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228<br />

题 铁 门 关 楼 Written on a Sentry Building at Iron Gate Pass 22<br />

铁 关 天 西 涯<br />

Metal Gate Pass at the edge <strong>of</strong> the western sky,<br />

极 目 少 行 客<br />

The limits <strong>of</strong> sight reveal few travellers.<br />

关 门 一 小 吏 At the gate <strong>of</strong> the pass there is a sub-<strong>of</strong>ficial functionary, 23<br />

终 日 对 石 壁<br />

All day long he faces a rock wall.<br />

桥 跨 千 仞 危<br />

The bridge spans a height <strong>of</strong> a thousand meters,<br />

路 盘 两 崖 窄<br />

The narrow road twists along both sides <strong>of</strong> the precipice.<br />

试 登 西 楼 望<br />

Attempting a climb <strong>of</strong> the west building and gazing out:<br />

24<br />

一 望 头 欲 白 One look will turn your hair white.<br />

22 A mountain pass southwest <strong>of</strong> Yin mountain 银 山 , Xinjiang Autonomous Region.<br />

23 “ 小 吏 (xiao li) was a somewhat deprecatory variant <strong>of</strong> 吏 (li, sub<strong>of</strong>ficial functionary)...a category <strong>of</strong> state employees<br />

who performed the clerical and more menial tasks in all governmental agencies at all levels and had no ranked civil<br />

service status...”. See Charles Hucker, A Dictionary <strong>of</strong> Official Titles in Imperial China, pp. 236 and 302.<br />

24 CSJJZ, pp. 80-81.

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