[Lika_k]

Li Po
II. 4. THE Szechwan Road
Eheu ! How dangerous, how high ! It would be easier
to climb to Heaven than to walk the Szechwan Road.

Since Ts'an Ts'ung and Yii Fu ruled the land, forty-
eight thousand years had gone by ; and still no human
foot had passed from Shu to the frontiers of Ch'in. To
the west across T'ai-po Shan there was a bird-track, by
which one could cross to the ridge of O-mi. But the earth
of the hill crumbled and heroes* perished.

So afterwards they made sky ladders and hanging bridges.
Above, high beacons of rock that turn back the chariot of
the sun. Below, whirling eddies that meet the waves of
the current and drive them away. Even the wings of the
yellow cranes cannot carry them across, and the monkeys
grow weary of such climbing.

How the road curls in the pass of Green Mud!

With nine turns in a hundred steps it twists up the hills.

Clutching at Orion, passing the Well Star, I look up and
gasp. Then beating my breast sit and groan aloud.

I fear I shall never return from my westward wandering '
the way is steep and the rocks cannot be climbed.

Sometimes the voice of a bird calls among the ancient
trees a male calling to its wife, up and down through the
woods. Sometimes a nightingale sings to the moon,
weary of empty hills.

It would be easier to climb to Heaven than to walk the
Szechwan Road ; and those who hear the tale of it turn pale
with fear.

Between the hill-tops and the sky there is not a cubit's
space. Withered pine-trees hang leaning over precipitous
walls.

Flying waterfalls and rolling torrents mingle their din.
Beating the cliffs and circling the rocks, they thunder in a
thousand valleys.

Alas ! O traveller, why did you come to so fearful a
place ? The Sword Gate is high and jagged. If one
man stood in the Pass, he could hold it against ten
thousand.

The guardian of the Pass leaps like a wolf on all who
are not his kinsmen.

In the daytime one hides from ravening tigers and in
the night from long serpents, that sharpen their fangs and
lick blood, slaying men like grass.

They say the Embroidered City is a pleasant place, but
I had rather be safe at home.

For it would be easier to climb to Heaven than to walk
the Szechwan Road.

I turn my body and gaze longingly towards the West.

[When Li Po came to the capital and showed this poem to Ho Chih-ch'ang, Chih-ch'ang raised his eyebrows and said : " Sir, you are not a man of this world. You must indeed be the genius of the star T'ai-po " (xxxiv.36).]

* The " heroes " were five strong men sent by the King of Shu to fetch the five daughters of the King of Ch'in.

Transl. by Arthur Waley

@темы: chinese, 8, eastern, l