ChineseStudy

82. Inscribed at the North Post-Station of Dayu Ridge | Song Zhiwen

Contents

Text

English translation

In the tenth month the wild geese fly south; they say that here they turn back.

The tenth month has its own name in the old calendar. That the geese turn back at the ridge was a traditional belief, and it serves as a gloss on Dayu Ridge as the line between north and south.

My journey is far from over — when shall I come back again?

The geese stop here; the man must go on south. The question sets man against goose and is the poem's turning point.

The river is still and the tide has just fallen; the woods are dark and the miasma will not lift.

Both lines give the real look of Lingnan, and both still and dark are oppressive. The miasma was what officials exiled south feared most; the line does not name the fear, only shows the haze that will not disperse.

Tomorrow at dawn, looking toward home, I should see the plum on the ridge.

Dayu Ridge was known for its plums, whence the old name plum on the ridge. The last line puts the looking homeward on a branch of something visible, and the feeling closes rather than spills.

赏析 · Commentary

被贬南行的人为什么总写大庾岭 · Why Exiles Heading South Always Write of Dayu Ridge

大庾岭是唐代中原通往岭南的咽喉，过了岭就算离开了熟悉的地方。它在地理上是分界，在心理上也是——北边是朝堂、家乡、可以回去的生活，南边是瘴气、贬所、不知何时能还的处境。所以贬谪诗反复写这道岭。宋之问这首没有直接说被贬，只用「我行殊未已」带过，写岭写雁写瘴，把处境藏在景里。读的时候要留意：他写的每一处景物，都对应着身份的一部分。

Dayu Ridge was the throat of the road from the central plains into Lingnan in Tang times; past the ridge one had left familiar ground. It is a boundary geographically and also inwardly — north is the court, home, a life one might return to; south is miasma, the place of exile, a state with no known end. Hence exile poems return to this ridge again and again. Song Zhiwen never says he was demoted, letting my journey is far from over carry it, and writing ridge, geese, miasma, hiding his situation inside the scenery. Read it with this in mind: each feature he describes answers to one part of his condition.

「雁到这里就回头」的用意 · The Point of Geese That Turn Back Here

大雁南飞过冬是常识，但古人观察到的雁群多在长江一带就停下，于是有了「雁至衡阳回」之类的说法，大庾岭也被附会成雁的折返点。宋之问用这个说法，不是在做自然观察，是在取它的象征：连雁都知道到此为止，我却还要往前。三个字「殊未已」是全诗情绪最重的地方，因为它说的不是路远，是路还没有尽头。

That geese fly south for winter is common knowledge, but the flocks the ancients observed mostly stopped around the Yangtze, giving rise to sayings that the geese turn back at Hengyang, and Dayu Ridge was also attached to this turning point. Song Zhiwen is not doing natural observation; he takes the symbolism: even the geese know to stop here, and I must go on. The phrase rendered far from over carries the poem's heaviest feeling, for what it says is not that the road is long but that it has no end in sight.

末句的梅花不止是梅花 · The Plum in the Last Line Is More Than Plum

「陇头梅」有几个可能的指向。一是实指，大庾岭自古多梅，南行的人翻岭时见得到。二是用典，陆凯从江南寄梅花给长安的范晔，附诗「折梅逢驿使，寄与陇头人」，「陇头」由此成为寄远的典故。三是气候意义，岭南梅开得早，见梅意味着真的到了南方。三义可以叠在一起：明天望乡时看见梅花，等于同时看到了离乡的距离、寄信的愿望和南方的实景。

The plum on the ridge points several ways. First, literally: Dayu Ridge has long been rich in plum, and a traveler crossing it would see them. Second, allusively: Lu Kai sent plum blossoms from the south to Fan Ye in Chang'an with a verse about meeting a courier and breaking off a plum for a friend at Longtou, and from this the place-name became a byword for sending something far. Third, climatically: plum blooms early in Lingnan, so seeing it means one has truly arrived in the south. The three senses stack: to see plum while looking homeward is at once to see the distance from home, the wish to send word, and the southern ground itself.

Feedback