Once your crew has rowed you past the Sirens a choice of route is yours. I cannot advise you which to take, or lead you through it all – you must decide for yourself … On one side there loom two enormous crags. One thrusts into the vaulting sky its jagged peak and halfway up that cliffside stands the fog-bound cavern gaping towards Erebus, realm of death and darkness … Scylla lurks inside it – the yelping horror, yelping no louder than any suckling pup but she's a grisly monster, I assure you. She has twelve legs, all writhing, dangling down and six long swaying necks, a hideous head on each, each head barbed with a triple row of fangs … The other crag is lower. Beneath it awesome Charybdis gulps the dark water down … Don't be there when the whirlpool swallows down – not even an earthquake god could save you from disaster.

Zhao ci Baidi cai yun jian,

Qian li Jiangling yi ri huan,

Liang an yuan sheng ti bu zhu,

Qingzhou yi guo wan chong shan.

Early in the morning, leaving Baidi town, splendid amidst the clouds, In one day returning 1000 li back to Jiangling, On either river bank, monkeys screech unceasingly, The quick craft has already passed by the serried ranks of 10 000 mountains.