The selected poems of Tu Fu

Hinton translated the first full-length verse translation of Tu Fu (712--770 CE) to be published in America in 1989, and this newly translated and substantially expanded edition celebrating the 30th anniversary of that publication recasts the Tang Dynasty poet's work for the new century, allowing poems rich with subtle insights on morality and history to find a new audience. With powerful, elegant lines, Fu contemplates the personal and the public, the unusual and the routine, all with a keen eye for visual detail: "Foundering rain, reckless wind: an indiscriminate ruins of/ autumn. Four seas and eight horizons, the whole world all// one cloud--you can't tell horses going from oxen coming,/ or muddy Deep-Flow River from crystal-clear Moon-Field." Elsewhere, the bloody An Lushan Rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of millions, pulsates behind Fu's measured writing: "Sword and spear, those grand human affairs:/ turn, look away, and it's all one single grief," and "True and false// surely differ, but they've been blurred together for years." New readers of Fu will find a captivating voice and a stirring, lasting vision of political unrest. (Feb.)

Leaving the CityIt's bone-bitter cold, and late, and fallingfrost traces my gaze all bottomless skies.Smoke trails out over distant salt mines.Snow-covered peaks slant shadows east.Armies haunt my homeland still, and wardrums throb in this far-off place. A guestovernight here in this river city, I returnagain to shrieking crows, my old friends. Excerpted from The Selected Poems of Tu Fu: Expanded and Newly Translated by David Hinton by Tu Fu All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.