Li Po: Poet and Warrior

By Alexander Goldstein

These collected poems has been inspired by the works that the Tang-period poet Li Po (701-762 CE) left after him as a great cultural heritage, and of whom I will have more to say on the pages below. It was with him that this book began; without him, none of what follows after the short essay would have been written.
Fortunately or not, but I am not alone in this regard, as there are so many famously known creative figures in the West who have also been inspired by the poetry of Li Po who lived and created on the other side of the world around twelve hundred years ago, but whose influence in some inexplicable way continued to grow in China and abroad.
The following three poems of Li Po translated and represented herein as preface to my collection of verses are unfolded around the common subject of the Chinese literature -- the moon and its imagery. Together with the reader, we are going to unveil some unnoticed (if not to say 'misunderstood' or even 'wrong interpreted') moments of the poet's legendary life.
It sounds obvious but, again, we learn more about the world literature by studying the evolution of poetry through the centuries; as a result, we find out more of the world's history, evoke our interest and understanding of the ancient writers and of humanity in general.
Poetry analysis and its translation from the language like archaic Chinese, which is the foreign language for the contemporary Chinese as well, is not scientifically exact, it is somewhat subjective to how it affects the translator's academic knowledge and daily experience. Yet, I find it very difficult to put a lot of credit on those representatives of the Old School (most of them are the famously known scholars of academic elite) who do not try to dig deeper about the poets of antiquity, and to reveal their motivations and find out those who affected them.
Everything Li Po did was tuned to the passage of time and the joys of Nature with brilliance and great freshness of imagination. The subjects that he studied in his poetry were swordplay, friendship and solitude constructed around the everlasting image of the moon's disc reflected in the pool with its multiple tints and mythological riddles. His imagination and humorous characteristics of a freethinker are apparent in his poetry in full to be a powerful incentive for many others throughout the ages, and your humble author is not the exception.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alexander Goldstein
• Release date: May 27, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463805176

Alexander Goldstein

Alexander Goldstein, a graduate of the Far-Eastern University in Sinology, lived and worked in mainland China for a period as a translator/interpreter, a manager, and a martial arts' practitioner. A certified instructor of ‘Chang-quan’ (external-style boxing) and ‘Taiji-quan’ (internal-style boxing), he is a lecturer of Chinese culture and traditions at the Open University in Tel-Aviv. He also is the author of Lao-zi's "Dao-De Jing," Chan (Zen) masters' paradoxes, "The Illustrated Canon of Chen Family Taiji-quan," a Chinese novel and some other editions, which are available in print and electronic publishing at most online retailers published in English, Spanish and Russian. What makes his books so appealing is profound analysis and authority with which various strains of the vigorous Chinese culture are woven into a clear and useful piece of guidance for a business person who conducts the affairs with far-eastern counterparties and for a counsellor who develops strategies that enable leaders to position their organisations effectively.

Book preview

Li Po

Poet & Warrior

by Alexander Goldstein

***

Published by Alexander Goldstein

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 Alexander Goldstein

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

* * * * * *

Contents

Author's Note

The Essay Tang-period Poet Li Po's Legacy

About the Author

Endnote

". . .This or that way but we always

Learn from them, the poets of old—

They are infinitely precious for us;

And young men are absolutely right

Of being interested in their wisdom,

Which is neither dry nor out-of-date."

--Alex Stone

Author's Note

These collected poems have been inspired by the works that the Tang-period poet Li Po (701-762 CE), also known as Li Bai, Li T'ai Po or Li Tai Bai, left after him as a great cultural heritage, and of whom I will have more to say on the pages below. It was with him that this book began; without him, none of what follows after this essay would have been written.

Fortunately or not, but I am not alone in this regard, as there are so many famously known creative figures in the West who have also been inspired by the poetic works of Li Po who lived and created on the other side of the world around twelve hundred years ago, but whose influence in some inexplicable way continued to grow in China and abroad.

The Tang-period Poet Li Po's Legacy

唐李太白之遗物

Li Po is so influential in the West partly due to Ezra Pound's versions of some of his poems in the collection entitled Cathay, the name by which China was known to medieval Europe (Pound transliterated his name according to Rihaku in Japanese, which is Li Po in Chinese). Li Po's life in the flourishing period of the so-called 'Golden Age' in China's history and his interactions with nature and friendship, his love of wine and his acute observations of the old society enriched his best poems. Some of them, like The River Merchant's Wife: A Letter, as Ezra Pound entitled it from a word-for-word translation largely based on the work of Ernest Fenollosa (1853–1908), which recorded the hardships and emotions of common people, were the striking examples of the liberal but poetically influential adaptations of Japanese versions of Li Po's poetry expressed through the talent of American poet in the 20th century.

There is another musical setting of Li Po's verse by composer Harry Partch, whose Seventeen Lyrics by Li Po for intoning voice and adapted viola (an instrument of Partch's invention) are based on the texts in The Works of Li Po translated by Shigeyoshi Obata. In Brazil, the songwriter Beto

Reviews for Li Po

[Yun Li · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I was interested to read translations and analysis of Li Bai, and picked it up. I was curious to see how Western academics saw him, but the way this guy omitted important historic context is staggering. As good a poet as he was, Li Bai wanted to so far more in life than write flowery words for consumption by imperial elites. His unmet political ambitions was a huge influence on his works. As seen in the last poem Goldstein translated, Li Bai was prone to drinking all night and sleeping the day away. There was also a clear mis-translation of the last poem, where the word qu was somehow interpreted as ‘a tilted sword’. What it actually meant was ‘song’ or ‘music’.