早发白帝城早發白帝城
cháo朝cí辞bái白dì帝cǎi yún彩云jiān间，
qiān lǐ千里Jiāng líng江陵yī一rì日hái还。
liǎng àn两岸yuán猿shēng声tí啼bù zhù不住，
qīng轻zhōu舟yǐ已guò过mò万chóng重shān山。
Line by line
- 朝辞白帝彩云间，朝辭白帝彩雲間， At dawn I leave White Emperor City amid coloured clouds;
- 千里江陵一日还。千里江陵一日還。 a thousand li to Jiangling, returned in a single day.
- 两岸猿声啼不住，兩岸猿聲啼不住， On both banks the gibbons cry without cease,
- 轻舟已过万重山。輕舟已過萬重山。 as my light boat slips past ten thousand peaks.
The poet & the story
In 759 Li Bai was being exiled to remote Yelang for backing the wrong prince in the An Lushan rebellion. Partway there, at White Emperor City above the Three Gorges, news of an imperial pardon reached him — and he turned his boat around and flew home downstream. The poem’s speed is the speed of a man given his life back.
Interpretation
He leaves White Emperor City at dawn among rainbow clouds and covers the thousand li to Jiangling in a single day. Monkeys are still crying on both banks as the light boat shoots past ten thousand folded mountains. Every image accelerates: the joy is not stated but felt in pure velocity — relief, freedom and the Yangtze current carrying an old poet home.