134. With Joy, My Younger Cousin Lu Lun Comes to Stay | Sikong Shu

这一联没有动词，也没有比喻，只是把两样东西放在一起：雨里的树和灯下的人。它的效果来自对应关系——雨对灯（冷对暖），黄叶对白头（衰败对衰老），树对人（物对人）。四组对照叠在一处，就成了一种同病相怜。司空曙没有说「我很凄凉」，两句一摆，凄凉自己站起来了。

The couplet has no verb and no figure; it simply puts two things together, a tree in the rain and a man by the lamp. Its force comes from correspondence — rain against lamp (cold against warm), yellow leaves against a white head (decay against age), tree against man. Four pairings stack up, and fellow-feeling is made. Sikong Shu never says "I am desolate"; he sets the two lines down and the desolation stands up on its own.

第三联的「愧」是这首诗的语气。一般人写朋友来访都写感激，司空曙写的是亏欠：自己多年沉沦，没有起色，反要对方一次次跑来看他。这个角度让全诗的态度变得复杂——既有对情谊的珍惜，也有对自己处境的难堪。写这种不体面的心情，比写感谢更费力，也更真实。

The "shame" in the third couplet sets the poem's tone. Friends visiting usually calls for gratitude; Sikong Shu writes indebtedness — long stalled, no improvement, and the other man coming again and again. The angle complicates the attitude: something prized in the friendship and something unbearable in his own condition at once. Writing that unbecoming feeling costs more than writing thanks and comes closer to the truth.

末联的「况是蔡家亲」把诗从自我怜悯里拉出来。前面写的是贫、是病老、是亏欠，末句忽然说：我们本来就是亲戚。这不是安慰，是把关系当作事实摆出来——来访不需要理由，探望不需要报答。司空曙收在这一点上，前六句的沉郁就有了着落。

The last couplet's "and cousins besides" pulls the poem out of self-pity. Before it are poverty, age, illness, indebtedness; then the flat statement that they are kin. This is not comfort, it is relationship set down as fact — a visit needs no reason and no repayment. Ending there, Sikong Shu gives the weight of the six lines somewhere to rest.