獨釣寒江雪

獨釣寒江雪



From " China the Beautiful " site

明 : 朱端 《寒江獨釣圖》，藏日本東京國立博物館。


唐 : 柳宗元 江雪

千山鳥飛絕， 萬徑人蹤滅；
孤舟簑笠翁， 獨釣寒江雪 。


“獨釣寒江雪” by Liu Zongyuan(柳宗元) is a Chinese 千古絕句.

Although some westerners had tried hard to translate the poem,
their translations just could not show its original 意境 and "境界",
such as :

A thousand mountains without a bird.
Ten thousand miles with no trace of man.
A boat. An old man in a straw raincoat,
Alone in the snow, fishing in the freezing river.
(by Kenneth Rexroth),

or

A thousand peaks: no more birds in flight.
Ten thousand paths: all trace of people gone.
In a lone boat, rain cloak and a hat of reeds,
an old man’s fishing the cold river snow.
(by David Hinton)

or

These thousand peaks cut off the flight of birds
On all the trails, human tracks are gone.
A single boat—coat—hat—an old man!
Alone fishing chill river snow.
(by Gary Snyder)


Besides, in addition to its 境界, it is also important to know the
historic background of the poem. According to the literature and
history scholars, the poem was written by 柳宗元 when he was
banished to 永州. In the poem, by using a lonely old fisherman
fishing in an extremely harsh freezing river, it simply reflected
his loneliness yet vigorous spirit.

The ancient poets often exploited nature scenes in their poems
to express their inner feelings about themselves or the society,
such as:

人閒桂花落，夜靜春山空。
月出驚山鳥，時鳴春澗中。

or

獨坐幽篁裏，彈琴復長嘯。
深林人不知，明月來相照。

by 王維


Yeh Tze