View/Open - University of Victoria
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View/Open - University of Victoria
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147<br />
(“Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake”, lines 7-8 and 11-12)<br />
缭 绕 斜 吞 铁 关 树<br />
氛 氲 半 掩 交 河 戍<br />
Curling, coiling and all aslant they [Fire Mountain clouds]<br />
swallow the trees at Iron Pass,<br />
A hazy mist half covering the garrison barracks<br />
at Jiaohe.<br />
(“Song <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain Clouds”, lines 7-8)<br />
A definite preponderance <strong>of</strong> incendiary and aggressive verbs 44 also assist in portraying a thermal<br />
landscape <strong>of</strong> uncontrollable, if unconscious, violence thundering across Cen Shen's fiery worlds.<br />
“Burning”, a translation <strong>of</strong> both 烧 (shao) and 燃 (ran), is the most common destructive act; the “red<br />
smoke” (chi yan 赤 焰 ) <strong>of</strong> “Passing Fire Mountain” and “steaming sands...shining 45 rocks” (zhengsha<br />
shuoshi 蒸 沙 烁 石 ) <strong>of</strong> “Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake” mercilessly expose the terrain's heat by nearly incinerating<br />
nearby atmospheric entities <strong>of</strong> the frontier itself, the “Lu clouds” (lu yun 虏 云 ). Even Fire Mountain's<br />
clouds, unlike their victimized Lu siblings, partake in this abuse <strong>of</strong> frontier existents by “swallowing<br />
the trees at Metal Pass” (tun tieguan shu 吞 铁 关 树 ) and “covering the garrison barracks at Jiaohe” (yan<br />
jiaohe shu 掩 交 河 戍 ).<br />
The conflagrative mayhem that is the expression <strong>of</strong> the landscapes' thermality also extends into<br />
the frontier space beyond the immediate atmosphere. After first focalizing the relatively interior clouds,<br />
the poet-narrators <strong>of</strong> both “Passing Fire Mountain” and “Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake” focalize the frontier's<br />
periphery as an object <strong>of</strong> the landscape's thermal rage. In the former poem's instance, “blistering<br />
vapours” (yanqi 炎 气 ) <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain reach into the “frontier emptiness” (saikong 塞 空 ) itself,<br />
“steaming” (zheng 蒸 ) the wider expanse <strong>of</strong> northwestern China. But compared to Hot Lake, Fire<br />
44 “Passing Fire Mountain”: burn (shao 烧 ), steam (zheng 蒸 ); “Song <strong>of</strong> Fire Mountain Clouds”: swallow (tun 吞 ); and<br />
“Song <strong>of</strong> Hot Lake”: burn (ran 燃 ), boil (jian 煎 ), swallow ( 吞 ), attack (qin 侵 ).<br />
45 Or melting.