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