| My comment Bewilderment and frustration! The writer is torn between many impulses to do something, anything. He wants to fight something and is looking for an enemy. The various courses of action he thinks of are all blocked by some obstacle, but then he has a last thought that sets his imagination and himself free. At first he is tired of the extravagant and decadent life he has been leading. He leaps up like a madman, turning in various directions with his dagger in his hand. He wants to cross the river, but it is "choked" with ice. He wants to climb the mountain but it is "blind" with snow. Such violent images! Then more peaceful, relaxing images of drifting gently on a boat come to his mind. He muses to himself how hard the journey of life is, with so many turnings. Then he leaps into that fantastic finale: he will sail the fierce wind across the deep seas. At last he feels alive again after that inactivity! Merv Daw Like to read the poem again? It is presented below. |
| Window on Chinese Poetry |
"The Hard Road" by Li Bai Pure wine costs, for the golden cup, ten thousand coppers for a flagon, and a jade plate of dainty food calls for a million coins. I fling aside my chopsticks and cup; I cannot eat or drink. I pull out my dagger, I peer four ways in vain. I would cross the Yellow River but ice chokes the ferry. I would climb the Tai Han Mountains but the sky is blind with snow. I would sit and poise a fishing pole, lazy by a brook, but I suddenly dream of riding a boat, sailing for the sun. Journeying is hard; journeying is hard. There are many turnings. Which one am I to follow? I will mount a long wind some day and break the heavy waves and set my cloudy sail straight and bridge the deep, deep sea. Adapted from a translation by Witter Bynner |
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