Listen to this articleA rocking boat moored on a misty bank
The parting day brings new worries
In the distance the heavens droop behind the trees
The moon is a close friend on Blue River
Sù jiàn déjiāng
Yí zhōu bó yān zhǔ
Rì mù kè chóu xīn
Yě kuàng tiān dī shù
Jiāngqīng yuè jìn rén
宿建德江
栘舟泊烟渚
日暮客愁新
野旷天低树
江清月近人
Stay Overnight on the Tonglu River
Meng Haoran followed up his poem about mooring on the Blue River with a similar poem, Stay Overnight on the Tonglu River, Write to My Old Guangling Friends. Guangling in the title refers to a district in Yangzhou, Jiangsu province.Weiyang, referred to in the second stanza is near the capital of Chang’an. Jiande is our familiar city on the river which is given the name Tonglu, rather than Xin’an, its name according to Google Maps. NOt that it matters, but Meng Haoran is likely giving the river the name of Tonglu County through which it flows, east of Jiande.
Mountains at dusk, melancholy monkeys howl
Blue river, restlessly flows all night long.
Wind rustling through the leaves on the riverbanks
Moonlight shines on one solitary boat.
Jiande is not my home
It’s Weiyang where I miss old friends.
Both eyes still shedding tears
In this distant western place.
The River is as Blue as the Sky
Who has not stood at a river bank in the evening and watch the heavens sink below the trees? The water is like a mirror reflecting the sky in all its changing colors. Then as the sun sets, the water turns a deep blue the color of the evening sky. When the full moon rises on the horizon, it is so close one can touch it, lile a close friend?
Meng Haoran has stopped for the evening at Jiande (Déjiāng, 德江) in Hangzhou, the western part of Zhejiang Province. Meng has moored his boat along the misty bank, several miles downstream from Qiandao Lake. Jiāngqīng, 江清, Blue River in the last line is a reference to the river’s sky blue color at the setting sun. Though not identified, Xin’an is the river’s name.
Moon River, the Moon is my Friend
Tang poets like Du Fu and Li Bai have written endearingly of the moon, but none so beautifully as the older affable Meng Haoran.
Li Bai drinking alone made friends with the moon and his shadow, Li Bai, his shadow, and the moon. So friendly was Li Bai with the moon, the story is told that he tried to embrace the reflection of the moon in the Yangtze River, fell off his boat, and drowned. Du Fu spoke about how a full moon scatters restless gold across the waves.
Modern artists write about the moon. Moon Over Miami, a film and song from 1941, is a classic example. Johnny Mercer’s 1961 lyrics to Moon River captures a similar image for me. “Moon river, wider than a mile / I’m crossing you in style someday…” Fly Me to the Moon, by Bart Howard, sung by Kaye Ballard in 1954, and Frank Sinatra in 1964 is another example.
宿建德江
孟浩然 〔唐代〕
移舟泊烟渚，日暮客愁新。
野旷天低树，江清月近人。
译文及注释
译文
把船停泊在烟雾弥漫的沙洲旁，日落时新愁又涌上了心头。
原野无边无际，远处的天空比近处的树林还要低；江水清清，明月仿似更与人相亲。
注释
建德江：指新安江流经建德（今属浙江）西部的一段江水。
移舟：划动小船。泊：停船靠岸。
烟渚（zhǔ）：指江中雾气笼罩的小沙洲。烟：一作“幽”。
渚：水中小块陆地。《尔雅·释水》：“水中可居者曰洲，小洲曰渚。”
客：指作者自己。
愁：为思乡而忧思不堪。
野：原野。旷：空阔远大。
天低树：天幕低垂，好像和树木相连。
月近人：倒映在水中的月亮好像来靠近人。
赏析
这是一首刻画秋江暮色的诗，是唐人五绝中的写景名篇。作者把小船停靠在烟雾迷蒙的江边想起了以往的事情，因而以舟泊暮宿作为自己的抒发感情的归宿，写出了作者羁旅之思。
首句中“移舟”就是移舟近岸的意思；“泊”，这里有停船宿夜的含意。行船停靠在江中的一个烟雾朦胧的小洲边，这一面是点题，另一面也就为下文的写景抒情作了准备。
“日暮客愁新”，“日暮”显然和上句的“泊”、“烟”有联系，因为日暮，船需要停宿；也因为日落黄昏，江面上才水烟蒙蒙。同时“日暮”又是“客愁新”的原因。“客”是诗人自指。若按旧日作诗的所谓起、承、转、合的格式，这第二句就将承、转两重意思揉合在一句之中了，这也是少见的一格。为什么“日暮”会撩起“客愁新”呢？我们可以读一读《诗经》里的一段：“君子于役，不知其期，曷至哉？鸡栖于埘，日之夕矣，羊牛下来，君子于役，如之何勿思？”（《王风·君子于役》）这里写一位妇女，每当到夕阳西下、鸡进笼舍、牛羊归栏的时刻，她就更加思念在外服役的丈夫。借此，我们不也正可以理解此时旅人的心情吗？本来行船停下来，应该静静地休息一夜，消除旅途的疲劳，谁知在这众鸟归林、牛羊下山的黄昏时刻，那羁旅之愁又蓦然而生。
接下去诗人以一个对句铺写景物，似乎要将一颗愁心化入那空旷寂寥的天地之中。所以沈德潜说：“下半写景，而客愁自见。”第三句写日暮时刻，苍苍茫茫，旷野无垠，放眼望去，远处的天空显得比近处的树木还要低，“低”和“旷”是相互依存、相互映衬的。第四句写夜已降临，高挂在天上的明月，映在澄清的江水中，和舟中的人是那么近，“近”和“清”也是相互依存、相互映衬的。“野旷天低树，江清月近人”。这种极富特色的景物，只有人在舟中才能领略得到的。诗的第二句就点出“客愁新”，这三四句好似诗人怀着愁心，在这广袤而宁静的宇宙之中，经过一番上下求索，终于发现了还有一轮孤月此刻和他是那么亲近！寂寞的愁心似乎寻得了慰藉，诗也就戛然而止了。
然而，言虽止，意未尽。“皇皇三十载，书剑两无成。山水寻吴越，风尘厌洛京”（《自洛之越》）。诗人曾带着多年的准备、多年的希望奔入长安，而今却只能怀着一腔被弃置的忧愤南寻吴越。此刻，他孑然一身，面对着这四野茫茫、江水悠悠、明月孤舟的景色，那羁旅的惆怅，故乡的思念，仕途的失意，理想的幻灭，人生的坎坷……千愁万绪，不禁纷来沓至，涌上心头。“江清月近人”，这画面展示的是清澈平静的江水，以及水中的明月伴着船上的诗人；可那画面背后却是诗人的愁心已经随着江水流入思潮翻腾的海洋。“人禀七情，应物斯感；感物吟志，莫非自然”（刘勰《文心雕龙·明诗》）。孟浩然的这首小诗正是在这种情景相生、思与境谐的“自然流出”之中，显示出一种风韵天成、淡中有味、含而不露的艺术美。
此诗先写羁旅夜泊，再叙日暮添愁；然后写到宇宙广袤宁静，明月伴人更亲。一隐一现，虚实相间，两相映衬，互为补充，构成一个特殊的意境。诗中虽只有一个愁字，却把诗人内心的忧愁写得淋漓尽致，然野旷江清，秋色历历在目。
This is a poem depicting the twilight of the autumn river. It is a famous scenic piece among the five wonders of the Tang Dynasty. The author thought of the past when he docked the boat at the misty riverside, so he took the boat berthing at dusk as his destination to express his feelings, and wrote the author’s thoughts on the journey.
In the first sentence, “moving a boat” means moving a boat closer to the shore; “Berth” means to stop the ship for the night. The boat docked at the edge of a small foggy island in the river. This is the point on one side, and the other side is also prepared for the following lyrical scenery.
“Guests worry about new things at dusk”. “Sunset” is obviously related to the above words “berthing” and “smoking”, because the ship needs to stay at dusk; Because of the sunset, the river was misty. At the same time, “sunset” is the reason why “visitors are worried about the new”. “Guest” refers to the poet himself. If we follow the old style of “starting, inheriting, turning and combining”, this second sentence will combine the two meanings of “inheriting” and “turning” in one sentence, which is also a rare pattern. Why does the “sunset” lift up the “customer worries about the new”? We can read a paragraph in the Book of Songs: “The gentleman is in service, but I don’t know its time. What a hell is it? The chicken is sitting in the barn, and the day is coming. The sheep and cattle are coming down, and the gentleman is in service. Why not think about it?” (Wang Feng, A Gentleman in Service) This is about a woman who misses her husband when the sun sets, the chickens enter the cage and the cattle and sheep return to the corral. In this way, we can understand the feelings of travelers at this time? Originally, when the boat stopped, we should have a quiet rest for a night to eliminate the fatigue of the journey. However, at the dusk when the birds returned to the forest and the cattle and sheep went down the mountain, the worry of imprisonment suddenly arose.
Then the poet wrote the scene with a couplet, as if to turn a worried heart into the empty and lonely world. So Shen Deqian said, “The second half of the painting is about the scenery, while the guests are worried about themselves.” The third sentence says that at dusk, the sky is vast and the wilderness is boundless. If you look at it, the sky in the distance is lower than the trees nearby. “Low” and “open” are interdependent and set off each other. The fourth sentence says that the night has come, and the bright moon hanging high in the sky is reflected in the clear river water, so close to the people in the boat, and “near” and “clear” are interdependent and set off each other. “Trees are low in the wild, and the moon is close to people in the clear river”. This unique scenery can only be appreciated by people in boats. The second sentence of the poem points out that “guests are worried about the new”. These three or four sentences are like that the poet, with a worried heart, has found that there is still a solitary moon so close to him at this moment after a lot of searching in the vast and peaceful universe! The lonely sorrow seemed to find solace, and the poem stopped abruptly.
However, although the words have ended, the meaning has not ended. “The emperor has been living for 30 years, but neither calligraphy nor sword has been successful. The mountains and rivers are searching for Wu and Yue, and the dust and wind are tired of Luoyang” (“The Yue from Luoyang”). The poet once rushed to Chang’an with years of preparation and hope, but now he can only find Wu and Yue in the south with a tone of sadness and indignation. At this moment, he is alone, facing the scene of vast fields, leisurely rivers, bright moon and solitary boat, the melancholy of the confinement trip, the yearning for his hometown, the frustration of his career, the disillusionment of his ideal, the frustrations of life… All kinds of emotions can not help but come to his mind. “The river is clear and the moon is close to people”, this picture shows the clear and calm river water, and the bright moon in the water accompanied by the poet on the ship; But behind that picture is the poet’s sorrow that has flowed into the sea of ideological turmoil with the river. “People are endowed with seven emotions, so they should be sensitive to things; it is natural to feel things and recite their aspirations” (Liu Xie, Literary Mind Carving Dragon · Ming Poetry). Meng Haoran’s little poem is just in this kind of “natural outflow” in which the scene is born together, thinking and context are harmonious, showing a kind of artistic beauty with natural charm, light taste, and implicit but not exposed.
This poem first writes about the night stay in captivity, and then narrates the day and night to add sorrow; Then he wrote that the universe is vast and peaceful, and the moon is more intimate with people. One concealment and one appearance form a special artistic conception. Although there is only one word of sorrow in the poem, the poet’s inner sorrow is vividly written. However, the wild river is clear and the autumn scenery is vivid.
