Alas! Oho! So perilous! So high!
The road to Shu is harder than to climb the sky.
Since the two pioneers, Can Cong and Yu Fu,
Opened the way, forty-eight thousand years had passed.
No human foot had trod this frontier vast.
Only birds could fly west o'er Mount Taibai's crest
Till the road was built to Mount Emei's breast.
The mountains crumbled, earth rocked, warriors died;
Then ladder-like rungs and plank-paved roads were tied.
Above stand peaks too high for dragons to pass;
Below the torrents run back, churning the mass.
Even the golden crane can't fly across;
How to climb over, gibbons are at a loss.
What tortuous mountain path Green Mud Ridge faces!
Around the top we make nine turns each hundred paces.
Panting, we touch the stars, passing between,
And, heaving sighs, we sink on the ground, hand on heart.
I ask you, westward bound, when you'll come back anew.
The hazardous road's too steep for you to go through.
You hear but sad birds wail on ancient trees,
Male birds fly to and fro, followed by she's.
You hear cuckoos weep beneath the moon at night
In deserted hills. The road to Shu is harder than to climb the sky.
Hearing of this, would not your face turn pale with fright?
Peak upon peak, they stand but a foot from the sky;
Withered pines hang, head down, from the cliff where they lie.
Torrents and waterfalls vie in roaring loud;
Boulders roll thundering down as if the mountains ploughed.
So dangerous these places are!
Alas! Why should you come here from afar?
The Sword Gate Pass stands firm as walls of steel.
If but a single man should guard the pass,
Ten thousand could not break through, alas!
If he were not true but turned a wolf or a jackal,
There'd be wolves at morn and tigers at dark.
They suck blood and tear men's flesh as they bark.
Though the City of Silk is a pleasant place,
You'd better go home as soon as you can!
The road to Shu is harder than to climb the sky.
I turn westward and heave a sigh.