An eighth century Tang dynasty poet, Li Bai was acclaimed from his own lifetime to the present day, composing short poems celebrating the pleasures of friendship, the beauty of nature, the importance of solitude and the joys of drinking. The compelling magic of his elegant and yet short verses have won for Li Bai an enduring admiration over the centuries, fortifying his status as a romantic legend, who took traditional poetic forms to new heights, while always conscious of the great and timeless tradition behind him. The Delphi Poets Series offers readers the works of literature’s finest poets, with superior formatting. This volume presents Li Bai’s collected works, with rare translations, illustrations and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1) * Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Li Bai’s life and works * Concise introduction to Li Bai’s life and poetry * Excellent formatting of the poems * Multiple translations of Li Bai’s verses * Includes Herbert A. Giles’ translations, the first to be published in the West, digitised here for the first time * Easily locate the poems you want to read * Features a special Contextual Pieces section — learn about the development of classic Chinese literature * Includes Arthur Waley’s biography Please visit www.delphiclassics.com to see our wide range of poet titles CONTENTS: The Life and Poetry of Li Bai Brief Introduction: Li Bai Translations by Herbert A. Giles (1898) Translations by Arthur Waley (1919) Translations by Amy Lowell (1921) Anonymous Translations The Contextual Pieces A History of Chinese Literature (1901) by Herbert A. Giles Introduction to Chinese Poetry (1918) by Arthur Waley Life of Li Po by Arthur Waley (1919)
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.
The poems of two of China’s most influential classical poets: Tu Fu, called “China’s Shakespeare” (BBC), and Li Po, the subject of Ha Jin’s The Banished Immortal and “China’s most beloved poet” (The New Yorker) A Penguin Classic 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. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as the same form as it was originally first published. Hence any marks or annotations seen are left intentionally to preserve its true nature.
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