My China in Tang Poetry is the first of two series of poetry and storytelling that Earnshaw Books start publishing in June 2024. I like to think of it as poetry coming out of the belly of the Dragon!
The first volume is Superstars, referring to the two giants of the Tang period, often called the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. Let me give you two famous poems, one from each of them.
From Li Bai, aka Li Po, a poem written far from home, and every schoolchild knows:
QUIET NIGHT THOUGHTS
Before my bed, a patch of brilliant moon,
so bright, I took it for frost on the ground.
Looking up, I gaze at that brilliant moon.
Home floods my thoughts as I look down.
From Du Fu, aka Tu Fu, a poem written at the besieged capital where he was stuck:
SPRING VIEW
The country is broken, the land remains.
City in spring locked in depths of green.
Tears fall with petals in a gust of wind.
Lingering birds call, startling the heart.
Three months running, war fires burned,
what will I not give for word from home.
This crop of white, thinned from plucking,
will soon be unable to hold a pin in place.
This last, because men used to wear their hair on the top of their heads in a bun held together by a small piece of cloth or perhaps pins, and when they wear a hat, a pin is poked through to hold the hat in place.
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