Traveling is difficult
Li Bai
Golden bottles of wine cost ten thousand coins, and jade plates of delicacies cost ten thousand coins.
I stopped eating and threw chopsticks. I drew my sword and looked around at a loss.
If you want to cross the Yellow River, which is blocked by ice, you will have to climb to Taihang, where it is snowy and dark.
I was fishing and sitting on the stream in my spare time, and suddenly I was riding a boat and dreaming of the sun.
The journey is difficult, the journey is difficult, and there are many divergent paths, but now I am safe.
There will be times when the wind blows and the waves break, and the cloud sails are hung directly to help the sea.
Notes
① Delicacies: Expensive dishes.
② Fishing and sitting on the stream: Legend has it that before Lu Wei met King Wen of Zhou, he once fished in the stream (southeast of today's Baoji City, Shaanxi Province).
③Riding in a boat and dreaming of the sun: Legend has it that before Yi Yin saw the soup, he dreamed of riding in a boat and dreaming of the sun and the moon. The combination of these two allusions is a metaphor for the impermanence of life, mostly by chance.
Brief analysis
"The journey is difficult" mostly describes the hardships of the world and expresses separation and separation. There are three poems from Li Bai's "The Journey Is Difficult", one of which was selected from the collection of Hengtang Retired Scholars. The poem uses "difficulties in traveling" as a metaphor for the dangers of the world, and expresses the poet's uncontrollable anger when he encounters difficulties on the political road; but he does not give up his lofty political ideals because of this, and still hopes that one day he will be able to display his ambitions. His ambition reflects his optimistic and heroic spirit about the future of life, and is full of positive and romantic sentiment. The poem begins with "golden bottles of wine" and "jade plates of delicacies", giving people a happy banquet scene. Then he wrote "stop the cup and throw chopsticks" and "draw the sword and look around", which also shows the reader the impact of the author's emotional waves. The middle four sentences not only sigh about "the river is blocked by ice" and "the mountains are covered with snow", but also suddenly travel a thousand years ago and see Lu Shang and Yi Yin suddenly being reused. The four short sentences "The journey is difficult" express the dilemma and the mentality of continuing pursuit. The last two sentences are about writing that your ideals will be realized one day. After a high degree of hesitation and a lot of sighs, the whole poem suddenly opens up to a strange world with the words "There will be times when the wind and waves break", and firmly believes that a good prospect will eventually arrive, so it "hangs sails directly on the clouds to sail across the sea" and marches forward bravely. The meaning is full of ups and downs.