Five T'Ang Poets

I rarely read poetry, but there's something terribly appealing about an ancient culture where bureaucrats routinely wrote poems. And so I occasionally buy books like this one. The five poets sampled here wrote in the eighth and ninth century, the richest period of Chinese poetry.I liked everything about the book, from the engaging preface to the last poignant verse. Translator David Young starts out by sharing his creative process with us. He's a poet himself, on a mission to save his T'ang poets from the wooden translations of dry scholars. And amazingly, he's contrived to render the poems without footnotes!Young carefully selects the poems he wants us to enjoy, writing a mini-introduction to the works of each poet. Here he succinctly sums up the poetic personality of the writer, his preoccupations and events that influenced his style.I was delighted with Wang Wei, the devout painter-poet wandering in a vast wild landscape, finally kneeling by a lake... meditating to chase away the poison dragon of emotionLi Po I found witty and winsome, inviting the moon to be his drinking companion.Tu Fu charmed me with his candor: I wanted my picture to hang in the hall of fame, the Unicorn Gallery now in old age I waddle with the ducks and snowy heronsAnd I was intrigued by the lives and methods of Li Ho, young poet of extremes, and Li Shang-Yin, clever wielder of allusion.With this captivating collection, David Young has inspired me to read more T'ang poetry.

If nothing else (and there's plenty else) this book introduced me to Du Fu, perhaps China's greatest poet ever, and obviously one of the greatest anywhere.There are 5 stellar poets represented here, with very good translations by another poet.

The Five Tang Poets covered in this book are wonderful.Wang Wei excellent landscape poems take you to places which are wonderous while not over iydllic. Tu Fu is sad and poinant, talking about the scenes of war. Li Po talks of drinking and intoxication in a way that seems that it is a way of lifeYoung translates in a free verse form using simple words and goes for the feeling of the poem. The poems are not 100 % literal translations but they are jems. I feel like I am having some of my chinese friends translating a poem for me and they say this is the best I can do you will have to read Chinese to fully understand the poem completely. Young takes us as far as one can go in our language. He took on a difficult task to bring these poems so simple in language and so complex in context and emotion to life, Young has done an excellent job with the tool of the English language

These translations have aged so very well, I shall look for more of his work — thanks !!

A great place to start one's acquaintance with 5 exceptional Chinese poets of the late Tang. The translations are superb,and make you want to read more, more, more of these magical intense poets. An eye-opener and addictive, you will read them again and again...

Not reading medieval Chinese himself, David Young is at a disadvantage in translating and yet I enjoy his versions of these famous poets much more than those by Hamill, Seaton, and Hinton. I wouldn't compare him with a classical scholar/translator such as Burton Watson but Young has done his homework ascertaining the meaning of the Chinese. Above all, his poetic abilities shine.

This is one of the best poetry books I've read in quite a while. A great sampling of some of the best writers in the history of Chinese literature.

Without any scholarly insights to offer, I am but a humble fan of poetry from this period. A highly recommended read.