Gao Shi finds currying favour the hardest road
It's not enough to be smart
A Hard Road to Walk (1) Gao Shi Don’t you see? Here’s a wealthy old geezer. He didn’t use to have two pennies to rub together, Then one day he made money and powerful friends, And in all that he did, he was a winner, a tiger. Now he’s got a pack of kids, and grandkids, too, And his concubines dance and his wife plays the harp. He boasts about how it all changed that day, And laughs at the fools around him, slaving away, Like the kid on our east side: no carriage, so poor He lives in a shack with a straw mat for a door. He studies. But he won’t learn to cultivate acquaintance, To flatter or court, So he’ll grind at his books for years, and all for naught. 高适 行路难二首·其一 君不见富家翁，昔时贫贱谁比数。 一朝金多结豪贵，万事胜人健如虎。 子孙成长满眼前，妻能管弦妾能舞。 自矜一朝忽如此，却笑傍人独悲苦。 东邻少年安所如，席门穷巷出无车。 有才不肯学干谒，何用年年空读书。
Gao Shi was a contemporary of Li Bai and Du Fu. He spent more than a decade failing to get a government appointment for himself, so when he speaks of how hard the road is, he knows what he’s talking about. I don’t think the kid on the east side is a self-portrait, as Gao himself was not a dedicated student when young. But he represents the kind of ambitious young man that Gao was, and the problems of being forced to play the social game were universal.
There’s a looseness about this poem that made me want to make it slangy and colloquial. Gao is a very appealing character - a war hero later in life, and an accomplished poet himself, he was also a champion of the frequently disgraceful Li Bai, and a down-to-earth man of the people. Here, an avuncular side to him shines through, full of concern for the young people he saw struggling.
Note also the sharp contrast with the last, court-style poem, which needed all of those notes on exotic names and places. Gao was part of the new wave, rejecting fancy, high-falutin language in favour of something simple and personal.