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