Selected Poems: Tu Fu - Tapa blanda

"Tu Fu said 'A poet's ideas are noble and simple.' But Tu Fu does not seem so simple to us. His richly-layered work is well represented in these crisp translations. The background notes are invaluable. One of the world's finest poets is made available here." - Gary Snyder

Tu Fu (712-770 A.D.) is China's greatest classical poet. He radically altered the poetry of the High T'ang period; in addition to making formal innovations in language and structure, he extended the range of acceptable subject matter to include all aspects of public and private experience, thus becoming in the words of the translator David Hinton, 'the first complete poetic sensibility in Chinese literature'. This edition of "The Selected Poems of Tu Fu" is the most comprehensive selection of his work available in English. David Hinton conveys the ambiguity and density of the originals in his translations, while retaining a scholar's devotion to the text. The poems are complemented by the translator's introduction, notes to the poems and biography of Tu Fu. Together these form a fascinating portrait of a uniquely sensitive spirit during one of the most tumultuous periods in Chinese history.