A hundred mountains and no bird,
A thousand paths without a footprint;
A little boat, a bamboo cloak,
An old man fishing in the cold river-snow.
Original Poem:
「江雪」
柳宗元
千山鸟飞绝，万径人踪灭。
孤舟蓑笠翁，独钓寒江雪。
Interpretation:
This was written by the poet when he was deposed after the failure of his innovation, writing both about the snowy scene on the river and his own tenacity.
The opening two lines: All the figures of birds flying on the mountains are extinct, and all the roads are devoid of people.
Describing the snow scene, the mountains should have birds, the road should have people, but the poet with the birds far away, pedestrians extinct scene rendered a cold and lonely realm, although not directly with the word “snow”, but the reader seems to have seen the sky covered with snow, has felt the biting cold. This is the refraction of the harsh political environment.
The last two lines: a lonely boat on the river, an old man wearing a straw raincoat, fishing alone in the snow and wind.
The image of a fisherman fishing alone on a cold river is portrayed. In the place where the sky is full of snow and there is almost no life at all, there is a lonely boat with a fisherman, clad in a straw raincoat, fishing alone on the snowy river. In such a cold and silent environment, the old fisherman is not afraid of the cold, not afraid of the snow, forget everything, concentrate on fishing, although the form of the lonely, but the character appears to be high and lonely, and even a little bit of inviolability.
The image of the fisherman is obviously a reflection of the poet himself, a twisted expression of the poet in the failure of political reform in the situation of loneliness, but tenacious, unyielding, awe-inspiring, haughty and noble spiritual outlook.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Liu Zongyuan (柳宗元), 773-819 A.D., a native of Yongji, Shanxi, was a progressive thinker, brilliant writer, and revolutionary statesman of the Tang Dynasty. Nineteen years before he was born, the An Shi Rebellion broke out, which dramatically changed the Tang Dynasty from prosperity to decline. The subsequent failure of the Yongzhen Reform was a historical tragedy that cut short Liu Zongyuan's political future, but made him one of the leading thinkers and literary figures of the Tang Dynasty.
