Are you feeling the quarantine pressure closing in? Have you done as much binging as you can take on Netflix and Amazon and YouTube? And what about all those piles and files of magazines and books you promised yourself you would make time for? For many, things are starting to feel too familiar and flat. Well, I have something I’ll bet my savage pines on that will be new to you. Yes, you’ll still need to wear you mask when you’re out and about. No, what you can choose to read below won’t last very long. On the other hand, our Tang Dynasty sampler may just whet your appetite for more of the same or the poetry of other nations and other eras.
Suggested approach:
- Without reading the background notes below and without doing any research on the Tang Dynasty, just read the three poems below and savor what each has to offer.
- Then read the brief “Biography” section to discover the man (yes, all men – apologies to the excellent female poets across the ages) behind the creation of each poem
- Finally, read the “Background” section about the Tang Dynasty.
Most importantly, exhale into the worldview of each of the poets, as you don your silk robe.
The Poems:
Dù Fǔ 杜甫 (712-770)
Sitting Alone
Saddened, I turn my white head,
Leaning on my cane, my back towards the abandoned city.
The river water is restrained and many sandbars emerge,
The sky is empty, the scene is clear.
In the darkness, I resent how I wither as I age,
The times have betrayed the promises of the life of an official.
Raising my head, I admire the birds in the evening light,
Sleeping in the woods, their feathers are so light.
独坐
悲愁迴白首， 倚杖背孤城。
江敛洲渚出，天虚风物清。
沧溟服衰谢，朱绂负平生。
仰羡黄昏鸟，投林羽翮轻。
Lǐ Bái 李白 – 701-762
Drinking Alone Beneath the Moon
Among the flowers, a bottle of booze.
I drink alone, no friend is near.
Raising a cup, I invite the moon,
and, combined with my shadow, I become three.
Unfortunately, the moon does not drink,
But my shadow follows me.
For now, I have the moon and my shadow as companions,
and we need to party before spring comes to an end.
I sing and the moon paces back and forth,
I dance and see my shadow move like a hot mess.
While sober, we had fun together.
After getting drunk, each of us splits up.
Forever united, we roam without feeling,
only to see each other when we make it to the Milky Way.
月下独酌
花间一壶酒，独酌无相亲。
举杯邀明月，对影成三人。
月既不解饮，影徒随我身。
暂伴月将影，行乐须及春。
我歌月徘徊，我舞影零乱。
醒时同交欢，醉后各分散。
永结无情游，相期邈云汉。
Quiet Night Thoughts
Before my bed there's a pool of light
I wonder if it's frost on the ground
Looking up, I find the moon bright
Then bowing my head, as I drown in homesickness
Wáng Wéi 王维 (699-771)
Sending off Yuan to Anxi
By the walls of Wei, the dawn rain dampens the light dust,
The traveler’s lodge is so green, the color of the willows has revived.
I urge you to again finish a glass of booze,
When you go west out past the Yang Pass, there will be no old friends.
送元二使安西
渭城朝雨浥輕塵，
客舍青青柳色新。
勸君更盡一杯酒，
西出陽關無故人。
Literary Biographies:
Dù Fǔ 杜甫 (712-770)
Experts generally agree that Du Fu’s work exceeded the quality of any other poet in the Tang Dynasty. One of his foundations was Confucianism. His life was lived during a bleak and heartbreaking time in the Tang era. His poetry reflects the confusion and unhappiness of the period. Another theme he frequently addressed was the close connection between art and morality. Often his poems placed this theme in the context of history. During his earlier life, Du Fu was not well known even to other writers; eventually, he significantly influenced both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Almost 1,500 of his poems have come down to us over the centuries. In the West, he has been compared with Virgil, Shakespeare, and Baudelaire.
Lǐ Bái 李白 – 701-762
Li Bai’s fame came from his reputation as a Romantic poet. His subjects were most frequently about a wide range of everyday things like nature, cities, war, and death. Like Romantics of all ages, he lived a wild-and-crazy life. Legend has it that based on challenges of honor, he killed several people with his martial arts skills. Li Bai relied on his own life for his poetic inspiration, including the comings and goings of friends, his dreams, and poetic, timeless moments discovered in nature. Like the other two poets profiled in this post, Li Bai’s life changed forever with the war, and famine in northern China caused by a rebellion of a loose coalition of regional powers against the Tang, eventually spanning the reigns of three Tang emperors. Li Bai’s work, then naturally, took on a much more serious viewpoint, as he began to compose on less romantic themes and more on the disorder and destruction China was experiencing. Approximately, one thousand poems by Li Bai remain in print. Perhaps appropriate to a Romantic nature, legend says that Li drowned while drunk, reaching from a boat to grasp the moon’s reflection in the river.
Wáng Wéi 王维 (699-771)
Wang Wei was multi-talented, including works of music, painting, and politics, and of course, poetry. His primary focus was on nature in both his poetry and his painting. Twenty-nine of his poems were included in the significant anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. Approximately four hundred of his poems have survived; unfortunately, no paintings have been authenticated. Likewise, only reports of his musical output survives. Like our other two poets, Wang Wei did not live to see order restored in China due to the An-Shi (An Lushan) Rebellion (755-763) that devasted much of northern and central China, and which took an immense toll on China’s social and cultural life, not to forget the incredible death toll due to war and famine. Wang Wei, himself was captured by the rebels during the siege of the city he lived in at the time (756). Despite this upheaval, Wang Wei portrayed quiet scenes without human interference. It has been said that he stands for the world’s beauty while simultaneously seeing that beauty as illusion. Likely, these contrasting views arose from Wang Wei’s artistic life combined with his deep Zen Buddhist practice. Although much of his poetry seems simple, one could say it resembled his Chan (Zen) path which largely affirms little conscious effort in following the way to illumination as to the nature of reality and of the “self.” In month seven of 759, he took writing materials, wrote letters to three people in his intimate circle, put down his “pen,” and died.
Background:
The An-Shi (An Lushan) Rebelion (755-763) changed the face of China and beyond. Naturally, some poets of the era wrote about the devastating impact on their lives, their feelings, and their material wellbeing. On the other hand, very few wrote about the political intrigues and power plays of the Rebellion itself. In literary criticism in China, there are close links between art and morality. This view is of particular significance in Du Fu’s work which also adds history to the mix. Both Chinese and Japanese poetry tend strongly toward compactness, a concise encapsulation of meaning, and an exclusion of context which some commentators say would be relevant to fully appreciating the poem. Commentator, William Hung says that for Western readers, “The less accurately we know the time, the place and the circumstances in the background, the more liable we are to imagine incorrectly, and the result will be that we either misunderstand the poem or fail to understand it altogether.” Another critical view suggests with such great poets of such timeless influence, the man’s life rather than the only the work must be analyzed. This is not true of lesser poets.
Exploration #1: Du Fu says, “I resent how I wither as I age.” Then he admires birds and feathers in the evening light. Can this apparent contradiction of emotions be reconciled?
Exploration #2: Is there any other meaning to “making it to the Milky Way” other than the obvious drunken delusion, and perhaps, the desire for a nearby friend.
Exploration #3: A traveler’s lodge, a glass of booze, and no old friends: three images in Wang Wei’s poem. How are these images connected? What is the resulting worldview?
ReplyDeleteLi Bai was a friend of mine. He’s in Heaven now or the Milky Way as he called it. I plan to see him there.