University of Virginia Library

噫吁戲， 危乎高哉！
蜀道之難難於上青天！
蠶叢及魚鳧， 開國何茫然。
爾來四萬八千歲， 始與秦塞通人煙。
西當太白有鳥道， 可以橫絕峨眉巔。
地崩山摧壯士死， 然後天梯石棧方鉤連。
上有六龍回日之高標， 下有衝波逆折之迴川。
黃鶴之飛尚不得， 猿猱欲度愁攀援。
青泥何盤盤， 百步九折縈巖巒，
捫參歷井仰脅息， 以手撫膺坐長歎。
問君西遊何時還？ 畏途巉巖不可攀。
但見悲鳥號古木， 雄飛雌從繞林間；
又聞子規啼， 夜月愁空山。
蜀道之難難於上青天！
使人聽此凋朱顏。
連峰去天不盈尺， 枯松倒掛倚絕壁。
飛湍瀑流爭喧豗， 砯崖轉石萬壑雷。
其險也如此！ 嗟爾遠道之人，
胡為乎來哉？ 劍閣崢嶸而崔嵬，
一夫當關， 萬夫莫開；
所守或匪親， 化為狼與豺，
朝避猛虎， 夕避長蛇，
磨牙吮血， 殺人如麻。
錦城雖云樂， 不如早還家。
蜀道之難難於上青天， 側身西望常咨嗟。

Oh, but it is high and very dangerous!
Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky.
...Until two rulers of this region
Pushed their way through in the misty ages,
Forty-eight thousand years had passed
With nobody arriving across the Qin border.
And the Great White Mountain, westward, still has only a bird's path
Up to the summit of Emei Peak --
Which was broken once by an earthquake and there were brave men lost,
Just finishing the stone rungs of their ladder toward heaven.
...High, as on a tall flag, six dragons drive the sun,
While the river, far below, lashes its twisted course.
Such height would be hard going for even a yellow crane,
So pity the poor monkeys who have only paws to use.
The Mountain of Green Clay is formed of many circles -
Each hundred steps, we have to turn nine turns among its mound --
Panting, we brush Orion and pass the Well Star,
Then, holding our chests with our hands and sinking to the ground with a groan,
We wonder if this westward trail will never have an end.
The formidable path ahead grows darker, darker still,
With nothing heard but the call of birds hemmed in by the ancient forest,
Male birds smoothly wheeling, following the females;
And there come to us the melancholy voices of the cuckoos
Out on the empty mountain, under the lonely moon....
Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky.
Even to hear of it turns the cheek pale,
With the highest crag barely a foot below heaven.
Dry pines hang, head down, from the face of the cliffs,
And a thousand plunging cataracts outroar one another
And send through ten thousand valleys a thunder of spinning stones.
With all this danger upon danger,
Why do people come here who live at a safe distance?
...Though Dagger-Tower Pass be firm and grim,
And while one man guards it
Ten thousand cannot force it,
What if he be not loyal,
But a wolf toward his fellows?
...There are ravenous tigers to fear in the day
And venomous reptiles in the night
With their teeth and their fangs ready
To cut people down like hemp.
Though the City of Silk be delectable, I would rather turn home quickly.
Such travelling is harder than scaling the blue sky....
But I still face westward with a dreary moan.