Su Shi's poem about the swan goose....

和子由渑池怀旧

苏轼

人生到处知何似，应似飞鸿踏雪泥。
泥上偶然留指爪，鸿飞那复计东西。
老僧已死成新塔，坏壁无由见旧题。
往日崎岖还记否，路长人困蹇驴嘶。


BACKGROUND

Su Shi and his younger brother Su Zhe (also known as Zi You 子由, of the poem title "With Zi You at MianChi Reminiscence") had previously been to MianChi. On the road the horse died, and the two of them rode a lame donkey to the old monastary. Afterwards young Zi You 子由 wrote a poem entitled "渑池怀旧 Reminiscence of MianChi". When years later the brothers came back, the old monk who had previously received them was already dead, in the monastry they had built a new tower for him, but the old building the brothers remembered had also been destroyed! Nothing they could remember from before would exist, and it was with a convergence of feelings that Su Shi wrote this poem, sighing over human life resembling the swan goose leaving prints in the snow.

ANALYSIS 1 :
People rush busily about, just as if they were a swan goose. The swan goose leaves marks in the snow mush before flying off again without a backward glance. He cannot recall where he left his mark, which in any case disappear.

ANALYSIS 2 :
This poem expresses the poet's looking back on pasts moments, using the claw prints of the swan goose on the snow as a metaphor for the marks left on a person's unconscious. Evoking the dead monk leaving a new tower, old walls in which past matters cannot be seen, used as a metaphor for marks left with no human thought contained and sighing over the ephemeral nature of human life. In parallel, the frustrations and bitter experiences of one's life remain in one's memory, scars on the heart being difficult to remove. The overall poem evokes an overwhelming sense of emotion towards life.

THE LINK.... BUT WHAT HAPPENED TO LINK I PREFERRED? INTERNET IS SO FICKLE....

http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/HS_dMDX4ftg/