#Tang poetry

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

Hi guys, I went ahead an translated one of Li Bai’s poems <3. Now, translations are an imperfect art and its hard to capture the beauty of the original text, so please forgive me for any inaccuracies that might occur! >u< *

Life it never die

Moon is my favourite guy

Wine, im wanting more

Tell An Lushan stop the war

Zoom hear the apes go whoop

By the river feel the grove

Struck by longing in the night

EVERYBODY FREE-VERSE!

[gennsoup]

We tell ourselves all love is foolishness-- And still disappointment is a lucid madness.

Li Shangyin, Untitled Poems

[yilinwriter]

I made a Classical Chinese Poetry Bingo card to help people recognize the common tropes and motifs.🤣

These show up frequently in the modern poetry I translate as well.

Do you recognize anything from your readings or from pop culture? Tag yourself. I'm "feeling sad on a boat" lol

[maggiecheungs]

answer based on personal preference! in the tags please tell me why, and also if you've read their work in the original or in translation :)

[creatediana]

“Staying in the Mountains in Summer” by Chinese poet Yu Xuanji (844–871), one of the most legendary female poets of the Tang dynasty

[weatherwaxironboots]

I'm continuing my deep dive into cloud atlas and I'm investigating Han Yu so I'll share some of that here.

The Pheasant Struck By An Arrow

Han Yü

On the plain fires burn with silent determination,

Field pheasant, fearing the hawk

Come out and sink back down again.

The general wishes to humble others by his skill,

Turns his horse around, bends his bow.

But holds back and does not shoot.

The area gradually gets narrower, onlookers increase,

The pheasant starts up, the bow stretched in full,

A strong arrow in the notch.

It soars abruptly upward, against the people,

More than a hundred feet,

Red pinions and the silvery barb follow

Toward one another slanting.

The general looks up and laughs, his officers congratulate him,

As many-colored feathers fall scattering before the horse.

From Page 21 of "the poetry of Meng Chiao and Han Yü" by Owen Stephen

[scarletlich]

题李凝幽居 On Li Ning's Seclusive Residence 唐 贾岛 by Tang poet Jia Dao

闲居少邻并，草径入荒园。This carefree residence has few neighbors, a grassy path leads to an overgrown garden.

鸟宿池边树，僧敲月下门。Birds freely roost upon trees by the pond, in the moonlight a monk knocks upon the door.

过桥分野色，移石动云根。Crossing the bridge one sees the scene of wilderness, amidst drifting clouds the mountains themselves seem to move.

暂去还来此，幽期不负言。Although [I] must leave this place I will return, to live together in seclusion as promised.

[jankisinja]

冬至，白居易

邯郸驿里逢冬至

抱膝灯前影伴身

想得家中夜深坐

还应说着远行人

Winter Solstice, Bai Juyi (804)

At Handan courier station on winter solstice night.

Beside a lamp, hugging my knees, my shadow my company.

Thinking of my family at home sitting up late.

At this very moment, talking about me.

[these-summer-nights-in-december]

Wang Wei | A Green Stream

[ordinaryeternalmachinery]

Just let me go back to my place in town; I swear I'll never even look at landscapes painted on screens.

ANOTHER POEM FOR MINISTER WU ON ARRIVING AT THE BORDERLANDS by xue tao

[kohamarsonist]

aw yeah the pages of chinese literature are soaked in alcohol

So much so that 杜甫 Du Fu immortalised even 李白 Li Bai as a Tang dynasty literary boozer in his 《飲中八仙》 Yǐnzhōng bāxiān / "Song of the Eight Immortals of the Wine-Cup". It is amazing how literally most of the grandesque poems and calligraphy of that time were written when the dudes were wasted. Du Fu himself was also a poetry-spouting drunk and as much as I have the tendency to slander his name by calling him an absolute loser, the guy could write. But when you only look at his poetry and only his poetry for a whooole semester, track his life through the vast historical upheaval in the Tang Dynasty and the approx. 1500 poems he wrote, he becomes a bit too close to you and I just can't respect him for the Towering Literary Figure that he is....

One of Zhang Xu’s calligraphy works Zhang Xu (traditional Chinese: 張旭; simplified Chinese: 张旭; pinyin: Zhāng Xù, fl. 8th century), courtesy name: Bogao (伯高), was a Chinese calligrapher of the Tang Dynasty.

A native of Suzhou, he became an official during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang. Zhang was known as one of the Eight Immortals of the Wine Cup. Legend has it that whenever he was drunk, he would use his hair as brush to perform his art, and upon his waking up, he would be amazed by the quality of those works but failed to produce them again in his sober state.

Though more well known for his explosive cursive script, he excelled in the regular script. Anecdotes go that he grasped the essence of cursive writing by observing some porters fight for their way with the guard of honor of some princess, and by watching the solo performance of a famous sword-dancer. He was known as 草聖 (the Divine Grassist) for his great skill in the grass scipt.

[gennsoup]

overhead a moon and wilderness of stars here and there clouds and mist this universe is enormous my road goes on and on.

Du Fu, Leaving Qinzhou

[bytebun]

OH HIGH MOUNTAIN, HOW I LONG TO REACH YOU BREATHING YOUR SWEETNESS EVEN HERE!

[beifongkendo]

Seven-character Buddhist scroll, by Kogetsu Sogan (1574-1643). After a poem by Tang-dynasty poet Liu Shang (12th century).

The original poem translates as ‘Since you left Mount Shunzan, I have no friend to play games with.’ In the original language this reflected a sense of loss, poignancy, but also acceptance.

[lyselkatz]

Array of Longing Pear Blossom 相思梨花陣

Dí FeiSheng never really walked out of it, did he?

日暮嘉陵江水東，梨花萬片逐江風。

江花何處最腸斷，半落江流半在空。

元稹 Yuán Zhen - 使東川。 江花落 Flowers falling into Eastward river (Tang Dynasty)

As sun sets over the JiaLíng River flowing east 。 Ten thousands of pear blossom chase (caught in) the river wind。What chops my guts(/breaks my heart) as I watch the flowers flow? 。Half have fallen (helplessly) in the river, (only) half drifted in the air.

...☕?/commission

[chadlesbianjasontodd]

Closely connected to the act of name signing was the act of writing poems on walls. As scholars have already pointed out, with beginnings traceable to the Six Dynasties, wall poems (tibishi) were already very widespread during the Tang. By Christopher Nugent's count, well over one thousand entries in the Complete Tang Poems had titles indicating that they began as inscriptions on some surface other than paper or scrolls. These surfaces included walls at places of gathering and transit, such as post stations, scenic sites, inns, and increasingly in the latter part of the Tang, Buddhist temples, which also served public roles for lay gatherings and performances. (100)

In one anecdote, a latecomer casts aspersions on a first writer's literary skills, comparing him to the general Xiang Yu (232-202 BCE), who was infamous for having learned just enough writing to manage his name: "Li Tang signed his name on a pavilion in Zhaoying County. When Wei Zhan [jinshi degree 865] saw it, he took a brush and dashed off a taunt: 'The rivers of Wei and Qin brighten the eyes, / but why is Xiren short on poetic spirit? / Perhaps he mastered only what Beauty Yu's husband could / learning to write just enough to put down his name.' " ... It would not be a stretch to imagine the sniggering of those who read this inscription in a frequented pavilion. (102)

For a degree seeker in Chang'an, these circuits of information and judgment received more discussion than the actual examination itself. Tang literati wrote copiously about activities such as name signing, public exposure, and triumph. It would not be an exaggeration to say that in ninth-century temples and popular recreation areas, the vertical spaces were teeming with verses that clamored for attention. (104)

selections on poetic graffiti from linda rui feng's city of marvel and transformation: chang'an and narratives of experience in tang dynasty china (university of hawaii press, 2015)