Here is a personal note from Lata Iyer presenting us the poetry of Li Bai who belonged to the Tang Dynasty:
My knowledge of the Chinese language is frugal. It is
restricted to the technical aspects of my professional work in
We are thankful to Lata for this beautiful piece of work,
which includes a fairly detailed introduction to Li Bai and English rendering of
his several poetic compositions. We shall serialize these in the next few
instalments—Li Bai "the god dismissed from the Heaven".
Following is the account about Li Bai as given by
Wikipedia:
Li Bai or Li Po (701 – 762) was a Chinese poet. He was
part of the group of Chinese scholars called the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup in a poem by fellow poet Du Fu. Li
Bai is often regarded, along with Du Fu, as one of the two greatest poets in
Li Bai is best known for the extravagant imagination
and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for
liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case
it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced
him. He is said to have drowned in the
And here is one of Li Bai’s compositions, Staying the Night at a Mountain Temple:
The high tower is a hundred feet tall,
From here one's hand could pluck the stars.
I do not dare to speak in a loud voice,
I fear to disturb the people in heaven.
Li Bai, much
loved poet of the Chinese Language—by Lata Iyer
The six Confucian Classics formed the main foundation
for Classical education in ancient
In the Analects (Lun
Yu), Confucius places equal importance on poetry, rites and music. He
viewed them from the point of ones own personal cultivation. Poetry has always
been a significant form of expression in
The direct disciples of Confucius were asked to study The Book of Poetry by him. Since most of
his disciples were prospective statesmen, they were asked to master the nuances
of poetry to cultivate themselves as gentlemen and also refine their expression
and language. Confucius is well known for his concept of the “ideal gentleman”.
He speaks of the balance required to become a true gentleman—a balance between “wen” and “zhi”. Wen indicates
outward cultivation and reflects a gentleman’s outer qualities of presentation,
good manners, good conduct, refinement, scholarship, communication etc. Zhi symbolizes the capacity to grow
inward and the qualities one needs to develop to become a gentleman. Some of
these qualities are sincerity, simplicity, honesty, virtuousness etc. Confucius
encouraged his disciples to find appropriate verses and to select the right
verses for the right moment and for social interaction.
The Book of
Poetry as available today is supposed
to have been edited by Confucius himself. The anthology consists of various
poetic forms such as Go Feng (Songs
and Lyrics), Xiao Ya (Odes), Da Ya (Epics) and Song (Hymns). The themes progress from the everyday life of the
common folks to the lives of nobility. There are also poems glorifying
ancestors of the ruling class which were meant to inspire the people to worship
them as Gods.
Poetry can serve to inspire (xing), to reflect (guan),
to communicate (qun) and to admonish
(yuan)—Confucius is supposed to have
said. Much can be written on these functions elaborated through the ages by
various critics and writers. But it would distract the reader from the main
theme of this brief compilation.
Chinese poetry through history has been unintelligible
to western audiences. The Chinese language is so dramatically different from
Western languages in terms of script and grammar that it is an uphill task even
approaching the mastery Chinese poetry. The writing system, use of tones and
tone patterns, etymology, concision (no conjunctions, articles or plurals)
fluid relationship between nouns and verbs, free word order, and allusion to
previous events or poems—these are distinct features of Chinese poetry which
any discerning critic will have to well understand. Certain possibilities like
the combination of Chinese characters resulting in new words/expressions
befuddle the English reader. Forms in Chinese poetry derive from the strength
of the Chinese language. The demands are great and there are rules on number of
characters to the line, rhyme, parallelism and tonal arrangements. Chinese
poetry takes many forms, most of them quite complicated. Most translators in
the west have resorted to free verse forms to overcome the problems of
translation. But, classical Chinese poetry has no concept of free verse.
Allusive, compact and musical, it follows very demanding rules.
Li Bai is one of the most celebrated of Chinese poets.
He lived between 701 and 762 AD. He was born in Western China (Central Asia),
but his family resettled in
Born in a wealthy family, Li Bai was a traveler by choice. He preferred a life
of travel and liquor to being an Imperial officer. He was held in great
reverence by the Governor of his times, but Li Bai pursued a life quite
contradictory to the accepted social mores. He travelled the lengths and
breadths of
His two meetings with Du Fu, another great classical
Chinese poet inspired Fu Du enough to compose at least a dozen poems in Li
Bai’s honour. Some of them are extremely moving and clearly show the impact
that Li Bai had on another distinguished poet.
Were we parted by death, I might swallow my grief
But to be parted in life is unending pain,—
he wrote in his poem Dreaming of Li Bai.
Li Bai’s position as the most outstanding poet of the
Chinese language defies analysis. Undoubtedly, Li Bai’s poetry has a universal
appeal. His poetry is replete with humanity. His sympathy extends to human,
animal, plants, forests, mountains, glades and valleys. His deep sympathy for
the common people comes through in the verses of The Song of Inspector Ding
describing the plight of the laborers working on the banks of the Yangtze.
One encounters the Moon in several of his poems. Li Bai
was fascinated with the Moon as a symbol of beauty and mystery. Thus in I am a Peach Tree
You are the moon up in the far sky;
Passing, you looked down on me an hour; then went on
forever.
He was forever speculating on the moon’s relationship
with the world and life as it is. Yet in another poem, he writes:
Our lofty ambitions soar high:
Seeking to reach the moon in the sky.
Love too forms the theme of several of his poems. The
love Wang Lun has for him inspires a verse which poignantly reflects Li Bai’s
deep sense of gratitude too!
The water in the Peach Blossom pool is a thousand feet
deep
But not as deep as Wang Lun's parting love for me.
The varying range of emotions in everyday life finds
resonance in his poems. The tired soldier, the toiling peasant, the tender
hearted-woman who is unrecognized in her home, the plight of women—woven
skillfully into his lyrical verses, the reader finds a balance between the
imaginative flights into transcendent nature as well as the most mundane of
circumstances. Living in turbulent times, he sings of the futility of war in
some of his memorable poems.
As a traveller, he has immortalized several provinces
and spots of scenic splendour in his poetry. The natural beauty of
He was supposed to compose at jet speed and produced
abundant verses in no time at all. He mastered difficult forms of Chinese
poetry such as “jueju”, the quatrain formed with 5 or 7 characters. Li Bai
wrote in many forms, including regulated verse, but he preferred the rhapsodic
fu and yuefu quatrain styles without their onerous restrictions.
His affinity with Tao ideals made him a target of Neo
Confucian criticism. Li Bai met with a lot of hostility in his own lifetime.
But nothing can ever take his place of being
He is known to the west through the translations of
Ezra Pound. More recently Vikram Seth has translated a few of his verses. He
has also formed artistic inspiration such as when the American composer Harry Partch, whose Seventeen
Lyrics by Li Po for intoning voice and Adapted Viola (an instrument of
Partch's own invention) were based on the texts in The Works of Li Po, the
Chinese Poet translated by Shigeyoshi Obata.