后“愁”字乃动词，词性亦有变化。可以说，每一句都是重叠与变化手牵手走，而每一句具体表现又各各不同。把重叠与变化统一的手法运用得尽情尽致，在小诗中似乎是最突出的。
由于上述两个方面的独到，宜乎千年以来一些穷愁潦倒的人沉饮“自遣”，陶冶情操时，于古人偌多解愁诗句中，惟独最容易记起“今朝有酒今朝醉”来。
诗名《自遣》，是自行排遣宽慰的意思。解读此诗，关键全在于诗人将“愁’和“恨”排遣掉了没有。而诗人之“愁”和“恨”是社会之愁，家国之愁，这种愁是诗人自己难以解决的。上书，皇帝不听；劝说，皇帝不理；讽谏，皇帝会恼怒。那诗人怎样排遣，是采取了不理、不采、不合作、不发言的态度。这种玩世不恭的态度虽带有一定的消积成分，然而大多的知识分子都不发言，都不合作，那“此时无声胜有声”拥有很大的力量。▲
appreciation
The poem successfully portrays a vivid image of a scholar who indulges in drinking and sings loudly. Although this image has the decadent side of political frustration, its cynical character has won people’s admiration. In addition to reflecting the abnormal psychology of intellectuals in the old times, he also wrote the dark reality of the late Tang society through the images of his characters.
“Sing loudly when you get it, and stop when you lose it. You will be sad and hateful when you get it.” The first two sentences of this little poem say that you should sing at the first opportunity, or you should give up. You can still enjoy yourself if you ignore your worries and hatred.
The first sentence says that you don’t have to worry about your gains and losses. If you say it directly, you will abstract and conceptualize it. However, the tone of “singing when you get it”, which is half confession and half persuasion, especially the attitude of “singing when you get it”, gives a specific and vivid feeling. Emotion and “state” are visualized. The second sentence does not say that “much sorrow and much hatred” is too boring, but “also leisurely”, which will receive a specific and vivid effect, not especially for rhyme.
“If you are drunk today, tomorrow will be sad.” The last two sentences of the poem say that if you have wine today, you will get drunk. If you have worries tomorrow, you will worry tomorrow.
These two sentences further materialize the phrase “sing loudly when you get it, and stop when you lose it”, and the image of a crazy person who indulges in singing and drinking is ready to come out. This is the general image created by this poem. It is not enough just to point out this, but also to see the uniqueness of this image. Here, it is like indulging in singing and drinking, which is more gloomy. “There is wine today and I am drunk today”, which always makes people feel a kind of inner desolation and jealousy. This kind of emotion has both universality and individuality, so it has typical significance.
The more successful artistic expression of this poem lies in seeking change in overlapping, thus forming a wonderful aria.
One is the overlapping changes in emotion. The first sentence first covers the meaning of the topic, saying that when you are honest, you can be happy when you are lost, and you don’t need to be sad; The second sentence is a supplement to the first sentence, which means the same thing from the opposite side: if not, “much sorrow and much hatred” is harmful and useless; 3、 The four sentences return to the positive idea, respectively advancing the meaning of the first sentence: “Today is the time when you are drunk” is the repetition and promotion of “singing when you get it”, and “tomorrow is the time when you are sad” is the further explanation of “losing is the time to stop”. In a word, from beginning to end, poetry has a swing and rise.
The second is sound, that is, overlapping changes in words. The first four words of the first sentence are relative to the last three words, while the two and six words (“namely”) overlap; The second sentence is contractive, which means that many worries are lingering, and many hates are lingering, forming agreement to repeat.
3、 The sentence patterns of the four sentences are the same, but the words “today” overlap in the three sentences, and the words “tomorrow sorrow” overlap in the four sentences. However, the former word “sorrow” belongs to a noun, and the latter word “sorrow” is a verb, and the part of speech also changes. It can be said that each sentence is overlapping and changing hand in hand, and each sentence has its own specific performance. It seems to be the most prominent in the small poems to use the unity of overlap and change as much as possible.
Because of the uniqueness of the above two aspects, it is appropriate for some poor people to drink “self indulgence” for thousands of years and cultivate their sentiments. Among so many ancient poems to relieve their worries, only they are most likely to remember that “if you have wine today, you will be drunk today”.
The name of the poem is “Desperate”, which means to relieve oneself. To interpret this poem, the key lies in whether the poet has dismissed “sorrow” and “hate”. The poet’s “sorrow” and “hate” are the worries of the society and the country, which are difficult for the poet to solve. The emperor did not listen to the letter; Persuasion, the emperor ignored; The emperor will be angry if he satirizes. How did the poet arrange himself? He adopted an attitude of indifference, non acceptance, non cooperation and non speech. Although this cynical attitude has some negative elements, most intellectuals do not speak and do not cooperate, so “silence is better than voice” has great power. ▲
