Chinese Love Poems

by Po Chu-i

Down through history the Chinese have looked upon poetry as a natural and solacing part of life. Of all the art they felt it to be the most personal. It is solely dependent upon man's memory, and is carried about in his heart. The poems in this volume are by many different poets - some of whom have long since lost their identity - and include the best efforts of a variety of translators. Even after as many s 1700 years these verses remain vital, human and appealing, full of richness, warmth, and color. Many are sensuous; others tell of bitterness, loneliness, suffering, and grief. All are justified in taking their place beside the love poetry of today.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Po Chu-i (772-846 C.E.) occupied several important government posts, rising to the presidency of the imperial board of wa. He wrote over 3,000 poems—brief, topical verses expressed in very simple, clear language. His poetry figures prominently in The Tale of Genji, the tenth century Japanese novel by Murasaki Shikibu. Po’s work gained wide popularity throughout East Asia. He continued to write despite partial paralysis and enjoyed great fame during his lifetime.

See also Bai Juyi; Bo Juyi, and Letian

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of these poems are 1700 years old. Seventeen hundred years old. One thousand, seven hundred years old. We live barely a hundred years, so the immensity of time between us and them is astonishing. It is like the unfathomability of geologic time. I think of a poem that personifies love for me like ee cummings:

I carry your heart with me (I carry it in my heart) I am never without it (anywhere
I go you go, my dear; and whatever is done by only me is your doing, my darling)
I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet) I want no world (for beautiful you are my world, my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than the soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

A lot of these poems in this collection are super flowery and would be considered fairly corny by our measure (or mine at least.) But it was so rewarding to look past that, and absorb the sense of ancient-ness, of antiquity, of the connection between the physical world and feeling, and I loved that. They wrote of unrequited love really well, and it makes you think, how ancient is yearning, centuries ago, they knew what that was like! I didn't find any poems that seemed to dig very deep into the hallowed air of committed, gritty, survive-disaster love; but the life expectancy perhaps precluded that. The book's intro disclaims the fact that married love was not celebrated, but illicit love with courtesans, so take that for what it is worth. Some are from a female voice, but are lost to us as anonymous.

I wish the book contained the original Chinese characters, since the art of calligraphy is quite beautiful on its own. I wonder longingly what the characters for endlessness and ephemera and ancient look like. Is there a different character for the endlessness of a road versus the endlessness of love or snow? That would be apt material for a poem about yearning...

A River-Long Love
I live at the upper end of the River,
and at the lower end live you;
every day I long to see you but cannot,
though from the same River we drink.

When will the River go dry?
When can my sorrow come to an end?
Only may your heart be like mine,
my love for you will not be in vain.

Li Chih-Yi

Ancient Poem
Deep green lies the grass along the river.
Far away the road stretches, a road without end.
I dare not think of the endlessness of that road.

Last night I saw him in a dream.
In a dream I had him here beside me.
Suddenly I awoke to feel again his absence.
Far, far away us he in unknown lands.
I turn away, not daring to see his empty place.

From a far place there has come a guest.
He has brought me a present of a pair of carp.
I order the little boy to prepare them;
and in one of them he finds a strip of paper.
kneeling down, I read it.
The first line says:
Cherish thyself for me.
the second line says:
think of me always.

Anonymous

[Bri · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was cute :) I only wish I knew how the poems were translated! There was definitely quite a bit of localization.

[Kara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this at my local bookstore used. Have dabbled in Japanese poetry, but not haiku, and certainly not love poems. I don't usually read love poems, however I flipped through this book and immediately was drawn in by the first poem I happened to read:

"You and I
Love each other so
As from the same lump of clay
Is moulded an image of you
And one of me.
In a moment of ecstasy
We dash the images to pieces,
Put them in water,
And with stirring and kneading
Mould again an image of you
And another of me.
There and then,
You will find yourself in me,
I myself in you."
~Kuan Tao-Sheng

These are very flowery but also felt very timeless. It was pointed out in the introduction that most Chinese in ancient times had arranged marriages. So there were a lot of forbidden, star-crossed lovers.

I really enjoyed this book. I do wish we knew how true they are to the originals. More information on the poets and the translations would have been appreciated!

I took off a star because I didn't enjoy the final selection which was the last 10 or so pages.

[Gerry LaFemina · Rating 4 out of 5]

If we ever needed a reminder of the ubiquity of the lyric poem, this book captures the singular ecstatic voice wonderfully, in a collection with several illustrations reflecting some lines. Images repeat, surely, and some of the poems (or their translations) feel dated, but there is a core group among these that are powerful examples of how the lyric poem endures and engages the universal truths.