"Snow mud with red paws" means the paw prints left by geese stepping on the snow mud. Metaphor traces left by the past.
Source: Song Su Shi's "Nostalgia with a Son from Mianchi"
Original poem:
What is life like everywhere? It should be like flying through the snow. I accidentally left my fingers and claws on the mud, and Hongfei flew that complicated thing.
The old monk died and became a new tower, so there is no reason to see the old topic. Remember whether the past was rugged, and the long road was full of people.
Translation:
Life is alive, and when you go here and there, you accidentally leave some traces. What do you think? I think it's really like a swan flying around and accidentally landing in the snow somewhere. It left some paw prints on this piece of snow, which happened by accident, because the flying of the swan is not certain at all.
Feng Xian, an old monk, has passed away, leaving only a new tower for hiding ashes, and we have no chance to go there again to see the broken wall inscribed in those years. Do you remember the rough journey to Mianchi at that time? The road is long, people are tired, and the donkey is too tired to bark.
Appreciation of Poetry
The metaphor of life experience in this poem is impressive! The experience of life is really hard to grasp. "Feihong Snow Mud" is the real process of life.
in the sixth year of Jiayou (161), Su Shi was appointed as Fengxiang (now Shaanxi), and his younger brother Su Zhe wrote poems to send him there. In the poem, there is a sentence that "I was a county official (Su Zhe was a county official in Mianchi), and the people know whether the old custom monk's house wall is * * *".
Six years ago, two brothers went to Beijing to take an examination. When they passed by, their horses were exhausted because of the rugged mountain road, so they had to borrow a donkey to hurry. When he arrived at Mianchi, the donkey was trapped and hungry, and stayed in the monk's room, leaving a deep impression on his life. Now my brother brings up the old story, which evokes Su Shi's memories and feelings, so he wrote this poem. The poem expresses the thought that life is difficult and life destiny is difficult to grasp, and contains deep philosophy. Encourage readers to think deeply about related issues.
Poetry is characterized by appropriate metaphor and free form. It is like a poem with a rhyme but the second couplet is not even. It is a poem called "one-way into the law" by predecessors. In fact, this reflects the characteristics of Su Shi's creative style, which is casual and not subject to too many constraints.