View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
View/Open - University of Victoria
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82<br />
Month at Luntai 166 ” (“Shouqiuluntai” 首 秋 轮 台 ):<br />
异 域 阴 山 外<br />
In other lands 167 beyond Yin mountain,<br />
孤 城 雪 海 边 Isolated town by Snow Lake. 168<br />
秋 来 唯 有 雁<br />
Autumn arrives with only the geese,<br />
169<br />
夏 尽 不 闻 蝉 Summer's end and one does not hear the cicada.<br />
(lines 1-4)<br />
Silenced cicada, which otherwise should be chirping, characterize the frontier through an act <strong>of</strong><br />
negation; the autumnal geese further signal the familiar poetic taxonomy <strong>of</strong> depression and separation.<br />
Were Cen Shen's poem to cease at the fourth line, it would sink into a symphony <strong>of</strong> so many similarsounding<br />
sighs. However, the delicately unusual and discordant lurks inside the poem. In this instance<br />
it is not startling geography but the stench <strong>of</strong> local furnishings made wet by the rain which injects the<br />
poem with an element <strong>of</strong> the non-conventional in portraying the frontier region:<br />
雨 拂 毡 墙 湿<br />
风 摇 毳 幕 膻<br />
轮 台 万 里 地<br />
171<br />
无 事 厉 三 年<br />
A slight brush <strong>of</strong> rain and the felt walls dampen,<br />
A stirring <strong>of</strong> wind and the fine fur curtains stink <strong>of</strong><br />
mutton. 170<br />
Luntai, a place ten-thousand li distant,<br />
Nothing to attend to at the moment; three years have<br />
(lines 5-8)<br />
passed.<br />
166<br />
According to page 182 <strong>of</strong> the CSJJZ, the poem was written in 756, making it a rather late example <strong>of</strong> Cen Shen's<br />
frontier verse. The poem becomes quite noteworthy when considering how even towards the end <strong>of</strong> his seven (noncontinuous)<br />
years spent in the north-west, easily recognized motifs <strong>of</strong> frontier poetry could still be found in Cen Shen's<br />
texts.<br />
167<br />
Here referring to the north-west. 异 域 (yiyu), as meaning “other lands” (or “different/ foreign lands”), is found in the<br />
second <strong>of</strong> Gao Shi's “Ji Gate” (“Jimenxing wushou” 蓟 门 行 五 首 ): The house <strong>of</strong> Han can is able to use weapons/to open<br />
up the very ends <strong>of</strong> other lands” 汉 家 能 用 武 , 开 拓 穷 异 域 . See GSJJZ, p. 35.<br />
168<br />
Or “Sea <strong>of</strong> Snow”. As an actual place, “Snow Lake” is within roughly one hundred miles “Hot Lake” (Rehai 热 海 or<br />
Lake Issyk Kul in modern day Krygyzstan). The term, however, also connotes a scene <strong>of</strong> broad, dense snow.<br />
169<br />
CSJJZ, p. 182<br />
170<br />
Many decades later, the poet-narrator <strong>of</strong> Guan Xiu's 贯 休 “Below the Ancient Frontier” (”Gusaixiaqu sishou” 古 塞 下<br />
曲 四 首 ) would have a similar olfactory reaction to the frontier in general: “The ancient frontier, a place that smells like<br />
mutton/Hu soldiers gather together like flies” 古 塞 腥 膻 地 , 胡 兵 聚 如 蝇 . See QTS 827.9321.<br />
171<br />
CSJJZ., p. 182