This poem describes the scene that the poet seeks temporary lodging to a poor peasant family in the wind and snow night. This poem language is terse, but can stimulate readers’ imagination. The author of this Chinese poem is Liu Chang Qing (刘长卿) in the Tang Dynasty.

Please appreciate the Flash above. I translate this Chinese poetry as follows:

Meet With Snow and Find Lodging in Furong Mountain
Green mountain is far at dusk,
The couch grass house seems poorer in cold.
Dog barks outside the wooden door,
I find lodging here in the wind and snow night.

逢雪宿芙蓉山主人

日暮苍山远，

天寒白屋贫。

柴门闻犬吠，

风雪夜归人。

The Chinese characters 美 meaning is beautiful; admirable.

This beautifully proportioned Chinese character is shaped from 羊 (sheep) and 大 (big). 大 originally represented a person grown big; 羊 is an animal admired for its peace loving virtue. Ideographically, a mature person who has the mild and gentle disposition of a sheep is regarded as beautiful, admirable: 美.

The Chinese characters 鲜 meaning is fresh.

This Chinese character combines two types of flesh: fish (鱼) and sheep (羊). Although meat was usually preserved by salting, drying or smoking, ancient man preferred to eat the flesh of fish and sheep fresh. Hence, fish and sheep put together means “fresh”.

The Chinese characters 羊 meaning is sheep; goat.

Because of its mild and gentle nature, the sheep (羊) is a fitting symbol for meekness. Its pictographic representations take on well-balanced forms. Early versions show frontal views of the head; later modifications fill in the horns, ears, legs and tail. When combined with other components, the tail is often left out.

The Chinese characters 鲁 meaning is stupid; simple.

In his eagerness to acquire an ideograph for simple or stupid, man literally acted the part. He appended to fish (鱼) a representation of a nose which was later corrupted to 曰 (speak). The tragic result: a “dumb” fish unable to speak and a “nosey” one, without scent or sense. Simple man, like stupid fish, sees the bait, not the hook.

The Chinese characters 鱼 meaning is fish.

鱼 is a pictograph of the fish, whose predatory habits prompt man to snap at his own fishy wily of life: “Big fish eat small fish; small fish eat water insects; water insects eat weeds and mud.” The tail of the fish proves to be its fiery end, being a form of fire (火), presumably kindled as man prepares to eat big fish.

The Chinese characters 扇 meaning is fan.

In this ideograph, a wing (羽) is likened to the leaf of a door (户) in that its attachment is at the end, and both are capable of vibrating and spreading out like a fan: 扇. The combination of these two related components enforces the idea of “fan”, a useful and decorative device often made of feathers.

The Chinese characters 习 meaning is practice.

This ideogram combines wings (羽) with self (自), contraction of (自), suggesting a young bird learning to fly by itself. Copying the bird, man also tries to fly by speeding up the simplification of the original intricate Chinese character, using only one wing for “practice”: 习. Woe betides the bird that copies man!

The Chinese characters 羽 meaning is feathers; wings.

Feathers - the showy plumage of birds - are represented by a pair of wings. Like human nature, feathers have changed little in character through the ages. From the original to finally 羽, all look alike at a glance. To confirm this, our illustration takes a closer look at some birds of a feather.

The Chinese characters 飞 meaning is fly.

This Chinese character draws its inspiration from the migratory flight of the crane - with the long neck of the bird folded on itself. The flight is speeded up by simplifying the regular form, lightening its load of strokes from nine to three: 飞.