The Heart of Chinese Poetry - My Poetry Bookshelf

It’s not possible to quickly and simply convey a whole culture’s poetry, and I wont try. But in China of yore, poetry was the premier art form, and it evolved into an incredible subtle opus, that was heavy on a note you might call the blues note. Here I look into this. 

The poem is Amusing Myself by Li Bai, who wrote during the Tang Dynasty -- in my youth was more often known as Li Po in the West. Let's say Tu Fu was the Willie Mays of the time and era - that would make Li Bai the Mickey Mantle. It’s a shapshot view of Chinese poetry, including drinking, concise strange scenes and the music of regret.

Drinking,
I was unaware of nightfall.
Fallen flowers
Filled my robe.

Drunk, I arose
And walked by the stream
In the moonlight.
The birds had all gone,
Men also were few.

                      -Li Bai

A review of a review of Chinese art show at the Met in 2007 drew some words that struck me on this topic of the Chinese poems, and I include them here.

As often as not the mood is regret. If only we could have the old ways back. Or, I miss my distant friends so much. Or, all things die and so must I.

May seem thin, but this mood carries through to many modern poems, whose authors found the Chinese note first, second or third hand. Shouldn't I add: I miss my friends.

The Heart of Chinese Poetry came to me as a Father’s Day gift from Jacob in 1996. It comes to clarify somewhat the Chinese modes of poetry. It is the most extraordinarily accessible and fantastically mechanical of any poetry text book. The author Greg Whincup (could hardly find a more apt name for the subject) breaks down each part of the poems here by a-English poem translation, b-Chinese word, c-Chinese writing character, and d-Literal word translation. Whincup then includes a brief and telling contextual graph on each poem and author. Like so more or less ...

a	b-c-d