江雪 original text
Stay close to the sentence.
Across a thousand mountains, the flight of birds is cut off.
Along ten thousand paths, the traces of people disappear.
A lone boat, an old man in a straw rain cape and bamboo hat,
alone fishing in the cold river snow.
Let the image breathe.
On a thousand mountains, no bird is flying;
on ten thousand paths, no human trace remains.
A lone boat, an old man in cape and hat,
fishes alone through the cold river snow.
What to know
The poem is often read through the relationship between political isolation and the solitary fisherman, though the text never explains the figure. Its force comes from the tension between a world made blank and a person who continues his small, deliberate action.
What to notice
The opening numbers create breadth, while the last two lines narrow the view to one boat and one body. The fisherman is isolated, but he is not erased. His persistence gives the silence a human center.
Three useful phrases.
- 絕
- to be cut off or completely absent
- 蓑笠翁
- an old man wearing a straw rain cape and bamboo hat
- 獨釣
- fishing alone; the verb carries the poem’s final emphasis