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4.0 out of 5 stars
A handy introduction for newcomers to Tu Fu., Jun 20 2001
THE SELECTED POEMS OF TU FU. Translated by David Hinton. 173 pp. New York : New Directions, 1989, and Reissued.Tu Fu (712-790) was one of China's greatest poets, and the present book, after a brief 9-page Introduction, gives us a comprehensive selection of his poems, arranged chronologically, annotated, and in adequate translations of varying degrees of success. Here is an example of Hinton's style, the first four lines of an eight-line poem, selected at random from the poem 'Skies Clear at Dusk' (and with my obliques added to indicate line breaks) : "Dusk's failing flare breaks out. Clouds / Thin and drift - none return. Distant, / Bright, a rainbow drinks at the river. / Rain in the gorge falls - remnants scatter" (p.78). Tu Fu is not an easy poet to translate, and readers with access to David Hawke's bilingual edition of Tu Fu, or to A. C. Graham's 'Poems of the Late T'ang, might find it interesting to compare Hinton's approach with theirs. His book, which also includes a useful 17-page Biography which is keyed to the poems, quite full Notes, a Finding List, a Bibliography, and an Index of Titles and First Lines, would make a handy introduction for anyone new to Tu Fu. But if, after reading it, you'd really like to discover what lies behind Tu Fu's poetry, and learn something of how his poetry works, you might take a look at the excellent bilingual anthology by Wai-lim Yip which contains a detailed treatment of a number of Tu Fu's poems. Details are as follows : CHINESE POETRY : An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres. Edited and translated by Wai-lim Yip. 358 pp. Durham NC and London : Duke University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8223-1951-9 (pbk.)
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