Li Bai (0701–0762)
Auteur van Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes
Over de Auteur
For a poet whose name is usually paired with Tu Fu's, and whose poetry ranks among the best ever written in China, surprisingly little can be definitively stated about Li Po. Early in life he was dubbed the "Banished Immortal" by admirers who argued that his genius was so far above the common herd toon meer that surely he was a being from another world exiled for a time on earth. Li Po did everything he could to foster this larger-than-life image, making it hard to separate fact from fiction. He was probably born in 701 in Central Asia, along the border of what is now Afghanistan and the former Soviet Union, though he spent his boyhood in southwest China. His family seem to have been traders, claiming descent from the Li's of Kansu province, which, if true, would make them distant relations of the T'ang royal family. The T'ang ruling house was of mixed Turkish and Chinese blood, and it is possible that Li Po was not Chinese. Two contemporaries claimed that he could compose in a foreign language, and there are hints in his verse that he was familiar with elements of Turkish culture, although that would not have been surprising for someone born in Central Asia regardless of ethnicity. His was a cosmopolitan age, with much activity along the trade routes between China and Persia. Whatever his origins, Li Po was schooled in Chinese language and culture. Although he became famous for his excessive drinking and un-Confucian behavior, his debauchery did not particularly distinguish him from many of his bona fide Chinese companions, who looked upon drunkenness as a state of sublime receptivity to poetic inspiration. It may be possible, as Elling Eide has suggested, that a double stigma ("barbarian" and "merchant class") may account for his failure to take the civil service examinations. Later, Chinese scholars claimed that he was too impulsive or lacking in self-discipline to endure the necessary examination preparation, but that contradicts the evidence in his works that he was well read and fond of study. More important, it fails to account for Li Po's own words; he reveals, for example, intense disappointment in an allegorical poem entitled "Song of the Heavenly Horse," which seems in many details suspiciously autobiographical. It may be that what Li Po lacked was not the appetite for power, but the personality necessary for politics. He was presented to Emperor Hsuan-tsung, who was sufficiently impressed to give him a position in the Hanlin Academy, but he lost it to court intrigues after only a year or two. Then in 755, when the An Lushan rebellion rocked the dynasty, he sided with Prince Yung, who was eventually found guilty of treason. Whatever his personal anguish, Li Po seems to have been completely convincing in the pose of the romantic poet and to have dazzled his contemporaries, who describe his flashing eyes, piercing voice, and poems, dashed off at electrifying speed. Tu Fu, for one, held him in considerable awe. Yet there is undoubtedly a complex character behind the flashy facade. Though first struck by the soaring spirit and unbridled imagination of his poems, one eventually discovers that they are actually very intricately patterned, with painstaking attention to rhythm and internal rhyme, and studded with allusions yielding multiple levels of meaning. A very high level of artistry masquerades as effortlessness. Traditionally, scholars have believed that Li died in late 762, since his kinsman wrote in a preface at that time that he was ailing, and there are no notices dated after that. Legend, however, has it that he actually died from drowning, falling drunk from a boat in a futile effort to embrace a reflection of the moon. Li Po would no doubt prefer the latter story, and it seems an apt metaphor for the life of a man whose reach always seemed to exceed his grasp. (Bowker Author Biography) toon minder
Fotografie: from Wikipedia
Werken van Li Bai
Li Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated with an Introduction and Notes (1973) — Medewerker — 369 exemplaren
Wave hands like clouds: Kuang ping tai chi : a Chinese yoga of meditation in motion (1975) 12 exemplaren
Wave Hands Like Clouds-Training Method of Tai Chi 2 exemplaren
Simulation and capacity calculation in real German and European interconnected gas transport systems (2012) 2 exemplaren
The Poems of Li Po 1 exemplaar
Facing the Moon: Poems of Li Bai and Du Fu 1 exemplaar
Tienkuo the Heavenly Kingdom 1 exemplaar
Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon [poem] 1 exemplaar
Communications and networking : 12th International Conference, ChinaCom 2017, Xi'an, China, October 10-12, 2017,… (2018) 1 exemplaar
"Sitting Alone by Ching-t'ing Mountain" 1 exemplaar
The Tale of Matou Qin 1 exemplaar
"The River Merchant's Wife" 1 exemplaar
Ebri de lluna 1 exemplaar
"Drinking Alone by Moonlight" 1 exemplaar
Poetry 1 exemplaar
Sur notre terre exil 1 exemplaar
Li Tai-peh 1 exemplaar
Li Tai Bai Wen Ji 1 exemplaar
Reviving Traditions in Research on International Market Entry, Volume 14 (Advances in International Marketing) (2003) 1 exemplaar
Gedichte : e. Ausw. 1 exemplaar
Měsíc nad průsmykem 1 exemplaar
Gerelateerde werken
A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology of Poetry (1996) — Medewerker — 831 exemplaren
The Graphic Canon, Vol. 1: From the Epic of Gilgamesh to Shakespeare to Dangerous Liaisons (2012) — Medewerker — 280 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Gangbare naam
- Li Bai
- Officiële naam
- 李白
- Pseudoniemen en naamsvarianten
- Li Po
Li Taipo
Li Bo
Li Pai
Li-Tai-Pe - Geboortedatum
- 0701
0699
0705 - Overlijdensdatum
- 0762
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- China
- Geboorteplaats
- Suiye, Tang Empire (present-day Suyab, Kyrgyzstan)
- Plaats van overlijden
- Dangtu, China
- Oorzaak van overlijden
- Drowned
- Woonplaatsen
- Jiangyou, Sichuan Province, China
Dangtu, Anhui Province, China (death)
Chang'an, China
Shandong, China - Beroepen
- poet
secretary
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Besprekingen
This collection of translated poetry begins with a long introduction, which provides context on Li Po, Tu Fu, and Chinese poetry as a whole. I really appreciated this because of my lack of knowledge in any of these areas. The poems themselves were enjoyable to read, and each piece was accompanied by extensive notes that provided additional context & information. Overall, this was a very good collection.
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brp6kk | 3 andere besprekingen | Jun 30, 2021 |
brp6kk | 3 andere besprekingen | Jun 30, 2021 | 
I really enjoyed this collection of poems! The visual effects summoned in the poems were brilliant and I found that despite their age, and their having been translated, they were easy to follow and understand. I especially appreciated the fact that it included a short story at the end that had been the inspiration for one of the poems.
I really enjoyed this collection of poems! The visual effects summoned in the poems were brilliant and I found that despite their age, and their having been translated, they were easy to follow and understand. I especially appreciated the fact that it included a short story at the end that had been the inspiration for one of the poems.
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The clouds drift and swirl until the last fades away.
The mountain and I remain to regard each other, until only the mountain remains.
... is the translation I'm waiting for, but Obata is pretty good here. With this and one or two others in hand, somewhere towards the centre is a glimpse of the truth.