Resting at The Inn After Riding Through The Snow

Yi Che-hyun.

Here in the inn, a glass of wine to warm me,

Safe with the cat upon the heated floor,

Warmth glows from bone to bone. My mind grows mellow.

I think of Cho-sang’s picture of the snow.

On one small scroll he heaps such white enchantment

As I have seen today.

There willow branches 

Are weighted down. The inn has closed its door. 

One guest is starting off on his small cart,

A proud official shivering in the snow!

Doubtless he envies many a lesser man

Who draws a warm quilt high round freezing ears

And, in the comfort of a heated floor,

Drifts through the day with common country dreams.

I, having seen such snow as Cho-sang painted,

Look forward to exchanging verses with him.