THE SELECTED POEMS OF TU FU - TU FU (translated by David Hinton)
I can’t even remember now why I decided to pick up this Tu Fu (most online things about him render it “Du Fu”, which I’m assuming stems from the same confusion that causes Taoism vs Daoism) but I remember it somewhere got it in my head that he was the premiere ancient Chinese poet. Well, apparently him and Li Po. I’ll have to cop some Li Po next, given that several of the poems in here are about him or addressed to him and the intro to this book tells us that Li adopted a literary persona that could be described as “banished immortal” which is obviously very trill. Fundamentally, issues of translation are going to come up, especially with poetry and especially with non-European languages. I thought the books intro did a good job explaining how chinese poetics work, how important word order is and how there are resonances and references that are impossible to render. Here is the example the book gives, of the same poem translated “literally” then translated again with an english reader in mind:
(bank)
Sand head / sleep egrets // gather fists / tranquil
Boat tail/ jump fish // spread cut / cry (sound)
(wake)
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Serene
Flocks of fists on sand- egrets asleep when
A fish leaps in a boat’s wake, shivering, cry
Pretty incredible, huh? The individual words are supposed to be considered with their counterparts on the next line, a level of poetic depth that is impossible in english. I find all this stuff fascinating, language is amazing. As far as the content of the poems themselves, Tu resonated with me more than I expected. Tu wrote most of his life during one of China’s (many) golden ages, the Tang dynasty (shout out to Mr. Brown, my high school world history teacher who taught me a song to the tune of frère jacques that lists all the major Chinese dynasties in order, a song I remember and reference to this day). But, as all empires do, this one crumbled into a hellscape of warring states and chaos, a milieu that Tu Fu spent the last decades of his life in. As someone who expects to live the last few decades of his life in a global hellscape, this hit hard. Especially since the stereotype, one that I shared, is that Chinese poetry is very ethereal and light and nature-focused. This is as engaged and political as anything. There’s a really interesting and I’d say modern (by “western” standards) tension between wanting to be involved with courtly drama/political reality and a desire to live as a wise sage in the mountains away from the bullshit. Very dope, will need to cop some Li Po. I’ll leave you with a favorite line, “It is here, in idleness, that I become real.” 8 complicated poetic verses.
