Listen to this article天涯
春日在天涯，
天涯日又斜。
莺啼如有泪，
为湿最高花。
The End of the Sky
Li Shangyin
Spring is far, far away
Where the sun slants its ray.
If orioles have tear,
Wet highest flowers here!
This quatrain may be said to be an elegy of spring, of the poet’s life and of his era. The place is far away and the time late, even a happy bird would be saddened to shed tears on beautiful flowers.
《天涯》是唐代诗人李商隐的诗作。此诗写作者沦落天涯，又值春残日暮，人有情而鸟无意，伤春伤时又自伤身世。首句平直叙起，蕴藏着极深沉凄惋的感情；次句使用“顶针”格，重复“天涯”二字，再点题意；转句用意深婉曲折，在婉曲回环中见奇警；结句余音袅袅，哀艳动人。全诗短短二十个字，运用寓情于景、移情于物的手法，用极艳之语抒发了极悲之意，明白如话而又宛转多姿，极有盛唐绝句风味，较典型地反映出李商隐的艺术创作特色。
“The End of the Sky” is a poem by Li Shangyin, a poet of the Tang Dynasty. The poem is about the author’s descent into the sky and the waning days of spring. The first line is a straightforward narrative with a deep and poignant feeling; the second line uses the “thimble” frame, repeating the word “the end of the world” to point out the meaning of the poem; the second line has a deep and twisted meaning, which is a curious warning in the middle of the twists and turns; the final line has a curling tone, which is sad and moving. The poem is just twenty words long, but it uses the technique of putting emotion in the scene and transferring emotion to objects, expressing the meaning of extreme sorrow with extremely colorful words, which is as clear as words and yet poetic and colorful, and is very typical of Li Shangyin’s artistic creation.
