The Road Is Hard: No. 2
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
我独不得出。
羞逐长安社中儿，
赤鸡白雉赌梨栗。
弹剑作歌奏苦声，
曳裾王门不称情。
淮阴市井笑韩信，
汉朝公卿忌贾生。
君不见昔时燕家重郭隗，
拥篲折节无嫌猜。
剧辛乐毅感恩分，
输肝剖胆效英才。
昭王白骨萦蔓草，
谁人更扫黄金台？
行路难，
归去来！
English translation
The great road is like the open sky, yet I alone cannot get out.
I am ashamed to run with the lads of the ward guilds of Chang'an, staking pears and chestnuts on red cocks and white pheasants.
I strike my sword and sing, giving voice to a bitter sound; trailing my skirts at a prince's gate — it does not suit my nature.
The market of Huaiyin laughed at Han Xin; the lords of the Han court envied Jia Yi.
Have you not seen how the house of Yan once honored Guo Wei, sweeping the way and bowing low without a shadow of distrust?
Ju Xin and Yue Yi, grateful for that regard, poured out liver and gall to serve him with their talents.
King Zhao's white bones are now tangled in creeping grass; who will ever sweep the Golden Terrace again?
Hard is the way — I will go home!
Meaning
The road of life is so wide, yet I alone have no way out.
I am unwilling to follow the rich young men of Chang'an into cockerfighting and dog-racing games of that sort.
To sing to my sword as Feng Xuan did, airing my complaint — to bow and cringe at the gates of the powerful does not suit my heart.
In those days the men of the Huaiyin market laughed at Han Xin for a coward, and the high ministers of the Han court envied Jia Yi's surpassing talent.
Look you: in ancient times King Zhao of Yan honored Guo Wei, sweeping the ground with a broom and humbling himself before men of worth, without the least suspicion or distrust.
Ju Xin and Yue Yi, grateful for the grace of being understood, gave their loyalty and wisdom to the full, serving their lord with all the talent they had.
Yet King Zhao of Yan died long ago — who is there now to employ worthy men as he did?
The way of the world is hard; I can only go home!
Background
Read the background
In 742 (the first year of the Tianbao era), Li Bai entered the capital at the emperor's summons and served as a Hanlin Academician in attendance. Yet once there he was not given real employment by Emperor Xuanzong; worse, he was slandered and elbowed aside by powerful ministers, and two years later he was "granted gold and dismissed," in effect driven out of Chang'an. The Tang Song Shi Chun holds that all three "The Way Is Hard" poems were written in 744 (the third year of Tianbao) upon his departure from Chang'an, and Zhan Ying's Chronology of Li Bai's Writings and Pei Fei's Notes on the Music Bureau Poems of Taibai follow that view. Yu Xianhao's Collected Works of Li Bai holds that the first two were written around 731 (the nineteenth year of the Kaiyuan era), when Li Bai first went to Chang'an seeking fame and office and returned having achieved nothing, while the date of the third is uncertain. This is the second poem of the suite.