The Road to Shu Is Hard
English translation and interpretation are being reviewed.
危乎高哉！
蜀道之难，
难于上青天！
蚕丛及鱼凫，
开国何茫然！
尔来四万八千岁，
不与秦塞通人烟。
西当太白有鸟道，
可以横绝峨眉巅。
地崩山摧壮士死，
然后天梯石栈相钩连。
上有六龙回日之高标，
下有冲波逆折之回川。
黄鹤之飞尚不得过，
猿猱欲度愁攀援。
青泥何盘盘，
百步九折萦岩峦。
扪参历井仰胁息，
以手抚膺坐长叹。
问君西游何时还？
畏途巉岩不可攀。
但见悲鸟号古木，
雄飞雌从绕林间。
又闻子规啼夜月，
愁空山。
蜀道之难，
难于上青天，
使人听此凋朱颜！
连峰去天不盈尺，
枯松倒挂倚绝壁。
飞湍瀑流争喧豗，
砯崖转石万壑雷。
其险也如此，
嗟尔远道之人胡为乎来哉！
剑阁峥嵘而崔嵬，
一夫当关，
万夫莫开。
所守或匪亲，
化为狼与豺。
朝避猛虎，
夕避长蛇，
磨牙吮血，
杀人如麻。
锦城虽云乐，
不如早还家。
蜀道之难，
难于上青天，
侧身西望长咨嗟！
English translation
Alas and alack! How perilous, how high!
The road to Shu is hard — harder than climbing the blue sky!
Can Cong and Yufu — how dim and distant was the founding of their state!
Since then, for forty-eight thousand years, no road joined it to the Qin frontier.
To the west, facing Taibai, there is only a bird's path, by which one might cross to the peak of Emei.
The earth collapsed, the mountains fell, the brave men died; only then did the sky-ladders and stone galleries link together.
Above, the lofty crest that turns back the sun-car of the six dragons; below, the racing waves that twist and double in whirlpools.
Even the flight of the yellow crane cannot pass; the gibbons, wanting to cross, despair at the climbing.
How winding is Qingni — a hundred paces, nine switchbacks, coiling among the crags.
Touching the Shen and Li stars, I draw breath and look up; I press my hand to my breast and sit and sigh.
I ask you, journeying west, when will you return? The dreadful way, its jagged rocks, cannot be climbed.
One sees only mournful birds crying in the ancient trees, the male flying, the female following, circling through the woods.
And one hears the cuckoo crying to the night moon, grieving the empty hills.
The road to Shu is hard — harder than climbing the blue sky; to hear of it makes one's ruddy cheeks turn pale!
Peak crowding peak, not a foot from heaven; dead pines hang upside down against the sheer cliffs.
Flying torrents and falls vie in their roaring; they pound the rocks, roll the boulders, thunder through a thousand ravines.
So perilous it is — alas, you who have come so far, why have you come?
The Sword Pass is steep and towering: one man holds the pass, ten thousand cannot force it.
If he who guards it is no true kin, he turns wolf and jackal.
By day shun the fierce tigers, by night shun the long snakes; they grind their teeth and suck blood, they kill men like hemp.
Though the Brocade City is said to be pleasant, better to turn homeward early.
The road to Shu is hard — harder than climbing the blue sky; turning my body westward, I gaze and sigh long.
Meaning
Alas, alas! How lofty and how steep!
The road to Shu is hard to climb — harder indeed than climbing to the blue sky.
They say that Can Cong and Yu Fu founded the state of Shu; the age of its founding is so remote it cannot be told in full.
From then until now must be some forty-eight thousand years; Qin and Shu, walled off by the Qinling ranges, never held traffic with each other.
To the west, Mount Taibai is so sheer that only birds can pass, and that peak leads straight to the crown of Mount Emei.
The mountain fell and the earth split, burying the five heroes who opened the way; only after that did the high and perilous roads and the plank walks link together.
In Shu there are peaks above that bar the sun god's six-dragon car, and below, torrents that dash against the sky in winding, turning courses.
Even the yellow crane, so skilled in high flight, cannot cross; even the ape, wanting to climb over, must despair of the ascent.
The muddy road of Qingni Ridge bends and twists; nine turns in a hundred paces wind about the mountains.
Holding one's breath and raising the head, one can touch
Background
Read the background
Concerning the circumstances in which "The Road to Shu Is Hard" was written, speculation has abounded ever since the Tang dynasty. There are four main theories. First: the poem voices concern for Fang Guan and Du Fu, hoping that they will leave Sichuan soon and escape the murderous hand of Yan Wu, the military governor of Jiannan. Second: it was written for Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang, who had fled to Shu to escape the An Lushan Rebellion, urging him to return to Chang'an so as not to be held hostage by the local warlords of Sichuan. Third: its aim is to satirize Zhangqiu Jianqiong, the governor of Shu at the time, who wished to carve out a domain protected by natural defenses and refused to submit to the court's authority. Fourth: the poem simply celebrates mountain and river scenery and carries no hidden meaning.
This poem is first recorded in the Collection of the Finest Spirits of River and Mountain compiled by the Tang scholar Yin Fan, a book completed in 753 (the twelfth year of the Tianbao era of Emperor Xuanzong), and so Li Bai's poem must have been written no later than the completion of that anthology. At that time the An Lushan Rebellion had not yet broken out, Emperor Xuanzong was living quietly at Chang'an, and neither Fang (Guan) nor Du Fu had yet entered Shu; thus the first and second theories are plainly mistaken. As for the theory that it satirizes Zhangqiu Jianqiong, the relevant records in the histories offer no support for it either: throughout his years in Shu, Zhangqiu Jianqiong longed to go to Chang'an to hold office.
Both Meng Qi's Record of the Occasions of Poems of the Tang and Wang Dingbao's Jottings from the Tang of the Five Dynasties record that He Zhizhang read this poem while serving as Mentor to the Crown Prince; on that basis, Li Bai's poem would have been written in 742 (the first year of Tianbao), when he entered the capital at the imperial summons to serve in the Hanlin Academy. It may have been a poem presented to a friend. Zhan Ying holds that it was written at Chang'an during the Tianbao era to see off his friend Wang Yan, who was going into Shu, with the aim of urging Wang Yan not to linger in Shu but to return to Chang'an early, and so avoid the treacherous hand of jealous petty men; other scholars hold that it was written during the Kaiyuan era, when Li Bai first went to Chang'an and returned having achieved nothing, and was sent to a friend to convey his meaning.