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:
It was written when the poet was relegated to the position of Secretary of Yongzhou after the failure of innovation. It is both about the snowy scene on the river and about his own tenacity and unyieldingness.
The opening two lines: All the figures of birds flying on the mountains have been extinct, and all the roads are devoid of human traces. 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 there is a heavy snowfall and almost no life, there is a lonely boat with a fisherman, clad in a straw raincoat, fishing alone on the snowy river.
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, arrogant 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.
