Barnstone, Tony; Chou Ping;
The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2010, 512 pagesTitle
ISBN 0307481476, 9780307481474
topics: | poetry | china
Chinese poetry, says Tony Barnstone in the second introductory chapter, is what created China. It is the thousands of poets, who have imagined and extended and redrawn its boundaries as well as the contours of its landscape from year to year, from dynasty to dynasty. For millennia, poetry has played an essential role in shaping its collective consciousness and maintaining the continuity of Chinese civilization. This may sound like hyperbole, but it helps underlie the tremendous power that poetry has held over Chinese culture. Another point by Barnstone seems less coherent. It is argued that the language of the poetry remains as invariant today as when they were written - because the symbols of written chinese remain the same though the pronunciation varies widely in time and space. when a contemporary Chinese recites a poem written in the Tang dynasty (618–907), the poem remains pure, its meaning virtually constant, even though more than a thousand years have elapsed and the poet's modern speech would be unintelligible to the original author. The very next sentence says that the original meaning and its allusions would have changed significantly, so I am not sure how the above holds. Certainly the speech may not be intelligible - e.g. from Cantonese to the mainly Han poets. The general Chinese term for poetry is shi. Shi also refers more specifically to a sort of tonally regulated verse that became popular in the Tang dynasty, as well as to older forms of poetry that were not tonally regulated, such as rhymed prose (fu), an elegant and elaborate blending of poetry with prose passages. While verses are normally independent from music, songs can be further classified into folk song poetry (ge), lyric songs (ci), and opera arias (qu).
Chinese poetry survives in the classical anthologies, where the poets were often overwhelmingly male. Women poets were Relegated to a few pages at the end of the volumes... The work of many of the finest Chinese women poets has been lost entirely. Those we know are represented by only a few poems or a few dozen poems. Perhaps one could argue that we are skewing the canon by including a fifth of the fifty extant poems of the great woman poet Li Qingzhao, while including only one thousandth of the poems of Lu You, who wrote more than ten thousand poems. Poets who the editors admire are well-represented. These include - Tao Qian (c. 365–427 AD, 8 poems) - Wang Wei, (701–761), 41 poems - Li Bai (701–762), 32 poems - Du Fu (712-770), 34 poems - Bai Juyi (772–846), 20 poems - Han Shan (late 8th-9th c.) 23 poems - Su Shi [also, Su Dongpo) (1036–1101), 12 poems - Mao Zedong (1893–1976), 8 poems - Bei Dao (1949-), 19 poems
Shi Jing is the oldest anthology of Chinese poetry and a major force in the Chinese poetic tradition. Fruit plummets from the plum tree but seven of ten plums remain. You gentlemen who would court me, come on a lucky day. Fruit plummets from the plum tree but three of ten plums still remain. You men who want to court me, come now, today is a lucky day! Fruit plummets from the plum tree. You can fill up your baskets. Gentlemen if you want to court me, just say the word. [p.7]
She opens the window and sees the autumn moon, snuffs the candle, slips from her silk skirt. With a smile she parts my bed curtains, lifting up her body — an orchid scent swells. [p.65]
Liu Caichun, a native of Zhejiang, was a well-known Tang dynasty courtesan. Though she was a singing girl, she was married to the actor Zhou Jinan. Between 823 and 829 she visited Yuezhou and became a friend of Yuan Zhen, the well-known Tang poet. 1 Don't be the wife of a merchant. He'll use your gold hairpins as divination coins. Every morning I look at the river mouth, and over and over run to greet the wrong boat. 2 I don't like the Qin and Huai Rivers. I hate the boats running on the water. They carried away my husband. It's already a year, and then another year.
worked on the staff of the military governor of Xunwu, eventually becoming the Director of Studies.
(To Governor Li Shidao at Dong Ping) You know I'm married yet you gave a gift of two bright pearls. Grateful for your affection I tied them on my red silk skirt. My home's tall buildings and gardens extend afar and my husband holds his halberd in the Bright Light Palace. I understand your intentions are honest as sun and moon, but I've sworn to share life and death with my man. I return two pearls to you, and two tears drop. Why didn't we meet before I married? [actually a poem written by a man to another man, declining an invitation to leave his current post and work as an adviser.
If there is one undisputed genius of Chinese poetry it is Du Fu. The Taoist Li Bai was more popular, the Buddhist Wang Wei was sublimely simple and more intimate with nature, but the Confucian Du Fu had extraordinary thematic range and was a master and innovator of all the verse forms of his time. In his life he never achieved fame as a poet and thought himself a failure in his worldly career. Perhaps only a third of his poems survive due to his long obscurity; his poems appear in no anthology earlier than one dated one hundred thirty years after his death, and it wasn't until the 11th century that he was recognized as a preeminent poet. His highly allusive, symbolic complexity and resonant ambiguity is at times less accessible than the immediacy and bravado of Li Bai. Yet there is a suddenness and pathos in much of his verse, which creates a persona no less constructed than Wang Wei's reluctant official and would-be hermit or Li Bai's blithely drunken Taoist adventurer. Du Fu was born to a prominent but declining family of scholar-officials, perhaps from modern day Henan province... Du Fu had difficulty achieving patronage and governmental postings, and twice failed the Imperial Examinations... In 744 he met Li Bai, and this formed the basis for one of the world's most famed literary friendships; the two poets devote a number of poems to each other. He moved again and again to avoid banditry and rebellions. In spite of this instability, his poems show a serenity in the period from 760-762, when he lived in a "thatched hut" provided by a patron named Yan Yu... He spent his final three years traveling on a boat, detained in sickness, and finally winding down to his death as he journeyed down the Yangtze, apparently accepting the withering away of his health and life. p.130-131
The empire is shattered but rivers and peaks remain. Spring drowns the city in wild grass and trees. A time so bad, even the flowers rain tears. I hate this separation, yet birds startle my heart. The signal fires have burned three months; I'd give ten thousand gold coins for one letter. I scratch my head and my white hair thins till it can't even hold a pin. p.133
Slender wind shifts the shore's fine grass. Lonely night below the boat's tall mast. Stars hang low as the vast plain splays; the swaying moon makes the great river race. How can poems make me known? I'm old and sick, my career done. Drifting, just drifting. What kind of man am I? A lone gull floating between earth and sky. compare a number of other translationns and also the original text with literal glosses at Three Chinese Poets.
Zhou Bangyan came from Qiantang (present-day Hangzhou) in Zhejiang province. He was a musician and a poet who extended the lyric song (ci form) tradition with original compositions and poems. According Anecdotes of Ci Poets, one day Emperor Huizong of the Song dynasty visited courtesan Li Shishi. The poet Zhou Bangyan happened to be there and had no way to exit, so he hid under the bed and observed their tryst. It was based on this experience that he wrote "To the Tune of ‘Rambling Young Man,'" which critics praised for the way he presented the woman, who delicately manipulates the emperor into staying without overstepping her bounds. On his visit the emperor had brought with him a fresh orange from south of the Yangtze River as part of a tribute. The poet turned this event into a song, which the courtesan some time later sang before the emperor. The emperor was so enraged that he had Zhou Bangyan expelled from the Forbidden City. The emperor then went to see Li Shishi and found her in tears, distraught at Zhou Bangyan's expulsion. He asked whether Zhou had written any new songs, and she replied that he had written "Willows, to the Tune of ‘King of Lanling,'" which she proceeded to sing for him. The emperor was so pleased with the song that he restored Zhou to his post as chief musician of the Da Cheng Imperial Conservatory.
A knife from Bing State like a wave, salt from Wu State like snow. Her slender hands cut the orange. The curtained room is warming up. Endless smoke from the animal-head incense burner. A couple sits close necking. She asks low, "Where are you going to stay? The midnight drum has sounded and your horse may slip with the frost so heavy. Better not to leave. Few people go home at such an hour."
Willow shadows hang in straight lines, misty threads of emerald silk. On the Sui bank how many times did I see the twigs touching water and catkins floating in air, the color of departure? I climb here to gaze at my hometown but who could know me, a tired traveler from the capital on this road by the Long Pavilion who as old years died and new years came must have broken over a thousand feet of willow twigs? In the time I have I seek old memories but now with a sad music lanterns light my farewell banquet and pear flowers and elm torch fire hasten the day of the Cold Food Festival. I am plagued by this wind, fast as an arrow, see the boatman with half a pole in warm waves, the piers retreating from me one by one when I look back. My friend you are gone, north of heaven. Heartsick, my pain piles up. The boat sails off but the water circles back to the silent pier as a slant sun extends through endless spring. I remember holding your hands in a moonlit pavilion, listening to a flute on a dew-soaked bridge. I think of the past, all just a dream, and drop secret tears.
Zhu Shuzhen was born in Hangzhou, Zhengjiang, to a scholar-official's family. Her unharmonious relationship with her husband was revealed in her poetry. Although she was very prolific, her parents burned most of her poems. Wei Zhonggong collected what survived of her writings and wrote in his preface to the 1182 volume: "I have heard that writing beautiful phrases is not women's business. Yet there are occasionally cases [of women] with great natural talents and exceptional character and intelligence who come up with words and lines no man can match." Though the poet had been dead for decades, the compiler praised her poems for their evocations of sorrow and womanhood. In addition to being a wonderful poet, Zhu Shuzhen was also said to have been a painter.
Spring night, my jade body is soft as a gold hairpin as, back to the lamp, I unfasten my silk skirt. But the quilt and pillow are cold. The night's fragrance is gone. Spring is a deep courtyard of many locked doors. Petals falling in falling rain make the night seem forever. Regret comes to me in dream. There is no escape.
to the Tune of "Magnolia Blossoms" (Short Version) I walk alone, sit alone, sing alone, drink alone, and sleep alone. Standing lone, my spirit hurts. A light cold caresses me. Who can see how tears have washed off half my makeup, sorrow and sickness have joined hands, how I trim the lamp's wick till it's gone and dream still does not come?
On the unpredictable winds I painted an eye the moment frozen then gone but no one woke up the nightmare kept right on into the light of day flooding through streambeds, crawling across cobblestones increasing in presence and pressure among branches, along the eaves the birds' terrified eyes froze fell out over cart tracks in the road a crust of frost formed no one woke up tr. James A. Wilson [p.400]
A Note on the Selections and Some Words of Thanks Preface: The Poem Behind the Poem: Literary Translation as English-Language Poetry : Tony Barnstone Introduction to Chinese Poetic Form (as a Function of Yin-Yang Symmetry) Chou Ping
BOOK OF SONGS (C. 600 BCE)
White Moonrise
Fruit Plummets from the Plum Tree 7
Serene Girl
In the Wilds Is a Dead River-Deer
All the Grasslands Are Yellow
Ripe Millet
I Beg You, Zhongzi
When the Gourd Has Dried Leaves
LAOZI (FOURTH-THIRD CENTURIES BCE)
from the Dao De Jing
VERSES OF CHU (THIRD CENTURY BCE)
from Encountering Sorrow
NINETEEN ANCIENT POEMS
1. "Traveling traveling and still traveling traveling"
2. "Green so green is the river grass"
3. "Green so green are the cypress over the burial mounds"
4. "At today's great banquet"
5. "A tall tower in the northwest"
6. "I cross the river to pick lotus flowers"
7. "Clear moon pours bright light at night"
8. "Soft and frail is a solitary bamboo"
9. "There is a wonderful tree in the courtyard"
10. "Far and far is the Cowherd Star"
11. "I turn my carriage around to return"
12. "The east wall is tall and long"
13. "I drive my wagon to the east gate"
14. "Day by day the dead are receding"
15. "Man dies within a hundred years"
16. "Chilly, chilly, the year-end clouds darken"
17. "A cold current in early winter"
18. "A traveler came from afar"
19. "Pure and white bright moon"
JIA YI (200–168 BCE)
The Owl
LIU XIJUN (LATE SECOND CENTURY BCE)
Lament
ANONYMOUS FOLK SONGS FROM THE MUSIC BUREAU (c. 120 bce)
The East Gate
A Sad Tune
He Waters His Horse Near a Breach in the Long Wall
At Fifteen I Went to War
An Ancient Poem Written for the Wife of Jiao Zhongqing
CAO CAO (155–220)
Watching the Blue Ocean
Song of Bitter Cold
RUAN JI (210–263)
from Chanting My Thoughts
FU XUAN (217–278)
To Be a Woman
ZI YE (THIRD-FOURTH CENTURIES)
Three Songs
Four Seasons Song: Spring
Four Seasons Song: Autumn
LU JI (261–303)
from The Art of Writing
Preface
1. The Impulse
2. Meditation
3. Process
4. The Joy of Words
9. The Riding Crop
10. Making It New
11. Ordinary and Sublime
18. The Well-Wrought Urn
19. Inspiration
20. Writer's Block
21. The Power of a Poem
PAN YUE (247–300)
In Memory of My Dead Wife
TAO QIAN (C. 365–427)
Return to My Country Home
Begging for Food
I Stop Drinking
Drinking Alone When It Rains Day After Day
Scolding My Kids
Fire in the Sixth Month in 408 ce
from Twenty Poems on Drinking Wine
Elegies
SU XIAOXIAO (LATE FIFTH CENTURY)
Emotions on Being Apart
The Song of the West Tomb
To the Tune of "Butterflies Adore Flowers"
BAO ZHAO (C. 414–466)
from Variations on "The Weary Road"
On the Departure of Official Fu
BAO LINGHUI (FL. C. 464)
Sending a Book to a Traveler After Making an Inscription
PRINCESS CHEN LECHANG (SIXTH CENTURY)
Letting My Feelings Go at the Farewell Banquet
WANG BO (649–676)
On the Wind
HE ZHIZHANG (659–744)
Willow
ZHANG RUOXU (C. 660-C. 720)
Spring, River, and Flowers on a Moonlit Night
MENG HAORAN (689–740)
Parting from Wang Wei
Spring Dawn
Spending the Night on Jiande River
WANG CHANGLING (C. 690-C. 756)
Song from the Borders
WANG WAN (693–751)
Stopping at Beigu Mountain
WANG WEI (701–761)
Watching the Hunt
Walking into the Liang Countryside
A Young Lady's Spring Thoughts
For Someone Far Away
Climbing the City Tower North of the River
Deep South Mountain
Living in the Mountain on an Autumn Night
Drifting on the Lake
Cooling Off
Return to Wang River
Written on a Rainy Autumn Night After Pei Di's Visit
To Pei Di, While We Are Living Lazily at Wang River
Birds Sing in the Ravine
Sketching Things
from The Wang River Sequence
Preface
1. Deer Park
2. House Hidden in the Bamboo Grove
3. Luan Family Rapids
4. White Pebble Shoal
5. Lakeside Pavilion
6. Magnolia Basin
Things in a Spring Garden
Answering the Poem Su Left in My Blue Field Mountain Country House, on
Visiting and Finding Me Not Home
About Old Age, in Answer to a Poem by Subprefect Zhang
To My Cousin Qiu, Military Supply Official
On Being Demoted and Sent Away to Qizhou
For Zhang, Exiled in Jingzhou, Once Adviser to the Emperor
Seeing Off Prefect Ji Mu as He Leaves Office and Goes East of the River
Winter Night, Writing About My Emotion
Seeing Zu Off at Qizhou
A White Turtle Under a Waterfall
Song of Peach Tree Spring
Sitting Alone on an Autumn Night
Green Creek
Visiting the Mountain Courtyard of the Distinguished Monk Tanxing
at Enlightenment Monastery
Questioning a Dream
Weeping for Ying Yao
Suffering from Heat
LI BAI (701–762)
A Song of Zhanggan Village
Grievance at the Jade Stairs
Seeing a Friend Off at Jingmen Ferry
Watching the Waterfall at Lu Mountain
Hearing a Flute on a Spring Night in Luoyang
River Song
I Listen to Jun, a Monk from Shu, Play His Lute
Seeing a Friend Off
Drinking Alone by Moonlight
Seeing Meng Haoran Off to Guangling at the Yellow Crane Tower
Saying Good-bye to Song Zhiti
Song
In Memory of He Zhizhang
Confessional
Zazen on Jingting Mountain
Questioning in the Mountains
Missing the East Mountains
Having a Good Time by Myself
Drinking Wine with the Hermit in the Mountains
Sent Far Off
Inscription for Summit Temple
Summer Day in the Mountains
Brooding in the Still Night
Singing by Green Water in Autumn
Drunk All Day
Song on Bringing in the Wine
On my way down Zhongnan mountain I passed by hermit Fusi's place
and he treated me to wine while i spent the night there
Song of the North Wind
War South of the Great Wall
Hunting Song
CHU GUANGXI (707-C. 760)
from Jiangnan Melodies
DU FU (712–770)
Facing Snow
Gazing in Springtime
Ballad of the War Wagons
Moonlit Night
Thinking of My Brothers on a Moonlit Night
Broken Lines
Thoughts While Night Traveling
A Hundred Worries
Standing Alone
To Wei Ba
Dreaming of Li Bai
A Painted Falcon
New Moon
Spring Night Happy About Rain
Brimming Water
River Village
Looking at Mount Tai
Jiang Village
Jade Flower Palace
Newlyweds' Departure
Old Couple's Departure
A Homeless Man's Departure
Song of a Thatched Hut Damaged in Autumn Wind
The Song of a Roped Chicken
Poem to Officer Fang's Foreign Horse
Qu River
Leaving in My Boat
Guest's Arrival: Happy About County Governor Cui's Visit
A Lone Goose
A Traveler's Night
from Five Poems About Historical Sites
On Yueyang Tower
Climbing High
Traveler's Pavilion
LIU CHANGQING (C. 710-C. 787)
Spending the Night at Hibiscus Mountain When It Was Snowing
To Official Fei on His Demotion to State Ji
JIAO RAN (730–799)
On Lu Jianhong's Absence During My Visit to Him
MENG JIAO (751–814)
Complaints
Song of the Homebound Letter
Statement of Feelings in a Shabby Residence on an Autumn Evening
Visiting Zhongnan Mountain
Frustration
Borrowing a Wagon
After Passing the Highest Imperial Examinations
LADY LIU (MID-EIGHTH CENTURY)
To the Tune of "Yangliuzhi"
ZHANG JI (MID-EIGHTH CENTURY)
Moored by the Maple Bridge at Night
HAN YU (768–824)
Mountain Rocks
Losing My Teeth
Listening to Yinshi Play His Instrument
Poem to Commander Zhang at the Meeting of the Bian and Si Rivers
XUE TAO (768–831)
Seeing a Friend Off
Sending Old Poems to Yuan Zhen
A Spring in Autumn
Spring Gazing
Willow Catkins
Hearing Cicadas
Moon
LIU YUXI (772–842)
Mooring at Niuzhu at Dusk
Bamboo Branch Song
Black-Uniform Lane
Looking at Dongting Lake
BAI JUYI (772–846)
Assignment Under the Title "Departure at Ancient Grass Field"
Night Rain
Song of an Evening River
Lament for Peony Flowers
Buying Flowers
Light Fur and Fat Horses
Watching the Reapers
The Old Charcoal Seller
Song of Everlasting Sorrow
Song of the Lute
Seeing Yuan Zhen's Poem on the Wall at Blue Bridge Inn
On Laziness
On Laozi
Madly Singing in the Mountains
After Getting Drunk, Becoming Sober in the Night
Resignation
On His Baldness
Old Age
Since I Lay Ill
A Dream of Mountaineering
LIU ZONGYUAN (773–819)
River Snow
Poem to Relatives and Friends in the Capital After Looking at Mountains
with Monk Hao Chu
Summer Day
Fisherman
The Caged Eagle
ZHANG JI (C. 776-C. 829)
A Soldier's Wife Complains
Song of a Virtuous Woman
Arriving at a Fisherman's House at Night
WU KE (EIGHTH-NINTH CENTURIES)
To Cousin Jia Dao in Autumn
JIA DAO (778–841)
Looking for the Hermit and Not Finding Him
YUAN ZHEN (779–831)
When Told Bai Juyi Was Demoted and Sent to Jiangzhou
Late Spring
Petals Falling in the River
from Missing Her After Separation
LIU CAICHUN (LATE EIGHTH-EARLY NINTH CENTURIES)
Song of Luogen
LI HE (791–817)
from Twenty-three Horse Poems
Shown to My Younger Brother
from Speaking My Emotions
Flying Light
from Thirteen South Garden Poems
Su Xiaoxiao's Tomb
Song of Goose Gate Governor
Under the City Wall at Pingcheng
Song of an Old Man's Jade Rush
A Piece for Magic Strings
An Arrowhead from the Ancient Battlefield of Changping
A Sky Dream
HAN SHAN (LATE EIGHTH-EARLY NINTH CENTURIES)
5. "My heart is the autumn moon"
72. "Pigs eat dead men's flesh"
87. "Greedy men love to store wealth"
92. "Heaven is endlessly high"
100. "The life and death metaphor"
125. "New rice not yet ripe in the field"
128. "An elegant, poised, and handsome young man"
131. "During thirty years since my birth"
140. "When Mr. Deng was in his youth"
141. "Who was this young man?"
146. "My way passed ancient tombs"
158. "There's a tree that existed before the woods"
165. "In idleness I go to visit a prominent monk"
194. "A crowd of stars lines up bright in the deep night"
204. "I gaze on myself in the stream's emerald flow"
210. "Talking about food won't fill your stomach"
218. "When people meet Han Shan"
225. "The ocean stretches endlessly"
237. "This life is lost in dust"
262. "In this world people live then die"
265. "The hermit escapes the human world"
266. "A word to meat eaters"
307. "Keep Han Shan's poems in your home"
DU QIUNIANG (EARLY NINTH CENTURY)
The Coat of Gold Brocade
DU MU (803–852)
Written While Moored on the Qinhuai River
Two Poems Improvised at Qi An County
On Purebright Day
The Han River
Visiting Leyou Park
WEN TINGYUN (812–870)
from To the Tune of "The Water Clock Sings at Night"
To the Tune of "Dreaming of the South Side of the River"
To the Tune of "Beautiful Barbarian"
LI SHANGYIN (813–858)
The Patterned Zither
Visiting Leyou Park
Untitled
Poem Sent as a Letter to the North on a Rainy Night
WEI ZHUANG (836–910)
To the Tune of "Silk-Washing Brook"
To the Tune of "The River City"
To the Tune of "Missing the Emperor's Hometown"
To the Tune of "Daoist Priestess"
SIKONG TU (837–908)
from The Twenty-four Styles of Poetry The Placid Style
The Potent Style
The Natural Style
The Implicit Style
The Carefree and Wild Style
The Bighearted and Expansive Style The Flowing Style
YU XUANJI (C. 843–868)
Visiting Chongzhen Temple's South Tower and Looking Where the Names
of Candidates Who Pass the Civil Service Exam Are Posted
To Zian: Missing You at Jianling
A Farewell
Sent in an Orchid Fragrance Letter
Autumn Complaints
QI JI (861–935)
Looking at the Zhurong Peak in a Boat at Twilight
LI JING (916–961)
To the Tune of "Silk-Washing Brook"
To the Tune of "Silk-Washing Brook"
MADAM HUARUI (FL. C. 935)
On the Fall of the Kingdom, to the Tune of "Mulberry-Picking Song"
LI YU (936–978)
To the Tune of "A Bushel of Pearls"
To the Tune of "Bodhisattva Barbarian"
To the Tune of "Clear and Even Music"
To the Tune of "Lost Battle"
To the Tune of "Beauty Yu"
To the Tune of "Crows Cry at Night"
To the Tune of "Crows Cry at Night"
ANONYMOUS FEMALE POET (UNCERTAIN DATES)
Drunk Man
SUN DAOXUAN (UNCERTAIN DATES)
To the Tune of "As in a Dream"
To the Tune of "Longing for Qin e"
LIU YONG (987–1053)
To the Tune of "Phoenix Perched on the Parasol Tree"
To the Tune of "Rain Hits a Bell"
To the Tune of "New Chrysanthemum Flowers"
To the Tune of "Poluomen Song"
FAN ZHONGYAN (989–1052)
To the Tune of "Sumu Veil"
To the Tune of "Imperial Avenue Procession"
MEI YAOCHEN (1002–1060)
Plum Rain
On the Death of a Newborn Child
Sorrow 239 A Small Village
Reply to Caishu's "Ancient Temple by a River"
The Potter
OUYANG XIU (1007–1072)
About Myself
To the Tune of "Spring in the Tower of Jade"
The Lamp-wick's Ashes, Blossoms Droop, the Moon Like Frost
To the Tune of "Spring in the Tower of Jade"
Painting Eyebrows, to the Tune of "Pouring Out Deep Emotions"
Walking Back in Moonlight from Bohdi Trees to the Guanghua Temple
Encouraging Myself
To the Tune of "Butterflies Adore Flowers"
To the Tune of "Mulberry-Picking Song"
Poem in the Jueju Form
WANG ANSHI (1021–1086)
Plums Blossoms
Late Spring, a Poem Improvised at Banshan
SU SHI (SU DONGPO) (1036–1101)
Written on the North Tower Wall After Snow
Written While Living at Dinghui Temple in Huangzhou, to the Tune of
"Divination Song"
Written in Response to Ziyou's Poem About Days in Mianchi
Boating at Night on West Lake
Brushed on the Wall of Xilin Temple
from Rain on the Festival of Cold Food
Because of a Typhoon I Stayed at Gold Mountain for Two Days
To the Tune of "Song of the River Town," a Record of a Dream on the Night
of the First Month, Twentieth Day, in the Eighth Year of the Xining
Period (1705)
To the Tune of "Prelude to the Water Song" 251 To the Tune of
"Butterflies Adore Flowers"
Recalling the Past at the Red Cliffs, to the Tune of "Charms of Niannu"
Returning to Lingao at Night, to the Tune of "Immortal by the River"
QIN GUAN (1049–1100)
To the Tune of "Magpie Bridge Immortal"
MADAM WEI (FL. C. 1050)
To the Tune of "Bodhisattva Barbarian"
To the Tune of "Bodhisattva Barbarian"
To the Tune of "Attached to Her Skirt"
NIE SHENQIONG (UNCERTAIN DATES)
To the Tune of "Partridge Sky"
ANONYMOUS ("the girl who took the gold cup")(early twelfth century)
To the Tune of "Partridge Sky"
ZHOU BANGYAN (1056–1121)
To the Tune of "Rambling Young Man"
To the Tune of "Butterflies Adore Flowers"
Willows, to the Tune of "King of Lanling"
ZHU SHUZHEN (1063–1106)
To the Tune of "Mountain Hawthorn"
To the Tune of "Mountain Hawthorn"
To the Tune of "Washing Creek Sands"
Spring Complaint, to the Tune of "Magnolia Blossoms"
The Song of A-na
ZHU XIZHEN (UNCERTAIN DATES)
from Fisherman, to the Tune of "A Happy Event Draws Near"
LI QINGZHAO (1084-C. 1151)
To the Tune of "Intoxicated in the Shade of Flowers"
To the Tune of "One Blossoming Sprig of Plum"
To the Tune of "Spring at Wu Ling"
To the Tune of "Silk-Washing Brook"
To the Tune of "Dream Song"
To the Tune of "Immortal by the River"
To the Tune of "Lone Wild Goose"
To the Tune of "The Fisherman's Song"
To the Tune of "Butterflies Adore Blossoms"
LU YOU (1125–1210)
On the Fourth Day of the Eleventh Month During a Windy Rainstorm
Record of Dream, Sent to Shi Bohun, to the Tune of "Night Roaming in the
Palace"
Thinking of Going Outside on a Rainy Day
To the Tune of "Phoenix Hairpin"
The Sheng Garden
To My Sons
TANG WAN (UNCERTAIN DATES)
Tang Wan's Reply, to the Tune of "Phoenix Hairpin"
YANG WANLI (1127–1206)
Cold Sparrows
XIN QIJI (1140–1207)
Written on a Wall in the Boshan Temple, to the Tune of "Ugly Servant"
The Night of the Lantern Festival, to the Tune of "Green Jade Table"
Village Life, to the Tune of "Clear Peaceful Happiness"
JIANG KUI (1155–1221)
Preface to "Hidden Fragrance" and "Sparse Shadows"
Hidden Fragrance
Sparse Shadows
YAN RUI (FL. C. 1160)
To the Tune of "Song of Divination"
YUAN HAOWEN (1190–1257)
Living in the Mountains
Dreaming of Home
from In May of 1233, I Ferried Across to the North
WU WENYING (C. 1200-C. 1260)
Departure, to the Tune of "The Song of Tangduo"
To the Tune of "Washing Creek Sands"
To the Tune of "Prelude to Oriole Song"
LIU YIN (1249–1293)
Reading History
Mountain Cottage
ZHENG YUNNIANG (UNCERTAIN DATES)
The Song of Shoes
To the Tune of "West River Moon"
ZHAO MENGFU (1254–1322)
Guilt at Leaving the Hermit's Life
Poem in the Jeju Form
MA ZHIYUAN (C. 1260–1334)
To the Tune of "Thinking About Nature"
Autumn Thoughts, to the Tune of "Sky-Clear Sand"
Autumn Thoughts, to the Tune of "Sailing at Night"
GUAN DAOSHENG (1262–1319)
Love Poem
Fisherman's Song
JIE XISI (1274–1344)
Written on a Cold Night
Fishing Folk
A Portrait of Ducks
SA DUCI (C. 1300-C. 1355)
from Shangjing Instant Poems
Autumn Day by a Pond
To a Zheng Player
ZHANG YU (1333–1385)
Song of the Relay Boats
GAO QI (1336–1374)
Where Is My Sorrow From?
Passing by a Mountain Cottage
Lying Idle While It Rains
SHEN ZHOU (1427–1509)
Inscription for a Painting
Thoughts Sent to a Monk
ZHU YUNMING (1461–1527)
Taking a Nap by a Mountain Window
TANG YIN (1470–1524)
In Reply to Shen Zhou's Poems on Falling Petals
Boating on Tai Lake
Thoughts
XU ZHENQING (1479–1511)
Written at Wuchang
YANG SHEN (1488–1599)
On Spring
WANG SHIZHEN (1526–1590)
Saying Good-bye to My Young Brother
Climbing Up the Taibai Tower
GAO PANLONG (1562–1626)
Idle in Summer
XIE ZHAOZHE (1567–1624)
Spring Complaints
YUAN HONGDAO (1568–1610)
At Hengtang Ferry
ANONYMOUS EROTIC POETRY, COLLECTED BY FENG MENGLONG (1574–1646)
Untitled
A Dragging Cotton Skirt
Clever
Lantern
The Bento Box
Shooting Star
The Boat
A Boat Trip
A Nun in Her Orchid Chamber Solitude Feels Lust Like a Monster
We're Only Happy About Tonight
ZHANG DAI (1597–1684)
from Ten Scenes of the West Lake: Broken Bridge in Melting Snow
JI YINHUAI (SEVENTEENTH CENTURY)
Improvised Scene Poem
WANG WEI (C. 1600-C. 1647)
To the Tune of "Drunk in the Spring Wind"
FENG BAN (1602–1671)
A Poem in Jest
WU WEIYE (1609–1672)
On Meeting an Old Flame, to the Tune of "Immortal by the River"
HUANG ZONGXI (1610–1695)
A Stray Poem Written While Living in the Mountains
QIAN CHENGZHI (1612–1693)
A Stray Poem Written in the Fields
NALANXINDE (1654–1685)
To the Tune of "Endless Longing"
To the Tune of "Washing Creek Sands"
To the Tune of "Bodhisattva Barbarian"
To the Tune of "Mulberry-Picking Song"
WANG JIULING (D. 1710)
Inscription for an Inn
ZHENG XIE (1693–1765)
On Painting Bamboo for Governor Bao in My Office in Wei County
Homecoming Song
YUAN MEI (1716–1798)
from Improvisations
A Scene
On the Twelfth Day of the Second Month
An Improvisation
Meeting a Visitor
Sitting Still
Inscription for a Painting
A Poem Sent to Fish Gate
from Twenty-two Miscellaneous Poems on the Lake
Temple in the Wild
Mocking Myself for Planting Trees
JIANG SHIQUAN (1725–1785)
A Comment on Wang Shigu's Painting Portfolio
ZHAO YI (1727–1814)
from Reading at Leisure
In a Boat 340 On Poetry
from Poem Composed While Living at Houyuan Garden
WU ZAO (1799–1863)
To the Tune of "Song of Flirtation"
To the Tune of "Beautiful Lady Yu"
Feelings Recollected on Returning from Fahua Mountain on a Wintry Day, to
the Tune of "Waves Scour the Sands"
To the Tune of "A Song of the Cave Immortals"
To the Tune of "Clear and Even Music"
To the Tune of "Washing Creek Sands"
QIU JIN (1879–1907)
A Poem Written at Mr. Ishii's Request and Using the Same Rhymes as His Poem
Letter to Xu Jichen
SU MANSHU (THE HALF MONK) (1884–1918)
from Ten Narrative Poems
To the Zither Player
MAO ZEDONG (1893–1976)
Changsha
Tower of the Yellow Crane
Warlords
Kunlun Mountain
Loushan Pass
Snow
from Saying Good-bye to the God of Disease
To Guo Moruo
XU ZHIMO (1895–1931)
You Deserve It
Farewell Again to Cambridge
WEN YIDUO (1899–1946)
Miracle
Perhaps
The Confession
The Heart Beats
Dead Water
The End
LI JINFA (1900–1976)
Abandoned Woman
LIN HUIYIN (1904–1955)
Sitting in Quietude
DAI WANGSHU (1905–1950)
A Chopped-off Finger
A Rainy Lane
Written on a Prison Wall
FENG ZHI (1905–1993)
Sonnet 1. "Our hearts are ready to experience"
Sonnet 2. "Whatever can be shed we jettison"
Sonnet 6. "I often see in the wild meadows"
Sonnet 16. "We stand together on a mountain's crest"
Sonnet 21. "Listening to the rainstorm and the wind"
Sonnet 23. (ON A PUPPY)
Sonnet 24. "A thousand years ago this earth"
Sonnet 27. "From freely flowing water, undefined"
Al QING (1910–1996)
Gambling Men
BIAN ZHILIN (1910-)
Entering the Dream
Fragment
Loneliness
Migratory Birds
Train Station
HE QIFANG (1912–1977)
Autumn
Shrine to the Earth God
LUO FU (1928-)
Song of Everlasting Regret
BEI DAO (1949-)
Night: Theme and Variations
Ordinary Days
Country Night
A Decade
Response
A Step
Elegy
Nightmare
Many Years
Sweet Tangerines
A Formal Declaration
Ancient Monastery
Requiem
The Morning's Story
Coming Home at Night
Rebel
Asking the Sky
Untitled
Delivering Newspapers
DUO DUO (1951-)
Bell Sound
Five Years
SHU TING (1952-)
Two or Three Incidents Recollected
Perhaps
Missing You
Dream of an Island
Mirror
A Night at the Hotel
YANG LIAN (1955-)
An Ancient Children's Tale
An Elegy for Poetry
To a Nine-Year-Old Girl Killed in the Massacre
HA JIN (1956-)
Our Words
They Come
Acknowledgments
Links: http://web.whittier.edu/barnstone/poetry: Anchor book of chinese poetry web companion
http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780307481474&view=printexcerpt: Excerpt
Tony Barnstone is the son of poet and translator Willis Barnstone and visual artist Elli Barnstone, Tony was born in Middletown, Connecticut, and went to Wesleyan University, UC Santa Cruz. He did his PhD at Berkeley under poets Robert Pinsky and Robert Hass. A poet, translator, editor, and writer of fiction, Barnstone has been influenced by such disparate figures as James Wright, Federico Garcia Lorca, and T.S. Eliot. His poems merge crisp, precise imagery with humor, a longer cadence, and an essayistic or narrative arc. As poet Dorianne Laux notes, “The kaleidoscope of voices in Tony Barnstone’s Tongue of War: From Pearl Harbor to Nagasaki rise from the grit, blood and smoke of World War II to tell their complex tales of fear and brutality. Through charged, yet plainspeaking persona poems, the terrible, gasping truths are brought to light.” In an interview with Rebecca Seiferle for Drunken Boat, Barnstone stated, “I think that the work of poetry can be important, and that each poet needs to find his or her own way to make it so.” Tongue of War (2009) won both the John Ciardi Prize and the Grand Prize in the Strokestown International Poetry Festival. He has published numerous translations, including Chinese Erotic Poems (2007), The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry (2005), and Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Selected Poems of Wang Wei (1992). His own work has been translated into Arabic, Chinese, and German. Barnstone has published several textbooks on world literature as well, including Literatures of Asia (2002), Literatures of the Middle East (2002), and Literatures of Asia, Africa and Latin America (1999). In 2012 the duo Genuine Brandish released Tokyo's Burning: WWII Songs, an album based on Tongue of War. Barnstone collaborated with the musicians on lyrics and arrangments. His honors include fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council, as well as a Pushcart Prize, the Paumanok Poetry Award, the Randall Jarrell Poetry Prize, the Sow’s Ear Poetry Contest, the Milton Dorfman Poetry Prize, the Pablo Neruda Prize, and the Cecil Hemley Award. Barnstone has lived in China, Kenya, and Greece. He currently resides in California, where he is the Albert Upton Professor and Chair of English at Whittier College. from http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/tony-barnstone Chou Ping writes poetry in both Chinese and English. His poems and translations have appeared in such journals as The Literary Review and Nimrod. Born in Changsha City, Hunan province, in 1957, he holds degrees from Beijing Foreign Language University, Indiana University, and Stanford University. He is the translator, with Tony Barnstone, of The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters, and he has taught at Stanford, Washington University, Oberlin College, The College of Wooster, and Reed College. He lives in Oregon.
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