See how Zhongnan Mountain soars
With its white top over floating clouds --
And a warm sky opening at the snow-line
While the town in the valley grows colder and colder.
Original Poem:
「终南望余雪」
祖咏
终南阴岭秀， 积雪浮云端。
林表明霁色， 城中增暮寒。
Interpretation:
The first sentence describes the beautiful scenery of Zhongnan Mountain. Since Zhongnan Mountain is in the south of Chang’an City, when you look at it from Chang’an City, you can only see the north of the mountain. Then write the clouds are always flowing, and high above the clouds of the mountain top snow in the sunshine cold light shining, this is to say, Zhongnan Mountain north slope high above the clouds, the snow has never been able to melt.
Because of the Sixty miles away from Chang’an City, not to mention the cloudy days can not see the mountain, that is, sunny days can only see a rough outline. Only in the rain and snow when the first clearing, due to the snow light back to the true colors of the South Mountain.
After a snowfall, except for the remaining snow in Zhongnan, the snow in other places has been a lot of melting, absorbing a lot of heat, naturally, to be a little colder; sunset and evening, naturally, it is colder than in broad daylight; and look at the remaining snow in Zhongnan Mountain, the cold light flashes, and even more chilling to the bone.
Poem translator:
Kiang Kanghu
About the poet:
Zu Yong, 699-746 A.D., was a native of Luoyang, Henan Province, and a scholar. He was a friend of Wang Wei for thirteen years. Wang Wei gave him a poem with the phrase “the poor and sick son is both deep, and the deed is broad and the rest shallow”, from which it can be seen that he was probably a displaced and disillusioned person. Later, he lived in seclusion among the waters of the Ru River.
