BOOKMARK

Hardships of the Road: III

By Li Bai Tang Dynasty

English Poetic Translation

Wash not your ears in Yingchuan’s stream of old,
Eat not the ferns on Shouyang's mountain cold.
Better to hide your light and blend with dust,
Than match the moon in proud, isolated trust.
I look across the ages and descry:
Who win renown and stay too long must die.
Was not Wu Zixu cast upon the wave?
And Qu Yuan led to a watery grave?
Did brilliant Lu Ji save his threatened head?
Or Li Si shun the trap where statesmen bleed?
Who heeds the cranes of Huating crying low?
Or Shangcai falcons stooping to the blow?
See Zhanghan of Wu, a truly wise embrace,
Who caught the autumn wind and left his place,
Returning east to where his heart belonged.
Drink down your wine while yet this life is strong—
Why seek a thousand years of empty fame
When dust has claimed your body and your name?

Classical Chinese & Pinyin

有耳莫洗潁川水，有口莫食首陽蕨。
含光混世貴無名，何用孤高比雲月。
吾觀自古賢達人，功成不退皆殞身。
子胥既棄吳江上，屈原終投湘水濱。
陸機纔多豈自保，李斯稅駕苦不早。
華亭鶴唳詎可聞，上蔡蒼鷹何足道？君不見吳中張翰稱達士，秋風忽憶江東行。
且樂生前一杯酒，何須身後千載名。

yǒu ěr mò xǐ yǐng chuān shuǐ, yǒu kǒu mò shí shǒu yáng jué.
hán guāng hùn shì guì wú míng, hé yòng gū gāo bǐ yún yuè.
wú guān zì gǔ xián dá rén, gōng chéng bù tuì jiē yǔn shēn.
zǐ xū jì qì wú jiāng shàng, qū yuán zhōng tóu xiāng shuǐ bīn.
lù jī cái duō qǐ zì bǎo, lǐ sī shuì jià kǔ bù zǎo.
huá tíng hè lì jù kě wén, shàng cài cāng yīng hé zú dào?
jūn bù jiàn wú zhōng zhāng hàn cēng dá shì, qiū fēng hū yì jiāng dōng xíng.
qiě lè shēng qián yī bēi jiǔ, hé xū shēn hòu qiān zǎi míng.

Philological Direct Translation

With ears do not wash in Yingchuan's water, with mouth do not eat Shouyang's bracken.
Containing radiance and blending with the world values being without a name, how is there use in solitary loftiness compared to clouds and moon?
I observe that since antiquity wise and accomplished men, achievements completed not retiring all met with destroyed bodies.
Wu Zixu was already discarded upon the Wu River, Qu Yuan finally cast himself into the Xiang River banks.
Lu Ji with such abundant talent how could he preserve himself, Li Si unyoking his carriage regretted not early enough.
Huating's crane calls how could they be heard, Shangcai's grey falcons what are they worth mentioning?
Have you not seen the man of Wu, Zhanghan, praised as an enlightened scholar, when autumn winds suddenly remembered his journey to Jiangdong.
For now enjoy before life one cup of wine, why need after death a thousand years of fame?

Scholarly Exegesis & Cultural Commentary

I. Formal Poetic Architecture & Meter

This poem is part of the famous Music Bureau ballad series titled Hardships of the Road. It features irregular line lengths, shifting rhymes, and a dynamic prosody characteristic of ancient style verse. The rhythm surges and decelerates to mimic the emotional turbulence of a poet grappling with political disillusionment at the imperial court.

II. Historical Chronology & Existential Impulse

Written during the mid-eighth century during Li Bai's turbulent tenure and subsequent forced departure from the capital under Emperor Xuanzong's reign, the poem reflects the profound existential crisis of a talented scholar rejected by court factions. Frustrated by imperial patronage that treated him merely as a court entertainer rather than a serious statesman, Li Bai turns to historical exemplars of doomed ministers and recluses to justify his own withdrawal.

III. Line-by-Line Exegesis & Allusion Decoding

The poem traces a progression from mythological and historical warnings of political danger to a final Daoist resolution of hedonistic detachment and return to nature.

Lines 1-2 (Opening Couplet): Line 1 ("With ears do not wash in Yingchuan's water") alludes to Xu You, who refused Yao's offer of the empire, while Line 2 ("with mouth do not eat Shouyang's bracken") recalls Boyi and Shuqi, who starved rather than eat grain under a new dynasty. Li Bai rejects extreme, ostentatious reclusion in favor of a middle path.
Lines 3-4 (First Antithetical Turn): The poet advocates blending light with the dusty world rather than maintaining an arrogant, isolated purity ("Containing radiance and blending with the world values being without a name").
Lines 5-6 (Second Antithetical Turn / Climax): A catalog of historical tragedies unfolds, citing figures like Wu Zixu and Qu Yuan who failed to retire after achieving success ("achievements completed not retiring all met with destroyed bodies").
Closing Lines (Resolving Couplet): The tension snaps in a burst of Daoist liberation, invoking Zhanghan abandoning office at the first autumn breeze, concluding that a single cup of wine in the present outweighs a thousand years of posthumous fame.

IV. Cultural Symbolism & Key Metaphors

The poem utilizes deeply embedded traditional Chinese cultural tokens to frame the intellectual dilemma of the scholar-official.

Historical Martyrs of Integrity: Figures such as Qu Yuan and Wu Zixu symbolize the tragic fate of the loyal minister caught in the machinations of corrupt courts, serving as warnings against misplaced political devotion.
The Autumn Wind: A standard literary symbol of temporal transition, mortality, and sudden awakening, prompting the scholar to abandon worldly ambition for home and freedom.

V. Philosophical Core & Global Resonance

The piece stages a brilliant dialectic between Confucian public duty and Daoist personal preservation. Finding the imperial court a lethal arena of intrigue, Li Bai discards the burden of historical legacy for the immediate, sensory reality of wine and nature. This tension between public ambition and private freedom speaks to universal human experiences of professional disillusionment and the search for authentic existence.