“天下有情人”与“天涯沦落人”——《长恨歌》、《琵琶行》阐释史比较

“The Lover of the World”and“The Lost People of the World”:The Comparison of Interpretation History Between Pipa Player and The Everlasting Regret

《长恨歌》和《琵琶行》是古代叙事诗的经典之作,也是白居易叙事歌行中不朽的姊妹篇。两首杰作为中国文学提供了“天下有情人”与“天涯沦落人”一对具有普遍生命意义的永恒母题。赵翼《瓯北诗话》论白居易诗云:“此即无全集,而二诗已自不朽。”诚哉斯言!然而,对两首诗的价值地位,白居易生前评价不同,白居易身后歧见纷纷;对两首诗的艺术特点,现代诗评缺乏系统的比较研究。本文先探寻白居易生前的自我评价,再考察白居易身后的优劣比较,最后对两首诗的旨趣和诗艺试作比较阐释。

Pipa Player and The Everlasting Regret are immortal sisters in Bai Juyi’s narrative songs.Two masterpieces provide two eternal motifs of universal life significance for Chinese literature,“the lover of the world”and“the lost people of the world”.For all that,before and after Bai Juyi’s life,the evaluation of the value of the two poems has been different.Modern poetry review lacks systematic comparative study on the artistic characteristics of the two poems.This paper first explores Bai Juyi’s self-evaluation,then examines the advantages and disadvantages of various interpretations after Bai Juyi’s death,and finally makes a comparative interpretation of the purport and poetic art of the two poems.