by Li Po (Author), Arthur Cooper (Introduction), Arthur Cooper (Translator), Arthur Cooper (Introduction), Arthur Cooper (Translator), Li Po (Author), Tu Fu (Author), Shui Chien-Tung (Illustrator)
Li Po (AD 701-62) and Tu Fu (AD 712-70) were devoted friends who are traditionally considered to be among China's greatest poets. Li Po, a legendary carouser, was an itinerant poet whose writing, often dream poems or spirit-journeys, soars to sublime heights in its descriptions of natural scenes and powerful emotions. His sheer escapism and joy is balanced by Tu Fu, who expresses the Confucian virtues of humanity and humility in more autobiographical works that are imbued with great compassion and earthy reality, and shot through with humour. Together these two poets of the T'ang dynasty complement each other so well that they often came to be spoken of as one - Li-Tu' - who covers the whole spectrum of human life, experience and feeling.
Format: Illustrated
Pages: 256
Edition: 1
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 26 Apr 1973
ISBN 10: 0140442723
ISBN 13: 9780140442724
Tu Fu (AD 712-70) was born near the capital, of a family distinguished for service to the state. While Li Po seems to the Chinese to be a poet of the night and of man as a solitary animal in his dreams, Tu Fu is rather a poet of the day and of man in his other nature as a social animal. Tu Fu's poems chronicle his life and times with social conscience and compassion, but also present a convincing, unselfconscious portrait of the man himself.
Arthur Cooper was a scholar and translator known for the translation of Lip Po and Tu Fu: Poems Selected and Translated.