Frosty Sky

楓橋夜泊 張繼

月落烏啼霜滿天 江楓漁火對愁眠
姑蘇城外寒山寺 夜半鐘聲到客船


For thousand years, 楓橋夜泊 by 張繼 has been one of the most
famous and popular Chinese classic poems. It is also the most
discussed poem in China as well as in Japan, about its town, its
temple, its maple bridge, and more importantly, its bell. This poem
has often been noted to appear on the Chinese calligraphy writings
and brush paintings.

While the scholars talked about its historic background, people also
raised questions about the reality of its scene, or even the meaning
of the poem. One of the non-poetic arguments was: "How could
people see “霜“ in the sky?"

After all, it is a poem written by a poet with a unique feeling and
emotion. When 張繼 came to 姑蘇 town, besides the moon setting
and crow crying, it was the scene of icy and frosty cold weather he
saw and felt. He obviously tried to emphasize the extremely cold
weather at the time, and he combined the freezing climate with the
real objects such as “月, 烏, 江楓, 漁火, 姑蘇城, 寒山寺, 鐘聲, 船" and
made this poem heart-stirring.

The “霜滿天“ is actually a descriptive term. He meant “forsty sky”
just as it been depicted in “床前明月光, 疑是地上霜" by Li Bai, and
“明月如霜，好風如水“ by Su Dong Po.


Charles Heavysege, a Canadian poet, once wrote a poem about the
"frosty sky":

' The stars are glittering in the frosty sky '

THE stars are glittering in the frosty sky,
Frequent as pebbles on a broad sea-coast;
And o'er the vault the cloud-like galaxy
Has marshalled its innumerable host.
Alive all heaven seems! with wondrous glow
Tenfold refulgent every star appears,
As if some wide celestial gale did blow,
And thrice illume the ever-kindled spheres.
Orbs, with glad orbs rejoicing, burning, beam,
Ray-crowned, with lambent lustre in their zones,
Till o'er the blue, bespangled spaces seem
Angels and great archangels on their thrones;
A host divine, whose eyes are sparkling gems,
And forms more bright than diamond diadems.

When we like and enjoy a poem, we appreciate the poet’s writing
style, the depicted poetic scene, and the poet’s feeling and emotion
as well.

Yeh Tze