ChineseStudy

151. Thoughts on New Year’s Eve | Cui Tu

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English translation

The roads of the Three Ba stretch far and long; a sojourner in danger, this body is ten thousand li away.

'Three Ba' is the region of present-day Sichuan; 'lodged and endangered' means sojourning in a dangerous situation. The opening couplet sets out both remoteness and unease.

In a night of wild mountains and lingering snow, a lone candle shines on a man in a foreign land.

This couplet echoes Ma Dai's 'fallen leaves from trees in another land': the two lines are paired against each other, object against person. The four words wild, remnant, lone, and foreign all carry a sense of decline.

Gradually I grow distant from my own flesh and blood; instead, I grow close to my servants.

'Rather to' means instead. 'Close to servants' is the poem's most truthful stroke: with no family near, one can only rely on servants for mutual support.

How can I bear it, just now wandering adrift, when tomorrow the year will be new?

'Na kan' means how can one endure; 'the year is new' means the New Year. The last line sets out the time, and it is the most important line in the whole poem.

赏析 · Commentary

除夕这个日子 · The Date: New Year's Eve

这首诗题为「除夜有怀」，末句才点出「明日岁华新」。除夕是团圆的日子，全诗的处境——三巴远路、异乡孤烛、与骨肉渐远、只能与僮仆亲近——都因为这一个日子变得尖锐。崔涂把日期放在最后，等于给前面所有的不堪找到了理由。唐诗写节日，往往整首诗的重量都压在那个日子上。

Titled "Thoughts on New Year's Eve," the poem only names the date in its last line. New Year's Eve is for reunion, and the poem's whole situation — the far road to Ba, the lone candle in a strange place, distance from kin, closeness only to servants — is sharpened by that one day. Cui Tu puts the date last, giving all the hardship before it a reason. In Tang poems about festivals the weight of the whole often rests on the day.

「转于僮仆亲」 · "Rather Close to Servants"

第五、六句是这首诗被人记得最多的一联，因为「僮仆亲」这种话说出来很不体面，却非常真。人在异乡久了，亲人在远方，日常说话的对象只剩仆人，关系自然就近了。崔涂没有写思念，写的是替代——用亲近僮仆这件事，反而衬出亲情的缺失。唐诗写羁旅之苦，靠的常是这种具体而微的细节。

The fifth and sixth lines are the most remembered, because "close to servants" is an undignified thing to say and entirely true. After long enough away with family far off, the only people to talk to daily are the hired help, and closeness follows. Cui Tu does not write longing; he writes substitution — the closeness to servants sets off what is missing. Tang poems about the hardship of travel often rest on exactly this kind of small concrete detail.

中间两联的层次 · The Layers in the Middle Couplets

第二联写物（乱山、残雪、孤烛），第三联写关系（骨肉、僮仆）。从物到人，从环境到人际，两联之间有一个推进。到末联再说时间，就成了三重压力：环境恶劣、无人可依、又是除夕。崔涂没有把三样一起抛出来，而是一层一层加，读到末句才觉得受不了。

The second couplet writes things (wild hills, remnant snow, lone candle), the third writes relations (kin, servants). From objects to people, from environment to human ties, the couplets advance. With time added at the end, three pressures stack: bad surroundings, no one to lean on, and it is New Year's Eve. Cui Tu does not throw all three at once but adds them layer by layer, and only at the last line does it become unbearable.

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