![]() ![]() I extract three poems that resonated with me when I first read them long ago, and which still do as I read them today. ![]() Along with his elder contemporary and friend Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. It’s a great introduction to two great poets. Du Fu (Chinese: WadeGiles: Tu Fu 712770) was a Chinese poet and politician during the Tang dynasty. However, the overall ‘feel’ of this book is very nice – informative introduction, nice notes on the poems, and occasionally poems printed in both English and Chinese. Furthermore the translations in this edition are a bit dated and I’ve seen better in a collection from Whincup, which I’ll review later. Chinese is not a flowery language to begin with and I believe there is a bit lost in translation. One has to read the poems slowly and without distraction to be rewarded. The two met and respected one another, and in fact Tu Fu idolized the older poet. Tu Fu was clearly the “yang” to Li Po’s “yin” Tu Fu the Confucian and Li Po theTaoist. Tu Fu was a traditionalist but also an innovator his poetry has both the honesty and the subtlety often found in great art. There is both an imagination and a loneliness to his work. Li Po was a rebel against conformity, a wanderer fond of wine and of spontaneous revelry in the moonlight. Li Po, perhaps better known as Li Bai, and Tu Fu, whose name is better Romanized as Du Fu, were two great poets of the Tang Dynasty in 8th century China. “Great men have a curious way of appearing in complementary pairs” – Kenneth Clark. ![]()
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