Selected Poems of Chu Yuan

by Qu Yuan

This work brings to English the works of Ch'u Yuan, China's first great poet. Ch'u Yuan and his writings have attracted world-wide attention through the translations of Chinese and Western writers. In this volume, Sun Ta-yu (Dayu) has attempted and succeeded in giving it a poetic flavor all its own that reproduces the archaic and yet vigorous style of the original. Because Sun Ta-yu has devoted so much of his time and energy to the study and translation of Ch'u Yuan's poetry, there develops an intellectual as well as an emotional affinity between the ancient poet and the living.

665 pages, Hardcover

About the author

This is a Chinese name. The family name is Qu.

Qu Yuan (Chinese: 屈原; 343–278 BC) was a Chinese poet and minister who lived during the Warring States period of ancient China. He is known for his contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the Chu Ci anthology (also known as The Songs of the South or Songs of Chu): a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by his verse writing. Together with the Shi Jing, the Chu Ci is one of the two great collections of ancient Chinese verse. He is also remembered as the supposed origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Historical details about Qu Yuan's life are few, and his authorship of many Chu Ci poems have been questioned at length. However, he is widely accepted to have written Li Sao, the most well-known of the Chu Ci poems.