The Selected Poems of Li Po

Li Po (Trans. David Hinton)

New York: New Directions, 1996. Pages: xxv, 134

This little volume is a collection of about 100 poems by the celebrated T'ang poet Li Po (701-762). This particular translation is by David Hinton, and has won the 1997 Morton Landon award. I can only surmise how dense the original must be but from comparing Hinton's English versions to some other translations of the same poems, I must say that it does indeed sound better. I can only hope that it is also faithful to the originals.

The poems themselves are divided into three groups, according to the period they are thought to belong. Suffused with Taoist and Zen imagery, most poems are short, and either celebrate the experience of nature, or the grief of physical life unadorned by the virtues of wine. Drunkenness appears often and, unlike most modern treatments, is seen as a method of divesting the obstacles in the path of enlightenment. Perhaps the frequent references to wine and the moon might seem excessive, but the deeply lyrical passages regaling the reader with vistas of formidable gorges, seething rivers, and azure skies bring these more than thousand year old poems close:

Why talk of cleansing elixirs of immortality?
Here, the world's dust rinsed from my face,
I'll stay close to what I've always loved,
content to leave that peopled world forever.

or,

The birds have all vanished into deep
skies. The last cloud drifts away, aimless.
Inexhaustible, Ching-t'ing Mountain and I
gaze at each other, it alone remaining.

This little book is thus an excellent addition to one's poetry shelf. The translator has included an introduction that gives a brief historical background, some sketchy biographical detail, and a somewhat incomprehensible account of Zen and Taoist beliefs that have influenced Li Po profoundly. There is also a concise bibliography of relevant material in English. My only complaint about the translation is that Hinton sometimes orders words in an awkward way, which makes grasping the poems rather difficult. Since he has not kept with the meter or rhyming of the original, it would have made more sense to give freer rein to English. Still, this rendering is quite good.

August 24, 2001.

@book{li-po:selected-poems,
	TITLE     = {The Selected Poems of Li Po},
	AUTHOR    = {Li Po},
	YEAR      = {1996},
	PUBLISHER = {New Directions},
	ADDRESS   = {New York},
	ISBN      = {0-8112-1323-4},
	NOTE      = {Translated by David Hinton; bibliography; pp. xxv, 134}
}