From the walls of Baidi high in the coloured dawn
To Jiangling by night-fall is three hundred miles,
Yet monkeys are still calling on both banks behind me
To my boat these ten thousand mountains away.
Original Poem:
「早发白帝城」
李白
朝辞白帝彩云间， 千里江陵一日还。
两岸猿声啼不住， 轻舟已过万重山。
Interpretation:
Written on the return journey home after being pardoned for his crimes, the poem describes the boat trip down to Jiangling and expresses a pleasant mood in a relaxed tone. Baidi City is built on a high mountain, bordering the Yangtze River and very close to Qutang Gorge.
When the poet wrote this poem, he had already left Kui Zhou and was traveling in the river. When I looked back in the middle of the journey, I could only see the mountains towering into the sky, and the Baidi City, which I had bid farewell to in the morning, was already out of sight. The weather was clear, and the colorful clouds reflected the place where we had just walked.
In this poem, the swiftness of the boat brings out the scenery on both sides of the river, so that people can hear and see the scenery. The boat sails in the river as if flying, and in the constant sound of apes on the mountains near the shore, the light boat has sped past ten thousand mountains.
In the third and fourth lines, there is also an implication: although the apes on both sides of the bitter cries, but I, the light boat like an arrow, has crossed all the difficulties and obstacles, the future is wide open, the people out of the disaster, the mood is incredibly relaxed.
This poem is also like a river flowing, unstoppable, extremely romantic and ethereal beauty.
Poem translator:
About the poet:
Li Bai (李白), 701 ~ 762 A.D., whose ancestral home was in Gansu, was preceded by Li Guang, a general of the Han Dynasty. Tang poetry is one of the brightest constellations in the history of Chinese literature, and one of the brightest stars is Li Bai.
