The Snow

- A poem of the Chinese classic style verse called as “Xin Yuan Cun” (The Spring
Comes to a Happy Garden) written by Mao Zedong in February of 1936. But it
was not published until Mao went to Chongqing in 1945 to hold peace talks with
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek). Mao and Jiang had been deadly enemies in their
whole lives. One may guess that Mao was “flattering” Jiang or expressing his
own ambition through that poem.

- Translated in English by Johnson K. Gao in 2008 at 71 years of age in Dallas

Texas, USA. Tthat means the translator had not been born when the poem was
written. He was still a fetus in his mother uterus at that time. Gao had composed
a song for that poem which was selected in a CD called as “For Love, For Snow
and For Echo” (http://cdbaby.com/cd/johnsongao2) and music sheet in “Gao’s
Music for Olympic Games” (http://www.lulu.com/content/2102738).

‘Tis the wind and the light (1) of the northern country that caught my feeling:
The land is frozen in the ice extending one thousand of miles (2),
The snow is swirling in the air over ten thousand of miles (2).
Looking at both inside and outside of the Great Wall,
It remains to me nothing but a vastness.
The big river (3) loses its glorious waves immediately.
From its original source until its final end.
Mountains are as like as silvering snakes in dancing.
The plane presents an image of running elephants made with wax.
As though they would like to compete with the God of Heaven to see who is higher.
When one watches at it on a fine day,
It turns into a fair lady, who’d make-up with red and dressed in white,
That is extremely elegant and charming.

The territory is so gorgeous and enchantment.

That had lured countless heroes to rush in, bow and pay homage to.
It’s a pity that emperor Qinhuang and emperor Hanwu (4) were lack of literariness.
And emperor Tangzong and emperor Songzu (5) knew little about Feng-Sao (6).
As for Genghis Khan, who had been qualified as “The son of the Heaven”.
He knew only how to bend the bow to shoot big eagles.
Ah! All of them had passed over now.
If one wants to count among those wind-flowing men (7),
One had better to find them in this current generation (8).

(1) Chinese people always use the wind and light to represent the word “scenery” in
English. Chinese poem is most concise in using words and selecting sounds and
compressing meaning to be concentrated. The first line of Mao’s poem is only four
Chinese characters: Bei Guo Feng Guang. Those words mean Northern, country (nation),
wind, and light. There is no need to use a subjective word in a sentence as English has to
have. English translation can not be read as beautiful as the Chinese original verse. That
is one reason that one must study Chinese to feel is beautiful sound and rhythm.
(2) The Chinese unit of length “Li” equals to ½ kilometer. Of course one Li is shorter
than a mile. However, the poet used one thousand of Li and ten thousand of Li in the
poem. He was only to describe a very long distance and not the exact length of unit. The
translator used mile for the Li here.
(3) The big river here is to point out the Yellow River.
(4) Qinhuang = Qing (dynasty’s) Shi Huang Di. Here Shi = beginning, Huang = King of
kings, and Di = emperor. Hanwu = Han (dynasty’s) Wu (military) Di (emperor).
(5) Tangzong = Tang (dynasty’s) Tai (grand-grand father) Zong (clan). Songzu = Song
(dynasty’s) Tai (Grand-grand father) Zu (ancestor).
(6) Feng = Guo Feng (an album of poems corrected by Confucius. Sao = Lisao, which is
a famous poem written by the greatest poet in the Chinese history Qu Yuan. In Mao’s
poem he used the short form Feng-Sao two characters to represent poetry as a whole.
(7) Wind-flowing men are the straight translation from the Chinese characters Feng =
wind, Liu = flowing, Ren = men, Wu = things. Putting those four characters together, it
produces a special meaning to describe those heroic persons with all of the following
characters: handsome, clever, smart, wisdom, capable of doing things, leadership, that
causes other people to pay respect to them and to obedient to them willingly. No any
English word can be translated without lost its entire meaning.
(8) The “current generation” was translated from two Chinese characters: Jin = today,
Zhao = morning or a dynasty.