江上看山 Watching Running Hills from a River Boat

江上看山

原作: 苏轼（字子瞻, 号东坡居士; 11世纪北宋）

英文版：闵晓红(2023)

船上看山如走马，倏忽过去数百群：

前山槎牙忽变态，后岭杂沓如惊奔。

仰看微径斜缭绕，上有行人高飘渺。

舟中举手欲与言，孤帆南去如飞鸟。

Watching Running Hills from a River Boat

Chinese original by Su Shi (11th AC, social name 'Dongpo')

English version by Julia Min (2023)

From our boat, the hills along the shores

race past in hundreds, galloping like horses.

Ahead, forever shifting, they change forms;

Behind, in all directions, they startle forth.

The paths and trails form a maze of webbing,

Where the travellers in the mist are drifting.

I try to say hello and wave a distant greeting,

But borne southward like a bird on high wind.

Appreciation:

It was a time of triumph. It was a time of loss. In 1057, Su Shi—barely twenty-one—soared to the top of the Imperial Examination, his name instantly known across the empire. His younger brother Su Zhe, just nineteen, followed close behind. Emperor Renzong took note of the two young prodigies, envisioning bright futures for them.

But fortune turned swiftly. In April, news arrived of their mother’s death. The ancient rites required a gentleman to observe twenty-seven months of mourning—no weddings, no official duties, no entertainment. In the Song Dynasty, this tradition was still absolute. The Su family retreated to Meizhou in the Sichuan mountains, and for a time, history records little of them. But youth does not stay still. By July 1059, the brothers were once again in motion, sailing east toward the capital with their father.

This poem was written on their boat as they left their hometown and descended the Yangtze toward Kaifeng. The rugged upper reaches of the Wu Mountains had inspired poets for centuries. Li Bai’s famous lines still echoed: “The cries of the monkeys linger behind while the boat flies past a thousand mountains.” But Su Shi, young and restless with genius, added something new—a playful illusion of mountains racing past like horses, while human figures on the shore drift in mist. From the stillness of the boat, the world outside appears to move, yet it is the traveller who is carried forward. This interplay of stillness and motion would deepen in his later work, evolving into something philosophical. In his poem “Inscribed on a Wall of Xilin Temple,” he later wrote:

“How can you see Mt. Lu’s every guise,

When you yourself dwell in her very eye?”

But here, on that boat, the perspective was still fresh—discovered, not yet fully understood. A youthful spirit: to see the world shifting around you and trust what you find.

Reference:

1. Blooming Alone in Winter by Gordon Osing, Julia Min, and Huang Haipeng, published by the People's Publication House Henan Province in 1990 (《寒心未肯随春态》戈登.奥赛茵，闵晓红，黄海鹏) (“Looking at the Mountains from the River” – “From my little boat the mountains run like horses, /Pass by hundreds of head at a time./Ahead they change in all aspects continuously;/ Behind they herd wildly against the heavens./Suddenly on the path turning and slanting on the mountain,/I see travellers floating in high mists;/I try to wave, to make myself understood, saying good-bye,/But I’m off helplessly southward, myself a wild wing. ”)

2. baike.baidu.com

3. picture from Google