The full Chill River cycle

New moral understanding? Bitter survival? Crazed rant?

Chill River (1)
Meng Jiao

The hazy rains are cleared by frost,
The cold creek shows its thready fish,
By luck I find some mirrored sky
And look into my shrivelled self.
Nothing hides the scree below,
The riverbed is crystal bright
As motives in an honest man—
And yet it can be treacherous:
I’ve learned its vulgar, shallow heart
May freeze at night, but they ford at dawn.
So when I scoop bright jade to wash,
To cleanse myself of dust and doubts,
I find this trafficked, muddy stream
Cannot compare to a mountain spring.


Chill River (2)
Meng Jiao

In Luoyang there’s a street and stream,
A riverbank beside my house.
Where boats would break the bright white ice
And made it chime like resonant jade.
Green water froze to emeralds,
And spume became a diamond white,
This jewelled mirror shone and showed
All earthly things as levelled out.
The bank was steep, I zigzagged down,
A dead tree sprouted widow’s tears;
I smelled their frosty fragrance fade
As the frozen scene breathed gentle haze;
I sat, entranced, and listened and gazed,
Then rushed away, and lost my way.
In banks of thorns I hacked and called,
My words were full of dark despair.


Chill River (3)
Meng Jiao

At dawn I drank a cup of wine,
Then walked on snow across the creek.
The waves had frozen into knives
That slit the flesh of ducks and doves:
Their nesting feathers were strewn about;
Their blood and cries had sunk in silt.
I stood, unsure what I might say,
And intoned my moans without sound.
This frozen blood can’t start the spring—
There’ll be no balance in its life.
Cold blood can’t be the mulch for flowers—
They’ll well up just like widow’s tears!
Dead from cold, too frozen to farm,
How dark this brambled village is.


Chill River (4)
Meng Jiao

Their poles crack galaxies of jade,
Leave swarms of firefly ice behind.
The northern freeze froze deep, they moan,
And hungrily howl when their hunt finds
Carrion corpses of sunken fish.
Teeth of ice grind and gnash,
The sound of wind sours the bells;
There’s no escape from its clear despair,
It’s washed the detail from what we hear,
And ended lapping emerald waves,
So pretty pairs flap helplessly.
They cannot step; their feet will slip.
They cannot stop; a branch will snap.
A cheep! A yowl! An aggrieved howl,
They raise their heads and pray for peace.


Chill River (5)
Meng Jiao

This river is a crooked straight,
A scaly, scaly dragon white.
The frozen blast’s a shattered shriek,
A diced mélange that stings the dales.
Here’s my stylus and here’s my slate,
And here are words stuck in my throat.
There’s more love in those that fly and lope!
Just break the bowstring, fearsome man,
And they’re eager guests to their final breath.
Hereby enact this strict taboo:
Convene no killings of the small.
And then how white, how pearly pure,
Auspicious aether everywhere!
The sun and moon will be scrubbed clean,
And sapphire skies will shine with stars!
But as I stand in snow and sing,
A thousand worries rise anew.
The liar star winks, the tongue star wags...
But none of them will change my mind.
King Yao didn’t listen to the likes of you!
Confucius was no king, but men
Were loyal to him as subjects are.
My proclamation’s written out;
How hard it was to clearly state
The ancient arguments it makes.


Chill River (6)
Meng Jiao

“Whatever freezes, we may eat.
And deadly winds will never cease...”
If weapons make our mercy work,
It’s mercy at the point of a sword,
And swordpoint mercy stinks. No man
Can honourably seek it out.
Those waves draw blades of ice, and slice
Each other like old enemies.


Chill River (7)
Meng Jiao

Jagged snow hacks the heart of fish,
The fish hearts darken with bright blood.
A water daemon seems to speak
To justify its cutting crimes,
But who permitted foreign vapours
Entry to our heartland streams?
They carve a month from every spring,
And stop the valleys up in darkness.
But look up now! New light breaks through,
And glimmers down on gloom and doubts.


Chill River (8)
Meng Jiao

This river recluse weeps with cold,
In eyes and nose, my ice-tears rasp.
The snowmelt fissures freeze my soul
With forms of death: four legs, two wings.
Not prey: our frozen swords can’t cut,
The strong can’t pull their bowstrings taut.
When Heaven massacres the meat,
They say a hero will not eat,
I cut the crystal, cover each corpse,
And weep new pearls on the bleak tableau.


Chill River (9)
Meng Jiao

The river zephyrs clear the chill,
The landscape segues into spring.
As flowers drip, their pearls sublime;
The dragon-stream thaws, its scales shine.
I’m descending the bank, my feet on air,
To wash in sweetly scented melt.
One crack in a thousand miles of ice,
One spoon of warmth and clemency.
Blocks of condensed light collide;
Remarkably, new ripples rise.
Though bloodied in a hundred battles
The warrior’s scarred body wakes.

---

The river freezes, and Meng Jiao gets lost in the mist. He discovers that the winter is a savage killer, and vows to hold off from harming animals, and from eating them when the winter kills them. As the spring returns, he weeps over those that have died, and finally celebrates with a wash in the river.

Along the way, Meng indulges in every contradiction you can imagine. He calls the river a gentleman, then vulgar and shallow. He begs it not to approach pure mountain springs, but still chooses to wash in it when he can. He constantly uses precious jewels as his go-to metaphor for ice, but also calls the ice a weapon. He refuses to eat, yet uses food metaphors for the sound of the wind… Meng must have known what he was doing in these poems. I think the only way to read them is to understand that they privilege the image over the narrative, and the fantastical over the reasonable. I hope enough of their weirdness comes through in this translation.

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孟郊  寒溪·其一
霜洗水色尽，寒溪见纤鳞。
幸临虚空镜，照此残悴身。
潜滑不自隐，露底莹更新。
豁如君子怀，曾是危陷人。
始明浅俗心，夜结朝已津。
净漱一掬碧，远消千虑尘。
始知泥步泉，莫与山源邻。
其二
洛阳岸边道，孟氏庄前溪。
舟行素冰折，声作青瑶嘶。
绿水结绿玉，白波生白珪。
明明宝镜中，物物天照齐。
仄步下危曲，攀枯闻孀啼。
霜芬稍消歇，凝景微茫齐。
痴坐直视听，戆行失踪蹊。
岸重劚棘劳，语言多悲凄。
其三
晓饮一杯酒，踏雪过清溪。
波澜冻为刀，剸割凫与鹥。
宿羽皆翦弃，血声沉沙泥。
独立欲何语，默念心酸嘶。
冻血莫作春，作春生不齐。
冻血莫作花，作花发孀啼。
幽幽棘针村，冻死难耕犁。
其四
篙工磓玉星，一路随迸萤。
朔冻哀彻底，獠馋咏潜鯹。
冰齿相磨啮，风音酸铎铃。
清悲不可逃，洗出纤悉听。
碧潋卷已尽，彩双飞飘零。
下蹑滑不定，上栖折难停。
哮嘐呷喢冤，仰诉何时宁。
其五
一曲一直水，白龙何鳞鳞。
冻飙杂碎号，齑音坑谷辛。
柧椾吃无力，飞走更相仁。
猛弓一折弦，馀喘争来宾。
大严此之立，小杀不复陈。
皎皎何皎皎，氤氲复氤氲。
瑞晴刷日月，高碧开星辰。
独立两脚雪，孤吟千虑新。
天欃徒昭昭，箕舌虚龂龂。
尧圣不听汝，孔微亦有臣。
谏书竟成章，古义终难陈。
其六
因冻死得食，杀风仍不休。
以兵为仁义，仁义生刀头。
刀头仁义腥，君子不可求。
波澜抽剑冰，相劈如仇雠。
其七
尖雪入鱼心，鱼心明愀愀。
怳如罔两说，似诉割切由。
谁使异方气，入此中土流。
翦尽一月春，闭为百谷幽。
仰怀新霁光，下照疑忧愁。
其八
溪老哭甚寒，涕泗冰珊珊。
飞死走死形，雪裂纷心肝。 
剑刃冻不割，弓弦强难弹。
常闻君子武，不食天杀残。 
劚玉掩骼胔，吊琼哀阑干。
其九
溪风摆馀冻，溪景衔明春。
玉消花滴滴，虬解光鳞鳞。
悬步下清曲，消期濯芳津。
千里冰裂处，一勺暖亦仁。
凝精互相洗，漪涟竞将新。
忽如剑疮尽，初起百战身。