A Hard Road to Walk

Li Bai mourns that life is tough

A Hard Road to Walk (1)
Li Bai

Ten grand a cask, this crystal wine,
Poured out for us in golden cups,
With jade-stone plates for us to dine
On thousands-worth of choicest cuts.
But I can’t eat. I must set down
The chopsticks and the wine before
I rise, sword drawn, to gaze around
And round, and find myself…unsure.
I’d ford the Yellow River’s flood
Except that ice has stopped the flow;
I’d climb the Taihang Mountains but 
They’re blanketed with frosty snow.
Fate sometimes calls for fishermen,
So I hang around on emerald streams;
I dreamfloat past the moon and sun
Where mythic heroes once were seen...
It’s a hard road to walk!
A hard road to walk!
Now where has life’s path taken me?
Along which labyrinthine fork?
The day will come to break the waves
With the long sea-wind at my back,
Over the wine-dark ocean raise
My cloudlike sail, to carve my track.


李白  行路难·其一
金樽清酒斗十千，玉盘珍羞直万钱。
停杯投箸不能食，拔剑四顾心茫然。
欲渡黄河冰塞川，将登太行雪满山。
闲来垂钓碧溪上，忽复乘舟梦日边。
行路难！行路难！多歧路，今安在？
长风破浪会有时，直挂云帆济沧海。

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The road is long, did you know? With many a winding turn…

1,400 years before the Hollies, Li Bai was writing lyrics that would probably be close enough for a lawsuit in this letigious age. And this poem is easily the equal of the great ballad: its last line has passed into the language.

So, first, what is this hard road? It’s life; in particular the life and career of an educated Chinese man who wishes to win fame in service of the empire. The road was hard to walk because it was hard to make it. This was a very popular theme for Tang poets: a quick search finds at least 33 poems with this title in the Complete Tang Poems. In fact, this poem is an elaboration of a pre-Tang version of the same thing, by Bao Zhao, but given Li Bai’s inimitable glow-up.

My favourite part is perhaps in lines 7-8, where Li Bai has thrown down his chopsticks, unimpressed by even the most fabulously lavish banquet, and rises, sword drawn, to seek fame and fortune. He turns to find where to charge… and turns… and keeps turning. The single phrase 四顾 look in all directions takes on this lovely double meaning, first a strategic scanning for the right path, and second a panicked, directionless spin.

I think the part about the river and the mountains means: he’s ready to do all sorts of heroic deeds, but the powers that be keep pouring cold water on his ideas, or giving him a frosty reception. The part about fishing refers to specific stories: General Jiang Ziya encountered his king when fishing by a stream; Yi Yin dreamed about floating past the moon and sun just before he was hired as prime minister by his sovereign.

The famous line is the part near the end: 长风破浪 on a long wind, breaking the waves. It’s taken on the meaning of making of doing great deeds and making a name for yourself.

Here’s my favourite version of the song:

I’m always slightly worried about these rhyme-heavy translations. If you think they’ve tipped over into doggerel, let me know. But there is something in the way Li knits these references together that seems to me to cry out for rhyme. The original grabs the reader, compelling us to read on, and rhyme is a part of that… I think the effect works slightly better in the second and third of this sequence, but this one is OK.