The Selected Poems of Li Po

David Hinton, Bai Li, Li Po

New Directions Publishing, May 17, 1996 - Poetry - 160 pages

Li Po (A.D., 701-762) lived in T’ang Dynasty China, but his influence has spanned the centuries: the pure lyricism of his poems has awed readers in China and Japan for over a millennium, and through Ezra Pound’s translations, Li Po became central to the modernist revolution in the West. His work is suffused with Taoism and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism, but these seem not so much spiritual influences as the inborn form of his life.

There is a set-phrase in Chinese referring to the phenomenon of Li Po: “Winds of the immortals, bones of the Tao.” He moved through this world with an unearthly freedom from attachment, and at the same time belonged profoundly to the earth and its process of change. However ethereal in spirit, his poems remain grounded in the everyday experience we all share. He wrote 1200 years ago, half a world away, but in his poems we see our world transformed. Legendary friends in eighth-century T’ang China, Li Po and Tu Fu are traditionally celebrated as the two greatest poets in the Chinese canon. David Hinton’s translation of Li Po’s poems is no less an achievement than his critically acclaimed The Selected Poems of Tu Fu, also published by New Directions. By reflecting the ambiguity and density of the original, Hinton continues to create compelling English poems that alter our conception of Chinese poetry.

Contents

• GOING TO VISIT TAITTEN MOUNTAINS MASTER: 3
• NIGHT THOUGHTS AT TUNGLIN MONASTERY: 9
• ON YELLOWCRANE TOWER FAREWELL: 15
• AT FANGCHENG MONASTERY DISCUSSING CHAN: 22
• LISTENING TO LU TZUHSUN PLAY THE CHIN: 28
• CHANGAN AND MIDDLE YEARS A D 742755: 41
• TEASING TU FU: 54
• CHINGTING MOUNTAIN SITTING ALONE: 67
• LISTENING TO A MONKS CH7N DEPTHS: 73
• ON AUTUMN RIVER AT CLEAR CREEK: 85
• ON PHOENIX TOWER IN CHINLING: 91
• TRAVELING SOUTH TO YEHLANG SENT TO: 99
• TRAVELING TUNGTING LAKE WITH CHIA CHIH: 105
• WRITTEN ON THE WALL WHILE DRUNK AT: 108
• LINES THREE FIVE SEVEN WORDS LONG: 121
• Bibliography: 134

About the author

DAVID HINTON’s original Selected Poems of Tu Fu was the first full-length verse translation of Tu Fu published in America. The author also of singular books of essays and poetry, Hinton has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous N.E.A. and N.E.H fellowships, both major awards given for poetry translation in the United States, and a lifetime achievement award by The American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Selected Poems of Li Po
• Authors: David Hinton, Bai Li, Li Po
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing, 1996
• ISBN: 0811223620, 9780811223621
• Length: 160 pages
• Subjects: Poetry / Ancient & Classical