View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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spouting upwards and overwhelming the landscape. In both “Passing Fire Mountain” and “Song <strong>of</strong> Fire<br />
Mountain Clouds”, this sub-theme describes a Fire Mountain that “towers” (tuwu 突 兀 ) over an existent<br />
<strong>of</strong> lesser altitude, namely Puchang 蒲 昌 and Chiting 赤 亭 . And while still dominating its section <strong>of</strong> the<br />
frontier, Fire Mountain in “Mission to Jiaohe” is simply “l<strong>of</strong>ty” (cuiwei 崔 嵬 ) without any immediate<br />
existent over which to display its impressive altitude. However, with its different thermal theme, the<br />
opening sub-thematic trajectory <strong>of</strong> “Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake” unsurprisingly diverges from its cousins'<br />
course: the poet-narrator in this instance focalizes the waters <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake which “seem to boil” (shui ru<br />
zhu 水 如 煮 ).<br />
137<br />
5.1.2. Echoes <strong>of</strong> Ordinary Perceptual Facets<br />
Following the opening lines' establishment <strong>of</strong> the thermal theme and its initial sub-thematic<br />
development, parallels in focalization, while advancing in a less uniform fashion, continue between the<br />
poems. 20 For example, the poet-narrators <strong>of</strong> “Passing Fire Mountain” and “Mission to Jiaohe” retain<br />
between them a strong affinity <strong>of</strong> focalization through two types <strong>of</strong> lenses: the dermal and oculardermal.<br />
Aside from having selected the sub-theme “height”, the poet-narrators <strong>of</strong> these two poems also<br />
decompose the Fire Mountain theme into the same sub-thematic constituent, the “scorching winds”<br />
(yanfeng 炎 风 ) which wrap around the mountain:<br />
我 来 严 冬 时<br />
山 下 多 炎 风<br />
I arrived when the year was at its coldest,<br />
Below the mountain many scorching winds.<br />
(“Passing Fire Mountain”, lines 7-8)<br />
九 月 尚 流 汗<br />
炎 风 吹 沙 埃<br />
In the ninth month and still sweating,<br />
Scorching winds blow sand and dust.<br />
20 As with “Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake”, the heat <strong>of</strong> the frontier in “Song <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain Clouds” manifests somewhat differently<br />
compared to the other poems: it is the clouds <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain, a sub-theme <strong>of</strong> the thermal landscape focalized visually<br />
by the poet-narrator, which project the mountain's heat over the land. Yet focalization <strong>of</strong> the thermal cloud's sub-themes<br />
and the thermal sub-themes <strong>of</strong> the other poems do share certain similarities. These will be discussed shortly.