A Little Primer of Tu Fu [Paperback]

David Hawkes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1988 | ISBN-10: 9627255025 | ISBN-13: 978-9627255024 | Edition: Revised

The standard introduction to the poetry of Tu Fu (712-770) regarded by many Chinese as their country's greatest poet. The thirty-five poems from the well-known Chinese anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems are each accompanied by a detailed and lively explication of form, historical background and meaning. At the same time, inclusion of Chinese characters, romanization, and both literal and prose translations offer the general reader or beginning language student the rare chance to savor the poet's art first hand.

Product Details

• Paperback: 255 pages
• Publisher: Renditions Paperbacks; Revised edition (November 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 9627255025
• ISBN-13: 978-9627255024
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,417,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A fine handbook for those who can read Chinese, May 7, 2006

By 

bryan12603 (Poughkeepsie, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Little Primer of Tu Fu (Paperback)

This book is out of print and almost impossible to find used. A copy recently sold for $170 on ebay. But it is a testament to its high quality that people are willing to spend that much to own it.

Tu Fu (AD 712-770) and his contemporary Li Po are the two great masters of Tang Dynasty poetry. To greatly simplify, Li Po is the Taoist free spirit, while Tu Fu is the Confucian, concerned for the welfare of China, from the peasant on up to the emperor. While Li Po's touching and often whimsical accounts of wine and song under moonlight are perennial favorites with audiences around the world, Tu Fu is often considered harder to translate, and hence less accessible to those who do not read Chinese. However, poet and critic Kenneth Rexroth expressed the view that Tu Fu was THE greatest non-epic poet that the world has ever produced, in any language.

David Hawkes was for many years a professor of Chinese at Oxford. He has also published what is perhaps the definitive translation of the great Chinese novel _Story of the Stone_ (also known as _Dream of the Red Chamber_). In _A Little Primer of Tu Fu_, Hawkes has taken thirty-five of Tu Fu's most highly regarded poems, and provided for each

1. the original Chinese text

2. the pronunciation of the text (in Pinyin romanization with tones)

3. a note on the "Title and Subject" of the poem, including a discussion of the poem's context in Chinese history and Tu Fu's life

4. a discussion of the "Form" of the poem ("regulated verse," "old style" etc.), including meter and rhyme

5. a line-by-line "Exegesis" of the poem, which translates each line word-by-word and comments, typically after each couplet, on the word choice, imagery, etc.

6. a free translation of the poem (into prose form, interestingly)

There is also an "Author's Introduction" to the book, but it is more like a preface, describing the origin and format of the book.

The poems are beautiful and moving. Among the better known ones are "Spring Scene," which evokes the sadness of the Chinese capital when it has been occupied by invaders, and "Arrival of a Guest," which describes Tu Fu's humble life in the country.

I think anyone who really wants to understand Tu Fu's poetry would get a lot out of this book. However, the characters and the Pinyin romanizations may be a bit intimidating if you have not already had a year or two of Chinese language study. If you do read Chinese, you will find this an invaluable aid to understanding Tu Fu (since Tang poetry -- like poetry in any language -- is often among the challenging texts to read). Finally, you should be aware that this is an interpretive commentary on some of Tu Fu's poems, rather than a general study of Tu Fu's life and work.

5.0 out of 5 stars Comments on A lITTLE pRIMER OF dU fU, February 12, 2010

By 

Edmund W. Peaslee Jr. "OLD CHINA HAND" (PLANO,TX, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Little Primer of Tu Fu (Paperback)

Containsall DuFu's [pems from the Chinese anthology, 300 Tang Poems. Translations. Chinese text and pinyin romanization. First rate .

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bringing Clarity, April 29, 2005

By 

Louise Tremblay Cole - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Little Primer of Tu Fu (Paperback)

This book serves as a good general introduction to Chinese poetry. It explains some of the conventions of historical verse forms, and the way they are used by this poet. For the poems of Tu Fu, it provides both a bare-bones, line-by-line translation of the displayed Chinese text, and a good English version of each poem. There is also interesting commentary on the poems, and details of the poet's life.

This is a memorable book.