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disappearance of birds in flight before alighting his focus on horse hooves stumbling along Luntai's
slippery road:
天 山 雪 云 常 不 开
千 峰 万 岭 雪 崔 嵬
北 风 夜 卷 赤 庭 口
一 夜 天 山 雪 更 厚
能 兼 汉 月 照 银 山
复 逐 胡 风 过 铁 关
交 河 城 边 鸟 飞 绝
轮 台 路 上 马 蹄 滑
Snow clouds never break on Tian Mountain
Tens of thousands of lofty peaks and ranges are covered
in snow;
The night's north wind rolls over Chiting Pass;
As night passes, the snow is thicker on Tian Mountain.
The snow both reflects the Han moon and shines on
Yin Mountain
And again chases the Hu wind through Iron Gate Pass;
At the edge of Jiaohe birds in flight disappear;
On the Luntai road horses' hooves slip.
(“Song of Snow on Tian Mountain”, lines 1-8)
Concluding these two texts where the hibernal landscape figures predominantly are single,
lonely images which acknowledge the titular “sending off” (song 送 ) aspect of the poems: 80 “empty
hoof prints left behind in the snow” (xue shang kong liu ma xing chu 雪 上 空 留 马 行 处 ) in “Song of
White Snow” and a “single green pine branch” (weiyou qingqing songshu zhi 惟 有 青 青 松 树 枝 ),
presented as a substitute for the standard willow branch given at parting, in “Song of Snow on Tian
Mountain”. Aside from fulfilling their titular responsibilities, these final, spatially “near” focalizations
also anchor the poems after a wild series ambient focalization which fluctuated between exteriority and
interiority as well as distance and nearness. However, these spatial coordinate shifts were necessary for
presenting the coldness of the northwestern frontier in a manner where each new spatial coordinate
helped strengthen the poems' hibernal punch.
5.2.3. Degree of Kinesis: Active and Static Scenes
80 See translations at the end of this chapter for the full titles of the poems.