Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems

by Li Po, Tu Fu, Arthur Cooper (Introduction), Arthur Cooper (Translator)

Overview

Li Po (AD 701-62) and Tu Fu (AD 712-70) were devoted friends who are traditionally considered to be among China's greatest poets. Li Po, a legendary carouser, was an itinerant poet whose writing, often dream poems or spirit-journeys, soars to sublime heights in its descriptions of natural scenes and powerful emotions. His sheer escapism and joy is balanced by Tu Fu, who expresses the Confucian virtues of humanity and humility in more autobiographical works that are imbued with great compassion and earthy reality, and shot through with humour. Together these two poets of the T'ang dynasty complement each other so well that they often came to be spoken of as one - 'Li-Tu' - who covers the whole spectrum of human life, experience and feeling.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780141915258
Publisher:	Penguin UK
Publication date:	07/30/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Li Po (AD 701–62) was born in the far west of China and probably had some knowledge of Central Asian languages and cultures. But to his contemporaries his talent was almost supernatural, so that he hardly seemed of earthly origin at all; his verses seemed to originate in something other than the human consciousness, yet speak directly and simply to the human mind.

Tu Fu (AD 712–70) was born near the capital, of a family distinguished for service to the state. While Li Po seems to the Chinese to be a poet of the night and of man as a solitary animal in his dreams, Tu Fu is rather a poet of the day and of man in his other nature as a social animal. Tu Fu's poems chronicle his life and times with social conscience and compassion, but also present a convincing, unselfconscious portrait of the man himself.

Arthur Cooper was a scholar and translator known for the translation of Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated. 

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgements	9
	Pronunciation of Chinese Words and Names	11
	Note on the Chinese Calligraphy	13
	Introduction	15
1	'Li-Tu'	15
2	The Background to their Times	20
3	Li Po	22
4	Tu Fu	37
5	The Background to T'ang Poetry: The Beginnings: The 'Book of Odes', The Language and Script	44
6	The Background to T'ang Poetry: The Ch'u Tz'u	60
7	The Background to T'ang Poetry: The Ballads and the Principles of Chinese Syllabic Metre	62
8	A Demonstration by Ballad	65
9	The Approach to Translation in this Book	76
10	The Tones and the 'Chinese Sonnet'	88
11	Reading the Poems in English	101
	Li Po	103
	Tu Fu	161
	List of Titles	245
	Index of First Lines	247