一種篇幅短小、可以吟唱的韻文作品，是集文學(xué)、音樂甚至是舞蹈于一體的可以歌唱的文學(xué)藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作形式。在中國古代，歌與詩的區(qū)別是：“歌”能入樂歌唱，“詩”通常不入樂歌唱。廣義的歌包括了童謠、民謠；狹義的歌與謠有所區(qū)別：有固定曲調(diào)和音樂伴奏的是歌，沒有固定曲調(diào)的清唱為謠。歌大多為民間創(chuàng)作的民歌，如北朝民歌《敕勒歌》等；也有小部分是由文士等個(gè)人創(chuàng)作的作品，如劉邦的《大風(fēng)歌》、李白的《子夜吳歌》等。“歌”屬于中國古代詩歌藝術(shù)的早期形態(tài)，古人一般將其歸入樂府詩，現(xiàn)在則與詩合稱“詩歌”。

Song is a kind of short, rhyming composition. It is a form of artistic creation combining literature, music, and even dance which can be sung. The difference between songs and poems in ancient China is that the former could be made into music and sung, whereas the latter could not. In a broad sense, the term includes children's ballads and folk ballads. In a narrow sense, songs and ballads are different. Songs have a fixed melody and musical accompaniment, while ballads do not. Songs were created mostly by folk musicians, such as the folk song "Song of the Chile" during the Northern Dynasties. A small number of songs, however, were written by members of the literati, like "Ode to the Great Wind" by Liu Bang and "The Midnight Melody of the Land of Wu" by Li Bai. Songs are one of the early forms of ancient Chinese poetic art and were generally classified as yuefu (樂府) poetry in ancient China. In modern times, they are called poetic songs as a part of poetry.

引例 Citation：

◎曲合樂曰歌，徒歌曰謠。（《詩經(jīng)·魏風(fēng)·園有桃》毛傳）

配上曲調(diào)、有音樂伴奏的叫作歌，沒有固定曲調(diào)的清唱叫作謠。

Words sung with the accompaniment of music are called songs, and mere singing and chanting are called ballads. (Mao's Version of The Book of Songs)

推薦：教育部 國家語委

供稿：北京外國語大學(xué) 外語教學(xué)與研究出版社

責(zé)任編輯：錢耐安