The Selected Poems of Tu Fu
by Tu Fu
On This Page
Description
"Tu Fu (712-770 C.E.) has for a millennium been widely considered the greatest poet in the Chinese tradition, and Hinton's original translation played a key role in developing that reputation in America. Most of Tu Fu's best poems were written in the last decade of his life, as an impoverished refugee fleeing the devastation of civil war. In the midst of these challenges, his always personal poems manage to combine a remarkable range of possibilities: elegant simplicity and great complexity, show more everyday life and grand historical drama, private philosophical depth and social engagement in a world consumed by war"-- show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Tu Fu radically altered poetry as he found it in the High T’ang period. In addition to making formal innovations in language and structure, he extended the range of acceptable subject matter to include all aspects of public and private experience, thus becoming in the words of translator David Hinton, “the first complete poetic sensibility in Chinese literature.”
This edition of The Selected Poems of Tu Fu is the only comprehensive selection of the poet's work currently available in English. While retaining a scholar's devotion to the text, Hinton has attempted “to recreate Tu Fu's poems as new systems of uncertainty." By reflecting all the ambiguity and density of the originals, he has created compelling English poems that show more significantly alter our conception of Chinese poetry. Included with the poems are the translator’s introduction and translation principles. as well as a biography of Tu Fu; together these provide a fascinating portrait of a uniquely sensitive spirit during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. show less
This edition of The Selected Poems of Tu Fu is the only comprehensive selection of the poet's work currently available in English. While retaining a scholar's devotion to the text, Hinton has attempted “to recreate Tu Fu's poems as new systems of uncertainty." By reflecting all the ambiguity and density of the originals, he has created compelling English poems that show more significantly alter our conception of Chinese poetry. Included with the poems are the translator’s introduction and translation principles. as well as a biography of Tu Fu; together these provide a fascinating portrait of a uniquely sensitive spirit during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history. show less
Fine translations. Give a good sense of the originals.
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
Books Read in 2024
4,727 works; 128 members
Author Information
49+ Works 1,725 Members
As Irving Lo has written of him in Sunflower Splendor: "Certainly no Chinese writer has mirrored in his work more completely the world he lives in than Tu Fu. Nor has anyone revealed himself with greater passion and candor, or displayed a greater dedication to his craft, or achieved such consummate mastery of his art." Lo's words echo what the show more Chinese have felt about this writer for more than 10 centuries, for he is revered as the finest poet China has ever produced. Tu Fu truly is outstanding for his humility, his passion, his social concern, and his extraordinary experimentations with the shih form. Though he never passed the official examinations and held only minor posts, he wrote prolifically of his patriotic concern for the nation's welfare and his own search for the most suitable way to be true to himself and to serve society. He had the misfortune of living just as the T'ang dynasty was reeling under the great challenge of the An Lu-shan Rebellion. As a result, he spent some of his best years away from his beloved capital of Ch'ang-an seeking refuge from the incessant warfare and resulting social dislocations in the north. Two of his most moving ballads in the folk style are narrative accounts, one of meeting soldiers on the road, and the other of meeting an abandoned imperial prince on a crossroads near the capital after the emperor and his entourage have fled to the southwest. Tu Fu's poetry is complex, polished, and emotionally powerful. One of his poems contains the line "If my words don't startle people, I won't rest even in death." (Bowker Author Biography) show less
All Editions
Awards and Honors
Notable Lists
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Selected Poems of Tu Fu
- Original publication date
- 1989 (English: Hinton) (English: Hinton)
- People/Characters
- Du Fu
- Important places
- China
- Disambiguation notice
- This is the David Hinton-edited Seleted Poems, originally published in 1989 by New Directions.
Please do not combine with other, similarly named but differing collections.
Classifications
- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 895.113 — Literature & rhetoric Literatures of other languages Literatures of East and Southeast Asia Chinese Chinese poetry Tang and Five dynasties 618-960
- LCC
- PL2675 .A24 — Language and Literature Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Chinese language and literature Chinese literature Individual authors and works
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 191
- Popularity
- 171,836
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (4.02)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 2
