A Hard Road to Walk (1) Qiji It’s a hard road to walk. Masters, trouble lurks! Ferocious eddies swirl around the Andan rocks; They’re nothing to the rip tides in a petty heart. Up chill escarpments, concertina cart-tracks wind, But when fine wagons flip, there is still hope we’ll live. These dangers pale compared to gossips’ scolding tongues, Which from the shadows grind the bones of rival men. Masters, have you seen Qu Yuan of Chu? His grievance drowned forever in the River Xiang. Have you not also seen The great Li Bai? He was cut adrift and left to roam the southern land. 齐己 行路难二首·其一 行路难,君好看, 惊波不在黤黮间,小人心里藏奔湍。 七盘九折寒崷崒,翻车倒盖犹堪出。 未似是非唇舌危,暗中潜毁平人骨。 君不见楚灵均,千古沉冤湘水滨。 又不见李太白,一朝却作江南客。
Qiji was a monk living at the very end of the Tang Dynasty. He wrote a lot of deeply religious poetry, but this pair on the theme of the hard road seem to address the secular problem of slander and gossip at the court.
Andan is a river in Fujian, famous for having the scariest rapids.
Qu Yuan of Chu was the prime minister of his state. He warned his king that the country was under threat, and was ignored. So he wrote a lot of poetry and jumped in the River Xiang to kill himself.
Li Bai was thrown out of the court on more than one occasion. It’s not clear which this poem is referring to!
I’m a new subscriber and I’ve been loving reading these poems, but I don’t know the history well and I’m wondering if you have a post somewhere about the tang dynasty and why you are focusing on the poems from that time period? I’d love to understand the setting these poets were writing from and why they are of particular influence!
Thank you so much for your incredible work, and for including both the English and Chinese translations, in verse too! I love it!