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“my sons are lazy bores”
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Facing the Snow: Visions of Tu Fu
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Poems translated from the Chinese. Includes Chinese versions for some poems.
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Genres
112 pages, Paperback
First published October 1,1988
This edition
- Format
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112 pages, Paperback
- Published
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January 1, 1988 by White Pine Pr
- ISBN
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9780934834247
- ASIN
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0934834245
- Language
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English
About the author
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Du Fu (Chinese: 杜甫, 712–770) was one of China's greatest poets and a central figure in the literary tradition of the Tang dynasty, often hailed as the "Poet Sage" (詩聖) for his moral integrity and the depth of his work. His poetry, numbering over 1,400 surviving pieces, captures the essence of his turbulent era, blending historical insight, personal struggle, and a deep concern for humanity.
Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu was well-educated in the Confucian classics and aspired to a government career. However, his attempts to gain a stable official position were largely unsuccessful. He experienced firsthand the chaos of the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763), which devastated the Tang empire, displacing millions and leading to widespread suffering. These events profoundly shaped his poetry, turning his work into a powerful chronicle of war, political corruption, and the hardships faced by common people.
Unlike his contemporary Li Bai, whose poetry often embraced spontaneity and romanticism, Du Fu's verse is marked by realism, technical precision, and a strong sense of moral duty. His ability to fuse personal emotion with historical narrative made his work deeply moving and enduring. Themes of exile, poverty, and loyalty pervade his later poetry, as he spent much of his life wandering in hardship, struggling with illness and poverty.
Though largely unrecognized in his lifetime, Du Fu's influence grew over the centuries. Later generations admired his ability to elevate poetry into a form of social commentary, and he became a defining figure in classical Chinese literature. Today, his works continue to be studied and celebrated, both in China and worldwide, for their timeless wisdom, humanistic perspective, and artistic brilliance.
Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu was well-educated in the Confucian classics and aspired to a government career. However, his attempts to gain a stable official position were largely unsuccessful. He experienced firsthand the chaos of the An Lushan Rebellion (755–763), which devastated the Tang empire, displacing millions and leading to widespread suffering. These events profoundly shaped his poetry, turning his work into a powerful chronicle of war, political corruption, and the hardships faced by common people.
Unlike his contemporary Li Bai, whose poetry often embraced spontaneity and romanticism, Du Fu's verse is marked by realism, technical precision, and a strong sense of moral duty. His ability to fuse personal emotion with historical narrative made his work deeply moving and enduring. Themes of exile, poverty, and loyalty pervade his later poetry, as he spent much of his life wandering in hardship, struggling with illness and poverty.
Though largely unrecognized in his lifetime, Du Fu's influence grew over the centuries. Later generations admired his ability to elevate poetry into a form of social commentary, and he became a defining figure in classical Chinese literature. Today, his works continue to be studied and celebrated, both in China and worldwide, for their timeless wisdom, humanistic perspective, and artistic brilliance.
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he other great Chinese poet from the same period in which Li Po was writing is Tu Fu, and this selection of poems provides a rounded view of his work.
Hamill's introduction makes clear that Tu Fu suffered many of the same difficulties that Li Po did, as their lives ran roughly parallel, with Tu Fu, the younger, dying earlier also. However, both failed to obtain government jobs except on the lowest end, and both suffered the consequences of the wars that broke out in China around 750 that lasted for a decade or so. The poems reflect that. Like Li Po's work, we have only a segment of what Tu Fu actually wrote, maybe one-third.
Hamill's intrdocution, however, only touches on Tu Fu's life. Most of it is about translation--the difficulties of moving a poem from one language to another and the reason for his choices. Tu Fu was apparently quite a formalist, with many of his poems built around set stanzas and rhymes. English offers so much less in terms of rhyming opportunities that Hamill chooses instead to focus on the images and content, which seems a wise move.
The selection here connected more to me personally than the poems in the Li Po collection I read. Both poets write their share of nature poems, and poems about drinking, but Tu Fu also deals a lot with relationships and with the effects that world events have had on his life. It likely helped that Hamill doesn't leave some words untranslated, as did Hinton with the Li Po poems. As such, one doesn't feel quite as much the foreigness of Tu Fu's work. But beyond that, Tu Fu just seemed better at expressing the anguish of the world around him and of his own life. My favorite poems were those about war. He didn't delve so much into generic expressions about soldiers fighting as personal ones about how wars affect him and those around him. The communities he lives in feel the pain that having their young men and eventually old men too stripped from them to go fight yet another battle against the invading forces; they also feel the anguish of not having a strong government to defend them. There are poems expressing the difficulties of both positions. It's as if the people are pained either way. The speakers in Tu Fu's work migrate as invaders take over their land. They express the pain of the refugee. And later, when able to return, there is both a kind of joy in coming home again and a sadness. The homes they lived in five years ago are run down, unmaintained; many of the old neighbors have returned, but some never will. What is left but to wander out into the forest or along the river, seeking solace, knowing that you'd like to have a drink but that the folks you'd have shared one with are now gone.
Hamill's introduction makes clear that Tu Fu suffered many of the same difficulties that Li Po did, as their lives ran roughly parallel, with Tu Fu, the younger, dying earlier also. However, both failed to obtain government jobs except on the lowest end, and both suffered the consequences of the wars that broke out in China around 750 that lasted for a decade or so. The poems reflect that. Like Li Po's work, we have only a segment of what Tu Fu actually wrote, maybe one-third.
Hamill's intrdocution, however, only touches on Tu Fu's life. Most of it is about translation--the difficulties of moving a poem from one language to another and the reason for his choices. Tu Fu was apparently quite a formalist, with many of his poems built around set stanzas and rhymes. English offers so much less in terms of rhyming opportunities that Hamill chooses instead to focus on the images and content, which seems a wise move.
The selection here connected more to me personally than the poems in the Li Po collection I read. Both poets write their share of nature poems, and poems about drinking, but Tu Fu also deals a lot with relationships and with the effects that world events have had on his life. It likely helped that Hamill doesn't leave some words untranslated, as did Hinton with the Li Po poems. As such, one doesn't feel quite as much the foreigness of Tu Fu's work. But beyond that, Tu Fu just seemed better at expressing the anguish of the world around him and of his own life. My favorite poems were those about war. He didn't delve so much into generic expressions about soldiers fighting as personal ones about how wars affect him and those around him. The communities he lives in feel the pain that having their young men and eventually old men too stripped from them to go fight yet another battle against the invading forces; they also feel the anguish of not having a strong government to defend them. There are poems expressing the difficulties of both positions. It's as if the people are pained either way. The speakers in Tu Fu's work migrate as invaders take over their land. They express the pain of the refugee. And later, when able to return, there is both a kind of joy in coming home again and a sadness. The homes they lived in five years ago are run down, unmaintained; many of the old neighbors have returned, but some never will. What is left but to wander out into the forest or along the river, seeking solace, knowing that you'd like to have a drink but that the folks you'd have shared one with are now gone.
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