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The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry

Tony Barnstone and Chou Ping

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).

The selection

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


Excerpts



Shi Jing, Book of Songs (600 BCE): Fruit Plummets from the Plum Tree

	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]



Zi Ye (3d-4th c.) : Four Seasons Song: Autumn


	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 (8th-9thc.) : Song of Luogen

	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.

Zhang Ji (c. 776-c.829)


worked on the staff of the military governor of Xunwu, eventually becoming
the Director of Studies.


Song of a Virtuous Woman

	(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. 


Du Fu (712-770)


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


Gazing in Springtime

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

Thoughts While Night Traveling

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 (1056–1121)


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.

To the Tune of "Rambling Young Man"


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."


Willows, to the Tune of "King of Lanling"


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 (1063–1106)


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.


To the Tune of "Washing Creek Sands"


	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.


Spring Complaint

   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?



Bei Dao (1949-): Nightmare


	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]



Contents


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

Zhou Dynasty (1122–256 BCE)

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

Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE)

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

Six dynasties period (220–589)

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

Tang Dynasty (618–907)

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"

Song Dynasty (960–1279)

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

Yuan Dynasty (1280–1367)

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

Ming Dynasty (1368–1644)

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

Qing Dynasty (1644–1911)

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

from Modern to Contemporary (1911-Present)

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





Author Bios


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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This article last updated on : 2014 Jan 09