Li Po (1 Viewer)

Li Po rules.

The Pound translations, apparently, took quite a bit of liberty...so I'd read a few different translations, if you can get hold of them. I found a few books with Amazon, a couple in bookstores...so I think you should be able to find some.

From Bringing in The Wine

Let me be forever drunk and never come to reason!
Sober men of olden days and sages are forgotten,
And only the great drinkers are famous for all time.


The book you linked to above is one of the books I've got & I definitely think it's worth getting.
 
Chinese poetry

Thanks to both of you.
The book I found on abe is available in Holland.

Did you guys ever read the poet Han Shan (cold mountain?)
 
love COLD MOUNTAIN POEMS. but i didnt like gary snyders translation. i really like red pines version of his shit.
my favorite mountain poet from china is TAO CHIEN. david hinton does a really great translation of his shit. reading tao chien is like reading john fante. he has that weird grumpy life force. he also was a bigger drinker like li po.
 
Charles Bukowski's Los Angeles for Li Po

Here's a bit from a very short, very cool essay Buk wrote about meeting Li Po in L.A. and taking him to Musso's:

"After Musso's, we'd simply go to my place and drink some more, probably more red wine, and we'd smoke Sher bidis from India. I'd talk and he'd listen, and the I'd listen while he talked. There would be some good laughter, and then that would be the night. Unless he wanted to write some poems, burn them, and float them in the L.A. Harbor."
 
I am always amazed when I read Li Po. Here was a man born in 701 and yet his poems are timeless. I think that way of Bukowski as well. His writing is timeless. And I always want more. Thanks for that link Bukfan, very cool.
 
Thanks for the link Bukfan. I've seen a couple books around and have heard of him quite a bit through Buk... but that's the first actual translation I've read. Great stuff!
 
You can download Ezra Pound's translation, "Cathay", in MP3 format here.

I'd guess Buk would have appreciated "Cathay" as he was a bit into Pound's poetry himself and corresponded with Pound's old girlfriend.

Librivox.org has a lot of listenable stuff.
Not anything by Buk yet though. But of course, he read well enough himself.
 

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