137. 没蕃故人（张籍）
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现代汉语译文
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前年戍月支，城下没全师。
现代汉语译文
前年你戍守月支一带，在城下全军覆没。
「月支」即月氏，泛指西北边地。「没全师」是全军覆没，直说战败，没有回避。
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蕃汉断消息，死生长别离。
现代汉语译文
蕃地与汉地断绝了消息，我们是生是死都成了长久的分别。
「死生长别离」是这首诗的核心：不知道对方是死是活，所以既不能当作战死来悼念，也不能当作失踪等待。
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无人收废帐，归马识残旗。
现代汉语译文
没有人收拾废弃的营帐，回来的战马认得那面残破的军旗。
两句是战后战场的具体样子。「归马识残旗」写得最狠——马认得旗，人已经没有了。
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欲祭疑君在，天涯哭此时。
现代汉语译文
想设祭，又疑心你还活着；此刻我在天边为你痛哭。
「欲祭疑君在」是全诗最难写的心境：祭祀的前提是确定死亡，而作者没有这个前提。末句的哭因此没有着落。
赏析 · Commentary
一首无法完成的悼亡诗 · A Mourning Poem That Cannot Be Completed
朋友在边地战死——这是诗里给出的判断，但作者并不确知。于是全诗写的不是悲伤，是悬而未决。这种处境在古代边塞战争里很常见：军队覆没，消息断绝，家属连死没死都不知道。张籍把这种状态写足了：不能祭，只能哭；哭的时候还留着一丝可能。这是这首诗比一般悼亡诗重的地方。
The friend died in battle on the frontier — that is the poem's judgement, but the poet does not know it for certain. So the poem is not about grief but about suspension. The situation was common in frontier wars: an army destroyed, news cut, families not knowing whether to mourn. Zhang Ji writes that state to the full: no rite possible, only weeping, and even the weeping holds a possibility open. This is what makes the poem heavier than an ordinary elegy.
「归马识残旗」 · "The Returning Horse Knows the Torn Banner"
这一句是全诗最有力的地方。战场上年号、旗帜、马匹都有归属，人没有了，物还在；而物并不知情，马照旧认得那面旗。这个错位把损失说到位，同时避免了直接抒情。张籍不写白骨、不写血流，只写一匹回来的马站在残旗前，读者自己会想到它的主人是谁。
This is the poem's strongest line. On a battlefield the standards, banners, and horses all have owners; the men are gone and the things remain, and the things do not know — the horse still recognises the flag. The dislocation puts the loss exactly, and does it without direct sentiment. Zhang Ji writes no bones and no blood, only a horse come back standing before a torn banner, and the reader supplies whose horse it was.
末句的「疑」 · "Doubt" in the Last Line
「欲祭疑君在」的「疑」不是怀疑消息的真假，是不肯接受。这个字放在全诗最后，作用是把已经积攒的悲哀又推回到不确定里。前面写了覆没、写了战场、写了无人的营帐，读者已经准备接受死亡；末句忽然说「也许你还活着」，情绪就无处安放。唐诗写生离死别，常在这种不确定处见深。
The "doubt" in "wanting to mourn, doubting you live" is not doubt about the report but a refusal to accept it. Placed at the very end, it pushes the accumulated grief back into uncertainty. The poem has already given the defeat, the battlefield, the abandoned tents, and the reader is ready to accept a death; then doubt arrives and the feeling has nowhere to settle. Tang verse about partings by death often finds its depth precisely here.