1. "Up the Three Gorges" - Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty
Wushan Mountain is surrounded by blue sky, and the flowing water is flowing like water.
The water in Ba can suddenly be exhausted, and the blue sky will never come.
Three mornings are bulls, and three evenings are too late.
Three mornings and three evenings passed, and my temples became silky.
Translation:
The Bashi River passes through Wushan, and Wushan is sandwiched between the blue sky.
Bashui suddenly seemed to have reached its end, but the blue sky was still sandwiched above it.
We walked in Huangniu Gorge for three mornings and wandered around Huangniu Gorge for three nights.
How can one not get spots on his temples from worry when he can't get out of Huangniu Gorge for three days and three nights?
2. "Entering the Gorge to Badong" - Bai Juyi of the Tang Dynasty
I don't know when the distant county will arrive, but I am glad that the whole family will go together.
Thousands of miles away from the Three Gorges, a hundred years of livelihood are in one boat.
In Wushan, there are flowers and rain at dusk, and in Longshui, there are many winds against the waves in spring.
Two red flags and several drums made the king wander up to Badong.
Translation:
It has been a long journey and I don’t know when we will arrive in Yuanjun (Chungju). Fortunately, the whole family does not feel lonely when traveling together.
He was sent by the king to go to the Three Gorges thousands of miles away, carrying the whole family's livelihood in a small boat.
At night in Wushan, there is a drizzle that wets the flower branches. I can row against the current and bathe in the spring breeze and rain.
Seeing the red flags waving on both sides of Badong, drums beat several times to urge the boat forward.
Extended information
Although the whole poem "Up to the Three Gorges" has only eight lines and 40 characters, it fully expresses the poet's difficulty in traveling and the pain in his heart when he went up to the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. This poem has various expression techniques and the language is natural and candid. Although it reveals melancholic and sad emotions, its majestic atmosphere and broad artistic conception show the poet's heroic spirit.
Creative background of "Up the Three Gorges":
This is Li Bai's work when he was exiled Yelang passing through the Three Gorges in February of the second year of Qianyuan (759) of Emperor Suzong of the Tang Dynasty. After the Anshi Rebellion broke out, Yong Wang Li Lin called for quelling the rebellion. He sent envoys three times to invite Li Bai to join his shogunate. Li Bai accepted the appointment out of his good desire to serve the country and make meritorious services. In the second year of Zhide (757), Tang Suzong Li Heng and Yongwang Li Lin had an internal conflict over power, and Li Heng destroyed Li Lin's army.
Li Bai was convicted and thrown into Xunyang Prison. Later, Yelang was exiled. He traveled upstream from Jiujiang for nearly a year to Yichang, then entered the Three Gorges and wrote this poem. Li Bai was 59 years old at the time. The Three Gorges is the most steep and difficult section of the Yangtze River. The journey here is slower than before. His wife Zong and his brother-in-law who saw him off have also said goodbye and returned to Nanchang, so the poet felt even more lonely and in a worse mood.