「初入峡有感」白居易

上有万仞山，下有千丈水。苍苍两岸间，阔狭容一苇。

瞿唐呀直泻，滟滪屹中峙。未夜黑岩昏，无风白浪起。

大石如刀剑，小石如牙齿。一步不可行，况千三百里。

苒箬竹蔑zB，欹危楫师趾。一跌无完舟，吾生系于此。

常闻仗忠信，蛮貊可行矣。自古漂沉人，岂尽非君子。

况吾时与命，蹇舛不足恃。常恐不才身，复作无名死。

ALARM AT FIRST ENTERING THE YANG-TZE GORGES 

Written in 818, when he was being towed up the rapids to Chung-chou. 

Above, a mountain ten thousand feet high : 

Below, a river a thousand fathoms deep. 

A strip of sky, walled by cliffs of stone: 

Wide enough for the passage of a single reed. 

At Chü-t'ang a straight cleft yawns: 

At Yen-yü islands block the stream. 

Long before night the walls are black with dusk; 

Without wind white waves rise. 

The big rocks are like a flat sword : 

The little rocks resemble ivory tusks. 

We are stuck fast and cannot move a step. 

How much the less, three hundred miles? ' 

Frail and slender, the twisted-bamboo rope : 

Weak, the dangerous hold of the towers' feet. 

A single slip — the whole convoy lost : 

And my life hangs on this thread ! 

I have heard a saying  " He that has an upright heart 

Shall walk scathless through the lands of Man and Mo." '' 

How can I believe that since the world began 

In every shipwreck none have drowned but rogues? 

And how can I, born in evil days' 

And fresh from failure," ask a kindness of Fate? 

Often I fear that these un-talented limbs 

Will be laid at last in an un-named grave ! 

1 The distance to Chung-chou, ' Dangerous savages 

* Of civil war. * Alluding to his renewed banishment. .