He described quitting his job to start up as feeling like 'a crane climbing through the clouds in clear sky.'
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history
From 《秋词》 by 刘禹锡 (Liu Yuxi, Tang dynasty): '晴空一鹤排云上，便引诗情到碧霄。' Liu wrote the poem in political exile — a deliberate rebuttal of the old 'autumn = sadness' trope. The line pairs with 我言秋日胜春朝 in the same poem.
usage
排 here = 'push apart / part open' (the clouds), not 'arrange in a row.' Classical verb sense.
