79. 在狱咏蝉（骆宾王）
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现代汉语译文
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西陆蝉声唱，南冠客思深。
现代汉语译文
秋天里蝉在鸣唱，我这个戴着南冠的囚徒，思乡之情很深。
「西陆」指秋天，「南冠」是囚徒的代称，出自《左传》楚囚的典故。两句一句写物一句写人，蝉声和囚徒在起句就并列起来。
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不堪玄鬓影，来对白头吟。
现代汉语译文
蝉那乌黑的鬓影，让人受不了，偏偏对着我这个白头之人吟唱。
蝉的「玄鬓」对囚徒的「白头」，一黑一白是颜色对照，也是生命状态的对照：蝉正盛年，人已衰颓。
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露重飞难进，风多响易沉。
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露水太重，蝉飞不进；风声太多，蝉的鸣响容易被淹没。
表面全写蝉，实际句句是自况：露重是环境的压迫，风多是谗言的喧扰，飞难进是没有出路，响易沉是申辩无人听。
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无人信高洁，谁为表予心。
现代汉语译文
没有人相信我品行高洁，还有谁能替我表白这份心迹呢？
蝉栖高树、餐风饮露，古人视之为高洁之虫。末句由蝉及人，把「无人信」的孤立感说到尽头。
赏析 · Commentary
咏物诗的「双线」怎么搭 · How the Two Tracks of a Poem on Things Are Laid
全诗有一条明线写蝉，一条暗线写自己，两线从首联开始并行，到末联合拢。判断咏物诗写得好不好，一个标准是去掉任何一条线，诗是否还立得住。这里把「蝉」字全部换成别的物，前六句仍通——但「无人信高洁」这一句就露馅了，因为蝉的高洁、露重、风多与作者被诬下狱、申辩无门严丝合缝。两线贴合到这个程度，咏物才不是谜语。
The poem runs a visible track about the cicada and a hidden one about the poet, parallel from the first couplet and joined at the last. One test of such a poem is whether it stands when either track is removed. Replace every reference to the cicada with another creature and the first six lines still read — but no one believes in my purity gives the game away, for the cicada's purity, its heavy dew and loud wind fit the poet's imprisonment on a false charge and his inability to be heard with no slack at all. Only when the two tracks fit this closely is a poem on things something other than a riddle.
蝉在唐诗里的位置 · The Cicada's Place in Tang Poetry
蝉是唐诗里出场很多的物象，原因有三：它在夏秋之交鸣叫，正好牵动时序之感；它栖高饮露，容易引向清高的自我期许；它的声音单调而持续，适合写孤寂。骆宾王这首把三条都用上了，而且用得最重——三条都指向囚徒的处境。后来虞世南写蝉取其高，李商隐写蝉取其困，各取一面。同一个物象能被反复使用，靠的是它本身有几层可供分派的意思。
The cicada appears often in Tang poetry for three reasons: it sings at the turn from summer to autumn, which stirs a sense of time passing; it perches high and drinks dew, which invites a claim to purity; and its note is monotonous and unbroken, which suits solitude. Luo Binwang uses all three, and uses them at their heaviest — all three point to a prisoner's plight. Later Yu Shinan takes the cicada for its loftiness, Li Shangyin for its entrapment, each choosing one aspect. What lets one image be used again and again is that it carries several meanings available for assignment.
「南冠」两个字背后的身份 · The Identity Behind Two Words: Southern Cap
南冠出自《左传》成公九年，楚国乐官钟仪被囚于晋，仍戴南国的帽子，以示不忘故国。后来「南冠」就成了囚犯的雅称。骆宾王用这个词，不只是说自己在坐牢，还带出钟仪那份身处囚系而不改本色的意思。一个典故用对了，两个字能顶一句话——这是他选择用典而非直说的原因。
The southern cap comes from the Zuo Commentary, Duke Cheng year nine: Zhong Yi, a musician of Chu held captive in Jin, kept wearing the cap of his southern homeland to show he had not forgotten it. Southern cap then became an elegant term for a prisoner. In using it, Luo Binwang says more than that he is in jail; he carries over something of Zhong Yi — held fast yet unchanged in what he is. When an allusion is well chosen, two words can do the work of a sentence; this is why he alludes rather than states.