59. The Song of White Snow: Sending Off Judge Wu Back to the Capital

A poem by Cen Can, translated by Hyun Woo Kim

The northern wind rolls up the earth, and the white grass snaps;

August of the barbarians' sky—already flies the snow.

Suddenly, it is as if the spring wind came for a night:

Pear flowers bloom on a thousand trees, ten thousand trees.

Scattered, they enter through the beaded curtains, making the silk screen wet;

Fox fur clothes are not warm, and the silk blanket is flimsy.

The general cannot bend a horn bow;

The protectorate governor's iron armor, though cold, stays on.

Hanhai is in disorder with a hundred zhangs of ice;

Troubled clouds, depressed and distressed, are frozen over ten thousand lis.

At the Central Army, a table is set, and a traveller who will return drinks;

A barbarian zither, a lute, and a Qiang people's flute.

Fluttering evening snow, falling at the camp's gate;

The wind flips the red flag, but frozen, it does not wave.

I see you off at the eastern gate of Luntai;

At the time of farewell, the snow has filled up the road of Mountain Tian.

The mountain goes around, the road turns, and you are not seen;

On the snow, the wake of the horse that went away remains, needlessly.

「白雪歌送武判官歸京」

北風卷地白草折

胡天八月即飛雪

忽如一夜春風來

千樹萬樹梨花開

散入珠簾濕羅幕

狐裘不煖錦衾薄

將軍角弓不得控

都護鐵衣冷猶著

瀚海闌干百丈冰

愁云慘澹萬里凝

中軍置酒飲歸客

胡琴琵琶與羌笛

紛紛暮雪下轅門

風掣紅旗凍不翻

輪臺東門送君去

去時雪滿天山路

山回路轉不見君

雪上空留馬行處

From Hyun Woo:

As I have mentioned many times already, Cen Can spent a long time working at the frontier of the Tang Empire. It is a place where the first snow falls early. It is harsh to stay there, but it enriches the poet’s imagination. For the poet, even the frost looks like “pear flowers”, “as if the spring wind came for a night”. Despite that Cen Can uses many lines to describe the bleak and cold reality of the frontier in this week’s poem, he still keeps the inner eyes of a poet that can see through what is seen.

“Hanhai” is what the Tang people called the Gobi Desert. Living in a cold, barren land, far away from home, the men dispatched there must have built a very tightly knit brotherhood. Judge Wu’s colleagues have even prepared a small feast just for him. Thus, it is no wonder that Cen Can feels sad when Judge Wu returns to the capital. Standing at the “eastern gate of Luntai”, Cen Can still stares, even though he cannot see him anymore. Only the trail that his horse has left remains.

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