此诗描写一位技艺高超的琴师弹琴的过程。诗人借此表现自己不与世俗社会同流合污的孤高性格。全诗分为三部分。前四句为第一段。写弹琴的环境是流泉深邃的幽涧。琴无装饰，放置白石，琴弦的调子调得很高。这一切都表现出与众不同孤高。中八句用具体形象描写弹出的曲调。“心寂历似千古”是琴师弹琴时的心绪，给琴音定下了主调：情似太古，不同凡响。接着用四种具体事物表现琴音的孤高：像大片松林被风吹拂，发出一片飕飗之声；似孤单的哀猿处危岩高木而长吟；像哀时失职的迁客泪流粘襟；像小溪流水叮咚成音。“缉商缀羽”是弹琴全过程的指法，与“心寂历似千古”相呼应。末四句是琴师对自己琴曲的主观评价：自己抒发的感情自有独特妙趣，众人颇难解其中从古到今的少有的情感。“幽涧泉，鸣深林”指出琴曲的主旋律。
李白·《幽涧泉》
拂彼白石，弹吾素琴。
幽涧愀兮流泉深，善手明徽高张清。
心寂历似千古，松飕飗兮万寻。
中见愁猿吊影而危处兮，呌秋木而长吟。
客有哀时失职而听者，泪淋浪以沾襟。
乃缉商缀羽，潺湲成音。
吾但写声发情于妙指，殊不知此曲之古今。
幽涧泉，鸣深林。
Secluded Gorge Spring
Li Bai
Let me wipe that slab of white stone
With the sleeve folds of my loose flowing gown;
I’m to pluck my heptachord plain
By the side of a fresh spring bubbling deep down
In this secluded gorge ‘tween mountains twain.
Fair-toned plucking of fingers deft and apt,
Well directed by my lucid mind and vacant;
Solitary as if lasting a thousand years long,
Like the subdued roarings of a sea of pine foliage
Six score furlongs thick to form a dense throng,
Midst which to be seen the gibbons sadly shrieking
Self-pityingly, jumping about and clambering
Along precariously atop autumnal trees.
There is one forlorn of hope and bewailing
The times, hearing woe-begone cries such as these,
Who doth flush tears his lapels to drench through.
Thereupon I summon tuneful notes in a gentle flow,
Toning at my finger tips with feelings the melody,
Knowing not, albeit, the sonata thus performed by me
Be ancient or modern. Ah, Secluded Gorge Spring,
This poem describes the process of a skilled zither player playing the zither. The poet uses this to express his lofty character that does not go along with the secular society. The whole poem is divided into three parts. The first four sentences are the first paragraph. The environment in which the zither is played is a deep stream. The zither is undecorated, with white stones placed on it, and the tune of the strings is very high. All of this shows that it is unique and lofty. The middle eight sentences use specific images to describe the tune played. “The heart is silent and has been through thousands of years” is the mood of the zither player when playing the zither, which sets the main tone for the zither sound: the feelings are like the ancient times, extraordinary. Then four specific things are used to express the loftiness of the zither sound: like a large pine forest blown by the wind, making a whistling sound; like a lonely sad ape chanting on a dangerous rock and a tall tree; like a migrant who lost his job in times of sorrow, with tears sticking to his clothes; like a stream of water making a sound. “Ji Shang and zhui Yu” is the fingering method of the whole process of playing the zither, which echoes “the heart is silent and has been through thousands of years”. The last four sentences are the zither player’s subjective evaluation of his own music: the emotions he expressed are unique and interesting, and it is difficult for people to understand the rare emotions from ancient times to the present. “The spring in the deep stream and the sound in the deep forest” points out the main melody of the music.
