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Appendix II: Cen Shen's “Hibernal” Poems
白 雪 歌 送 武 判 官 归 京
Song of White Snow: Sending Off Administrative
Officer Wu on His Return to the Capital
北 风 卷 地 白 草 折
胡 天 八 月 即 飞 雪
The north wind rolls up the ground, white grasses 1 snap,
In the eighth month snow already flies throughout the
Hu sky. 2
忽 如 一 夜 春 风 来 Suddenly as if in one night the Spring wind arrives,
千 树 万 树 梨 花 开 On tens of thousands of trees pear flowers bloom. 3
散 入 珠 帘 湿 罗 幕
狐 裘 不 暖 锦 衾 薄
将 军 角 弓 不 得 控
都 护 铁 衣 冷 难 著
瀚 海 阑 干 百 丈 冰
愁 云 惨 淡 万 里 凝
中 军 置 酒 饮 归 客
胡 琴 琵 琶 与 羌 笛
纷 纷 暮 雪 下 辕 门
Scattering through beaded curtains and soaking silk drapes,
Fox fur clothing does not keep in the heat, resplendent
blankets are thin.
The general's horn bow cannot be pulled,
The protector-general's armour is freezing and difficult to
put on.
Vast desert, railings of ice criss-cross a hundred meters
thick ,
Sorrow clouds and gloom condense over ten thousand li.
At the army camp wine is laid out and drunk to the
departing guest,
Hu songs are strum on pipas along with Qiang flutes.
Evening snow falls pell-mell over the military camp's main
gate,
1
The famous white grasses of central Asia are a stock image of frontier poetry. See Marie Chan, Cen Shen, p. 147 and
Stephen Owen, Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 359.
2
Meaning the frontier sky.
3
Bidirectional comparisons between snowflakes and pear/plum blossoms was a very common conceit in Chinese poetry
“where the visual similarity of plum and pear blossoms and snowflakes was strengthened by the fact that a “flake” (hua
花 ) of snow is in Chinese a “flower” (hua 花 ) of snow”. See Stephen Owen, Great Age of Chinese Poetry, p. 377 and
Stephen Owen, The Poetry of the Early T'ang, p. 96. Of the numerous examples, there is the first half of Lu Zhaolin's 卢
照 邻 (636-695) “Plum Blossoms Fall” (“Meihua luo” 梅 花 落 ): “When the blossoms first emerge on plum ridges, /The
snow has yet to open on Heaven Mountain,/Places of snow seem filled with flowers,/Where flowers are snow seems to
swirl”. Modified version of Stephen Owen, tr., The Poetry of the Early T'ang, p. 96. 梅 岭 花 初 发 , 天 山 雪 未 开 . 雪 处 疑
花 满 , 花 边 似 雪 回 . See QTS 41.513.