Li Bai's complete poem "The Road to Shu is Difficult" is translated sentence by sentence as follows:
Ah, how dangerous it is! The road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the sky!
Oh, how high and difficult it is! The road to Shu is difficult, even more difficult than climbing to the sky.
With silkworms and yufu, how confused was the founding of the country!
The two kings of Shu, Cancong and Yufu, were at a loss when establishing the kingdom of Shu.
You are forty-eight thousand years old, and you are not in the vicinity of Qin Sai.
It took forty-eight thousand years from then on before we had any contact with the people of Qin.
There is a bird path in Taibai, Xidang, which can cross the top of Emei.
There is only one bird path blocking the intersection of Taibai Mountain in the west, which can connect Qin and Shu.
The earth collapsed and the mountains destroyed the strong men to death, and then the ladders and stone stacks were connected to each other.
Landslides and fissures opened up the road to Shu, and towering mountains blocked the sun and moon.
On the top there is the high mark of six dragons returning to the sun, and on the bottom there is the rushing wave and turning back to Sichuan.
There is a mountain top that blocks the six dragon chariots of the Sun God above, and there are dangerous shoals with circuitous waves flowing below.
The yellow crane cannot fly past, and the ape clings to it to overcome its sorrow.
The yellow crane, which is good at flying high, cannot fly over, and even if the hozen wants to climb over, it will have trouble climbing.
There is a lot of green mud, and there are nine twists and turns in the rocky mountains with a hundred steps.
The road to Qingniling winds around the mountains, and within a hundred steps it winds around the rocks.
When I went to the Lijing Well, I raised my head and breathed out. I sat down with my hands on my back and sighed!
You can touch it even if you hold your breath, raise your head, and pass through the ginseng well. You can touch your chest with your hands and sigh in horror.
When will you return from your journey to the west? Afraid of the unreachable rocks.
My good friend, when will you return from your journey to the west? The steep rocky path of Shu Road is really difficult to climb.
But I saw the mourning bird calling the ancient trees, and the male flying and the female flying around the forest.
I saw the sad bird whining and crying in the ancient tree; the male and female flew together among the dense trees.
I also heard Zigui crying about the moon at night, worrying about the empty mountains.
I also heard the cry of the cuckoo bird on the moonlit night; the mournful cry was heard in the barren mountains and the sky was filled with sorrowful clouds.
The road to Shu is as difficult as climbing to the blue sky, which makes people wither their beauty!
The road to Shu is difficult to walk, even harder than climbing to the sky. Even after hearing these words, one’s beauty will wither!
The sky is not full even when the peaks are gone, and withered pines hang upside down against the cliff.
The peaks are connected and less than a foot away from the sky; withered pine branches and old branches hang upside down between the cliffs.
The turbulent waterfalls are noisy, and the cliffs turn into rocks and thousands of valleys are thundered.
The rapids and waterfalls roared down with noisy, flying and impacting.
The creative background of "The Road to Shu is Difficult":
"The Road to Shu is Difficult" is a long Yuefu poem by the poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty. It was written probably in the early years of Tianbao, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (742). -743), when the poet was worshiping Hanlin in Chang'an. Li Bai is good at applying imagination, exaggeration, contrast, mythology and other techniques to his poetry creation. This poem "The Road to Shu is Difficult" fully reflects his romantic style and unique artistic characteristics.
There are two main theories about the creative background of this poem. One theory is that Li Bai took advantage of the difficulties on the road to Shu to express his hardships in going to Beijing to be an official and his frustration and anger. Another theory is that "The Road to Shu is Difficult" is a farewell poem written by Li Bai in Chang'an to see off his friends who entered Shu.
It can be seen from the poem "When will you return to the westward journey? I am afraid of the rugged rocks and the unreachable" and other lines in the poem, it can be seen that this poem is indeed related to farewell. The poet Li Bai sent off his friends to Shu in Chang'an. He first wrote about the opening of the Shu road, the distance of the road, and the steepness of the mountains, and then wrote about the danger of the sword pavilion in the middle of Shu. Finally, he expressed his worries and feelings of farewell to his friends.
At the same time, this poem was written by Li Bai when he went through ups and downs and was depressed and frustrated when he was serving as an imperial scholar in Chang'an. At that time, the Tang Dynasty was politically corrupt and the society was in turmoil. Although Li Bai was talented, his political ambitions were never realized. Therefore, through this poem, he expressed his dissatisfaction with reality and his feelings of farewell to his friends.