Appreciation of Poetry: Snow Lotus
Author: Qi Yin
Ling ling qing shi,
Overlapping peaks.
Thousands of meters of long necked grandeur reaching towards the sky,
Kissing the entanglement between heaven and earth.
Cold snow inviting each other year after year,
Layer upon layer, piece by piece.
Releasing the unique thin air of Tian Shan,
Hypoxic - dozens of degrees below zero, a chilling coldness!
It seems life is disconnected from here,
Except for snow, it's just snow,
Climbing over the mountain is still a mountain.
Suddenly, we exclaim!
On the blue stone, in the snow,
Green and white intermingled, softly blooming,
The ice mountain's tiny spring – snow lotus!
Oh, it's also a lotus,
But without the vibrant color of painted oars.
Never washed in shimmering lake water,
Never enjoyed the softness of mud beneath your feet.
The pale green of jasmine,
Persistently growing in this frozen, snowy cradle,
This rare in the world – life's cradle!
Heart high and air proud,
Simple and ordinary.
Endless gusts of wind came rustling,
Melancholy seasons endlessly return.
Only you,
Can endure the eternal loneliness of vast space and time,
Can withstand the extreme cold of a millennium's endurance.
With slender grace, you meditate,
Conducting a series of soul trainings.
Oh! Snow lotus,
In the weaving of wind and rain, the passage of time,
You live in an ethereal and transcendent way.
I want to quietly ask you, at the steep cliff's edge,
Have you ever felt uneasy?
Ice stains piled in the crevices,
Which root grasped which rock?
Unaffected by the dust of the world,
You lie nestled between the icy and snowy blue.
Waiting for the crescent moon to wax and wane, enjoying the clouds' unfolding and rolling.
What elegance, what tranquility!
In the vast valley,
The wind is the string you play on your zither.
It seems you have countless thoughts of longing,
That's the moon of the Tang Dynasty,
Or the plains of Qin?Knowing you have dreams,
Want to plant spring here, in this millennium of ice and snow!
Quietly,
How much allure?
In the ethereal,
How much heroic spirit!You,
Tian Shan's pride,
A classic in the tide of life!
