Hard Roads (The great way is as clear as the sky)
行路難 (大道如青天) · Three Hundred Tang Poems
Hard Roads (The great way is as clear as the sky)
The great way stretches vast as the sky, yet I alone cannot pass through.
I am ashamed to chase after the youths of Chang'an's neighborhoods, betting on pears and chestnuts with fighting cocks and white dogs.
I strike my sword and sing a song of bitter notes; dragging my robe at princely gates brings no satisfaction.
The marketplace of Huaiyin laughed at Han Xin; the nobles of the Han court envied Jia Sheng.
Do you not see how in days past the house of Yan honored Guo Kui—
he took up the brook, broke his pride, without a trace of suspicion?
Ju Xin and Yue Yi repaid the grace they were given, offering their hearts and splitting their livers to serve as worthy men.
But King Zhao's white bones are now entangled in tangled weeds—who still sweeps the Golden Terrace today?
Hard is the road, hard is the road—I will go home, I will return.
行路難 (大道如青天)
大道如青天，我獨不得出。
羞逐長安社中兒，赤雞白狗一作「雉」賭梨栗。
彈劍作歌奏苦聲，曳裾王門不稱情。
淮陰市井笑韓信，漢朝公卿忌賈生。
君不見昔時燕家重郭隗，擁篲折節一作「腰」無嫌猜。
劇辛樂毅感恩分，輸肝剖膽效英才。
昭王白骨縈爛一作「蔓」草，誰人更掃黃金臺。
行路難，歸去來。