Li BaiReseñas

The flocks rise and dissolve until the last is flown away.
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.

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.

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.

Li Bai in gereimten deutschen Versen. Man mag es, oder nicht? Blütenschnee - Liebende ... wow. Reime, ja, und viele Vergleiche. "Wie" ist ein häufiges Wort. Klabunds impressionistischer Li Bai klingt wie Liliencron.

Klabund interessierte sich 1915, als die Übersetzung entstand, wohl besonders für zwei Aspekte von Li Bais Werk: Pazifismus und Suff. Darauf einen Reiswein.

Bemerkenswert ist, dass zum gleichen Zeitpunkt in London Ezra Pound ebenfalls an Übertragungen Li Bais feilte. Man vergleiche "Die Kaiserin" mit "The Jewel Stairs' Grievance". Auch Pounds Cathay rückt den Krieg in den Mittelpunkt.

Read all my reviews on http://urlphantomhive.booklikes.com

This is exactly why I thought the Penguin Little Black classics would be great. This edition contains three poets from the Tang Dynasty and I will be the first to admit that it wasn't something that I would have usually picked.

But I'm very glad that I read it now, because I was most pleasantly surprised by the deceptive simplicity of many of the poems. They were really quite charming. In honesty, I liked all three the poets, and usually I'm not even that much into poetry.

Certainly recommended! I might even look for a longer collection of their poems.

Little Black Classics #9

This was a great, small little collection of poems by the famed masters Li Po and Tu Fu. The notes were especially appreciated and the content was simple and flowing. Although there was not much complexity in the poetic structure that these two poets wrote, there is still much to be liked. All in all, a good collection.

3.5 stars.½

This was definitely not for me

Usually poetry of the antique variety appeals to me a great deal, and I was excited to read this collection, but for some reason it just didn't click with me. *shrug*½

I’m not usually a fan of poetry but I found this collection to be lovely. The three poets all seem to use few words to convey the beauty of nature around us.

I enjoyed these poems but I don't know if the flow of some of them was meant to be slightly odd or if that was a result of the translation

Pastoral poetry from three Tang dynasty poets; Wang Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu, in eighth century China.

The full beauty of the poems is obviously lost in translation, but they are evocative of eighth century China with their wonderful descriptions of nature and common people feeling the desire to remain embedded in their cultures and heritage.

Personally, the poems were not for me, but I choose poems for their theme and country of origin, and Chinese poetry or literature is not of interest to me. But the enjoyment, whilst minimal, was there because of their natural flow and evocation of feelings.

Beautiful stuff, elegant in its simplicity. Read them slowly and savor them, and have a little wine while doing so.

Li Po -- aka Bai (Chinese: 李白; pinyin: Li Pai, Li Bo) 701 – 762, is a major Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty, often called China's "golden age". Obata introduces him as "the best-known Chinese poet in the Orient for the last one thousand years". Li Po was both prolific and creative, and the poems stretched the rules of versification of his time. Around a thousand extant poems are attributed to him today.

The translator pretends no erudition in Chinese literature, and selected a little more than one-tenth of the works of Li Po for this volume, first translated in 1916. This edition was revised in 1935. Includes the Li Yang-ping's Preface "written in the euphuism of the Six Dynasty Period". Euphuism -- with its prallel constructions, profuse classical allusions, and curiour hyperboles. Also includes two biographies from the "Books of Tang", which remain the official and only extant authentic accounts of the poet's life written in Chinese. Contains Bibliography, 20 pages of Chinese, and Map of China.

Ascended Master Dictations
Letters To A Chela
by Li Po

This book is 325 pages of sheer dynamite for anyone who is into channeling. The author has written clearly and concisely the sessions that he had with the different ascended masters, and even how we can do it too. I just loved the way he put the names by each one so I could follow along and really feel like I was part of his enlightened and inspirational experience.

Every time I pick up and read the pages of this exceptional book I feel more and more connected to spirit, and get a better understanding of the world in general, the Divine Plan and how I can be a bigger part of it. There are many topics covered in these channeled sessions, and I found them to be vital to my spiritual growth. I would recommend this wonderful work to anyone serious about finding new messages on their path to enlightenment. Thank you so much, Li Po, I think we all needed this.

Love & Light,

Riki Frahmann

“Great men have a curious way of appearing in complementary pairs” – Kenneth Clark.

Li Po, perhaps better known as Li Bai, and Tu Fu, whose name is better Romanized as Du Fu, were two great poets of the Tang Dynasty in 8th century China.

Li Po was a rebel against conformity, a wanderer fond of wine and of spontaneous revelry in the moonlight. There is both an imagination and a loneliness to his work. Tu Fu was a traditionalist but also an innovator; his poetry has both the honesty and the subtlety often found in great art.

Tu Fu was clearly the “yang” to Li Po’s “yin”; Tu Fu the Confucian and Li Po theTaoist. The two met and respected one another, and in fact Tu Fu idolized the older poet.

One has to read the poems slowly and without distraction to be rewarded. Chinese is not a flowery language to begin with and I believe there is a bit lost in translation. Furthermore the translations in this edition are a bit dated and I’ve seen better in a collection from Whincup, which I’ll review later.

However, the overall ‘feel’ of this book is very nice – informative introduction, nice notes on the poems, and occasionally poems printed in both English and Chinese. It’s a great introduction to two great poets.

I extract three poems that resonated with me when I first read them long ago, and which still do as I read them today.

Quiet Night Thoughts (Li Po)
-------------------------------------
Before my bed
there is bright moonlight
So that is seems
like frost on the ground:

Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon,
Lowering my head,
I dream that I’m home.

Longing (Li Po)
-------------------
Sunlight begins to fade,
mist fills the flowers,
The moon as white as silk
weeps and cannot sleep,

Chao zither’s Phoenix frets
no more shall I touch,
Shu lute’s Mandarin Duck strings
I’ll sound instead:

This song has a meaning
that no one can tell,
It follows the Spring wind
as far as Yen-jan

To you far, far away
beyond the blue sky –

Whom once I gave
A sideways glance
With eyes that now
Are wells of tears –

If you do not believe
that my heart breaks,
Come back and look with me
into this glass!

Nine Thoughts Afloat (Tu Fu)
--------------------------------------
By bent grasses
in a gentle wind
Under straight mast
I’m alone tonight,

And the stars hang
above the broad plain
But moon’s afloat
in this Great River:

Oh, where’s my name
among the poet’s?
Official rank?
‘Retired for ill-health.’

Drifting, drifting,
what am I more than
A single gull
Between sky and earth?½

I went through to the end with this book but found only two or three spots where I enjoyed it. The translations are done in rhyme and I just can't take it. I recommend Ryokan's One Robe, One Bowl over this.

Contents

Foreword
What is tai chi?
A brief history of tai chi chuan
Warmup Exercises-How to begin; The movement of force; Waist rotations; Hip rotations; Knee circling; Monkey stretches upward and downward; Tiger crouches downward; Leg stretches; Phoenix eating its ashes; Diagonal leg raises; Straight leg raises
More Chinese exercises-Draw the bow; Sea serpent riding the waves; Backbends; The wheel; Full scale; Needle scale; The split
Standing meditation postures-Universal post; The horse
Meditation
Tai chi chuan: A manual of form
How to perform tai chi-Posture; Basic stance and footwork; T Steps; Empty steps; The hands
Tai chi: The form
From the I Ching
The form: List of movements
Afterword
Bibliography
Picture notes