Encountering Snow
by tendo zenji
Encountering Snow on the Road to Ch’ang-an
Far into distances on this Ch’ang-an road,
year-end skies spread away all ashen haze,
drifting snow filling rivers and mountains
new moon to old, dark blur beyond blur.
Arriving geese can’t tell rock from water.
Crows cry hunger across abandoned fields.
I’m empty here, a grief-stricken traveler
gazing: no sign of cook-smoke anywhere.
–Meng Hao-Jan
translated by David Hinton in The Mountain Poems of Meng Hao-Jan
drafty mountain hut 
Wonderful. Thank you. I wish that I could describe as well as Meng Hao-Jan what it is like when a bright moon shines through a sky of thin clouds at deep night, everything covered in dry snow. The sounds of all things muffled, and all things illuminated, the light coming from no discernable source, a deep blanket of white over everything, glowing pillowed on the top boughs of the pines.
Hey Zenshu,
Well you didn’t do too bad capturing that moment there. We had pretty impressive snow here this last week, really sticking around and staying cold enough for the pond to freeze. The hiss of falling snow, birds wallowing frantically in the snow, ice dripping off branches. incredible diversity of the quality of the light through trees, clouds, reflected on snow. Now it is warm(ish) and drizzly and there is no trace of snow. Happy with that too!
Anyway we all can’t be as evocative and innovative as Meng Hao-Jan. Super interesting poet, he innovated this kind of impressionistic style that western poetry wouldn’t adopt until the romantics. One of my all time favorites; highly recommend. If you haven’t delved too much into the Chinese Mountain and Rivers tradition Hinton’s book Mountain Home is a great sampler with informative essays on each of the poets so you can see how it stylistically developed.