TONY BARNSTONE AND CHOU PING The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry Tony Barnstone is an associate professor of creative writing and American literature at Whittier College. His first book of poetry, Impure, was a finalist for several national literary awards, among them the Academy of American Poets Walt Whitman Prize, the National Poetry Series Prize, and the White Pine Prize. His other books include Out of the Howling Storm: The New Chinese Poetry, Laughing Lost in the Mountains: Selected Poems of Wang Wei (with Willis Barnstone and Xu Haixin), The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters (with Chou Ping), and several textbooks about world literature. His poetry, translations, essays, and fiction have appeared in dozens of literary journals, from The American Poetry Review to Agni. He lives in California. Chou Ping writes poetry in both Chinese and English. His poems and translations have appeared in such journals as The Literary Review and Nimrod. Born in Changsha City, Hunan province, in 1957, he holds degrees from Beijing Foreign Language University, Indiana University, and Stanford University. He is the translator, with Tony Barnstone, of The Art of Writing: Teachings of the Chinese Masters, and he has taught at Stanford, Washington University, Oberlin College, The College of Wooster, and Reed College. He lives in Oregon. Please visit The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry Web Companion: http://web.whittier.edu/barnstone/poetry This book is dedicated to Caroline Heldman and Joey CONTENTS A Note on the Selections and Some Words of Thanks Preface: The Poem Behind the Poem: Literary Translation as English-Language Poetry BY TONY BARNSTONE Introduction to Chinese Poetic Form (as a Function of Yin-Yang Symmetry) BY CHOU PING ZHOU DYNASTY ( ) 1122–256 BCE BOOK OF SONGS ( ) C. 600 BCE White Moonrise Fruit Plummets from the Plum Tree Serene Girl In the Wilds Is a Dead River-Deer All the Grasslands Are Yellow Ripe Millet I Beg You, Zhongzi When the Gourd Has Dried Leaves LAOZI ( ) FOURTH-THIRD CENTURIES BCE from the Dao De Jing VERSES OF CHU ( ) THIRD CENTURY BCE from Encountering Sorrow HAN DYNASTY ( ) 206 BCE-220 CE NINETEEN ANCIENT POEMS 1. “Traveling traveling and still traveling traveling” 2. “Green so green is the river grass” 3. “Green so green are the cypress over the burial mounds” 4. “At today's great banquet” 5. “A tall tower in the northwest” 6. “I cross the river to pick lotus flowers” 7. “Clear moon pours bright light at night” 8. “Soft and frail is a solitary bamboo” 9. “There is a wonderful tree in the courtyard” 10. “Far and far is the Cowherd Star” 11. “I turn my carriage around to return” 12. “The east wall is tall and long” 13. “I drive my wagon to the east gate” 14. “Day by day the dead are receding” 15. “Man dies within a hundred years” 16. “Chilly, chilly, the year-end clouds darken” 17. “A cold current in early winter” 18. “A traveler came from afar” 19. “Pure and white bright moon” JIA YI ( ) 200–168 BCE The Owl LIU XIJUN ( ) LATE SECOND CENTURY BCE Lament ANONYMOUS FOLK SONGS FROM THE MUSIC BUREAU (c. 120 bce) The East Gate A Sad Tune He Waters His Horse Near a Breach in the Long Wall At Fifteen I Went to War An Ancient Poem Written for the Wife of Jiao Zhongqing SIX DYNASTIES PERIOD ( ) 220–589 CAO CAO ( ) 155–220 Watching the Blue Ocean Song of Bitter Cold RUAN JI ( ) 210–263 from Chanting My Thoughts FU XUAN ( ) 217–278 To Be a Woman ZI YE ( ) THIRD-FOURTH CENTURIES Three Songs Four Seasons Song: Spring Four Seasons Song: Autumn LU JI ( ) 261–303 from The Art of Writing Preface 1. The Impulse 2. Meditation 3. Process 4. The Joy of Words 9. The Riding Crop 10. Making It New 11. Ordinary and Sublime 18. The Well-Wrought Urn 19. Inspiration 20. Writer's Block 21. The Power of a Poem PAN YUE ( ) 247–300 In Memory of My Dead Wife TAO QIAN ( ) C. 365–427 Return to My Country Home Begging for Food I Stop Drinking Drinking Alone When It Rains Day After Day Scolding My Kids Fire in the Sixth Month in 408 ce from Twenty Poems on Drinking Wine Elegies SU XIAOXIAO ( ) LATE FIFTH CENTURY Emotions on Being Apart The Song of the West Tomb To the Tune of “Butterflies Adore Flowers” BAO ZHAO ( ) C. 414–466 from Variations on “The Weary Road” On the Departure of Official Fu BAO LINGHUI ( ) FL. C. 464 Sending a Book to a Traveler After Making an Inscription PRINCESS CHEN LECHANG ( ) SIXTH CENTURY Letting My Feelings Go at the Farewell Banquet TANG DYNASTY ( ) 618–907 WANG BO ( ) 649–676 On the Wind HE ZHIZHANG ( ) 659–744 Willow ZHANG RUOXU ( ) C. 660-C. 720 Spring, River, and Flowers on a Moonlit Night MENG HAORAN ( ) 689–740 Parting from Wang Wei Spring Dawn Spending the Night on Jiande River WANG CHANGLING ( ) C. 690-C. 756 Song from the Borders WANG WAN ( ) 693–751 Stopping at Beigu Mountain WANG WEI ( ) 701–761 Watching the Hunt Walking into the Liang Countryside A Young Lady's Spring Thoughts For Someone Far Away Climbing the City Tower North of the River Deep South Mountain Living in the Mountain on an Autumn Night Drifting on the Lake Cooling Off Return to Wang River Written on a Rainy Autumn Night After Pei Di's Visit To Pei Di, While We Are Living Lazily at Wang River Birds Sing in the Ravine Sketching Things