85. Sent to Censor Du in the Left Palace Office | Cen Shen
Text
English translation
Original Chinese text
联步趋丹陛，分曹限紫薇。
English translation
We once walked in step up the red steps; now we belong to different bureaus, kept apart by the Secretariat.
The red steps are the palace stairs; the purple myrtle refers to the Secretariat. The two lines show the pair going from colleagues who walked together to officials posted in separate bureaus.
Original Chinese text
晓随天仗入，暮惹御香归。
English translation
At dawn I follow the imperial guard in; at dusk I come home trailing the palace incense.
Dawn and dusk give the day, in and home its two ends. The word rendered trailing is very light — the fragrance catching on one's clothes is the concrete mark of a courtier's place.
Original Chinese text
白发悲花落，青云羡鸟飞。
English translation
White-haired, I grieve at the falling flowers; gazing up at the blue clouds, I envy the birds in flight.
“Blue clouds” means both the high sky and high office. Envying the birds in flight appears to describe scenery, but is in fact a hidden wound at not being promoted—the buried charge of this couplet.
Original Chinese text
圣朝无阙事，自觉谏书稀。
English translation
The sage court has no faults to mend; I find my own memorials of remonstrance growing few.
On the surface praise, in fact irony: the court is not faultless — it is that he, a remonstrance official, has nothing to show. The words rendered I find are where the tact lies.
赏析 · Commentary
末联的反语怎么读出来 · How to Hear the Irony in the Last Couplet
「圣朝无阙事」如果当作真心话，全诗就成了歌功颂德；但前六句一直在写侍臣的辛劳、白发的悲、不得升迁的羡，情绪并不高。所以末联只能读作反语：不是朝廷无阙，是自己这个谏官形同虚设。写作对象的身份也帮我们判断——诗是寄给同为谏官的杜甫的，两人处境相同，说反话才有共鸣。「自觉谏书稀」把责任揽到自己身上，措辞软，意思是硬的。
Read as sincere, the sage court has no faults turns the whole poem into praise; but the first six lines dwell on a courtier's drudgery, the grief of white hair, and envy at others' rise — no high spirits there. The last couplet can only be heard as irony: not that the court is faultless, but that he as a remonstrance official amounts to nothing. The addressee's identity helps fix the reading — the poem goes to Du Fu, likewise a remonstrance official, and between two people in the same fix an ironic remark finds its echo. Saying his own memorials grow few takes the blame on himself; the wording is soft, the meaning hard.
「青云羡鸟飞」的双关 · The Double Meaning of the Blue Cloud and the Birds
「青云」在唐诗里几乎是个固定搭配，指高位或通达的仕途，如「青云直上」。这里把它和高空的字面意思叠在一起：鸟飞在高空，人却困于下僚，字面上是景，底下是志。这种双关在官场题材的诗里很常见，因为直接说会得罪人，用物象说出来则人人可懂又无可指摘。岑参写这句时已经年过四十，仍在中低级官职上打转，代入他的处境，羡慕的分量就更实在。
Blue cloud is nearly a set phrase in Tang poetry for high office and a smooth career, as in to soar straight up to the blue cloud. Here it overlaps with the literal high sky: birds fly aloft while the man is stuck in a low post — scenery on the surface, ambition underneath. Such double meaning is common in poems about office, for saying it plainly gives offense, while saying it through an image is understood by all and cannot be faulted. Cen Shen was past forty when he wrote this, still turning through mid- and low-ranking posts; put yourself in that place and the envy gains real weight.
侍臣生活的两句写实 · Two Lines of Fact About a Courtier's Life
「晓随天仗入，暮惹御香归」常被当作唐代宫廷生活的实录。天仗是皇帝的仪仗，侍臣随行入朝；御香来自殿上的香炉，散朝后香气还留在衣上。这两句没有情绪，纯是流程，但正因如此可信。放在全诗里，它的作用是先把「侍臣」这个身份写足，后面「白发」「羡鸟」的失意才显得是真的站在那个位置上说的，而不是空发牢骚。
At dawn following the guard in, at dusk trailing palace incense home is often taken as a documentary record of Tang court life. The imperial guard escorts the emperor, and courtiers enter with it; the incense comes from braziers in the hall and lingers on clothes after the audience. The lines carry no feeling, only procedure — and are credible for that. Their work in the poem is to establish the courtier's condition thoroughly, so that the later disappointment over white hair and the flown birds sounds like a man speaking from that position rather than venting idly.