{"id":3390,"date":"2016-01-25T09:30:16","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T01:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3390"},"modified":"2016-02-01T09:58:05","modified_gmt":"2016-02-01T01:58:05","slug":"owens-complete-poetry-of-du-fu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3390","title":{"rendered":"Owen’s Complete Poetry of Du Fu"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.degruyter.com\/doc\/cover\/9781501501890.jpg?resize=253%2C373\"The Poetry of Du Fu<\/em><\/a> \u675c\u752b, edited and translated by Stephen Owen, is now available from the Library of Chinese Humanitie<\/em>s (a new venture started by Owen and Paul Kroll and edited by them and Sarah Allen, Christopher Nugent, Anna Shields, Xiaofei Tian, and Ding Xiang Warner). It is not only available for sale, it is also available for open-access free download in .pdf format<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This six-volume opus, totaling almost 3000 pages, is to my knowledge the first translation of the complete poetic output of any individual Chinese poet in history. The promotional materials say,<\/p>\n

The entirety of Du Fu\u2019s works provides a more nuanced portrait of the author than the standard selections. It gives testimony to the great rebellion of 755, but also poems on building a chicken coop and repairing bamboo plumbing. In the whole we discover how the sublime and quotidian are united in a larger vision of life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Likewise, in his introduction, Owen writes,<\/p>\n

If there is a justification for translating all of the poems,\u00a0 it may be deepening our sense of his engagement with the mundane and\u00a0 not allowing it to resolve into simply a way to talk about \u201cbig things.\u201d It is\u00a0the persistence of his vision of large significance in the everyday\u2014sometimes ironically\u2014that makes a whole Du Fu more satisfying than a selected Du Fu.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This is true. As is T<\/a>om Mazanec’s point <\/a>that the complete translation gives us the full range of Du Fu, “<\/span><\/span>from high-minded loyalist to bereft father to woeful exile to irritable curmudgeon to sycophantic hack to meditative imagist,” which is “a welcome counterbalance to the stereotyped image of Du Fu as a great ‘Confucian’ poet, the sort of thing you find in introductory textbooks to Chinese literature, both in China and abroad.”<\/p>\n

But I also think there is a poetic argument, not limited to the specifics of Chinese literature, for a complete Du Fu (or any poet) in English, which is the one Eliot Weinberger makes in his introduction to The Collected Poems of Octavio Paz, 1957-1987<\/em>:
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

to study the topography of a major poet we need to see both the peaks and the valleys. One does not exist without the other; the \u201cminor\u201d poems not only lead to, but often illuminate, the more important work. (And, of course, what one editor or critic considers \u201cminor\u201d may turn out to be a revelation for another reader.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click the image above for more information and the full free download.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Poetry of Du Fu \u675c\u752b, edited and translated by Stephen Owen, is now available from the Library of Chinese Humanities (a new venture started by Owen and Paul Kroll and edited by them and Sarah Allen, Christopher Nugent, Anna … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3],"tags":[1698,1697,1447,180,47,49,1441,1696,393,1602,1448,1601],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8srwF-SG","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3844,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3844","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":0},"title":"Owen & Swartz’s Ruan Ji and Xi Kang from de Gruyters","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the ongoing\u00a0Library of Chinese Humanities series, de Gruyter has now published the complete Poetry of Ruan Ji and Xi Kang, with translations by Stephen Owen and Wendy Swartz (edited by Ding Xiang Warner and Xiaofei Tian). It is not only available for sale, it is also available\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Ding Xiang Warner\"","block_context":{"text":"Ding Xiang Warner","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?tag=ding-xiang-warner"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.degruyter.com\/doc\/cover\/9781501503870.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4317,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=4317","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":1},"title":"Stephen Owen and Yoshinobu Shiba Tang Prize Video","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"December 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=jaKPrvEybto&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0ZM_ELIN4XkEL1xZeU8eSA-eF28NaaAMDSBNoABBaG2aiJt34o-jedpE4 A video honoring Stephen Owen and\u00a0Yoshinobu Shiba \u65af\u6ce2\u7fa9\u4fe1 for their 2018 Tang Prizes for Sinology; in Chinese with interviews in English and Japanese. The first half of the video focuses on Owen, and includes interviews with Mai Huijun \u9ea6\u6167\u541b, Tina Lu, Luke Bender, Kang-i Sun Chang \u5b6b\u5eb7\u5b9c, Peter Bol,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/jaKPrvEybto\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3152,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3152","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":2},"title":"Translation, Chineseness, & World Literature in Chinese Poetry","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"April 29, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"May 8, 2015 (Friday), 4:00-5:30 pm Room 730, Run Run Shaw Tower, Centennial Campus, HKU Foreign Echoes & Discerning the Soil: Translation, Chineseness, & World Literature in Chinese Poetry Presenter: Lucas Klein; Commentator: Xiaofei Tian \u7530\u66c9\u83f2 What constitutes the relationship between world literature and Chineseness? How has translation shaped Chinese\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/d2181f799d2cac1305203738bc715fee.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/d2181f799d2cac1305203738bc715fee.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/d2181f799d2cac1305203738bc715fee.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3158,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3158","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":3},"title":"Fragmentation of Self and Discourse in the Nineteenth Century","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"May 4, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"May 7, 2015 (Thursday), 4:30-6:00 pm CPD-2.37, Centennial Campus, HKU English and Putonghua Poetry as Evidence: Fragmentation of Self and Discourse in the Nineteenth Century \u6709\u8a69\u70ba\u8b49\uff1a\u5341\u4e5d\u4e16\u7d00\u7684\u89d2\u8272\u626e\u6f14\u8207\u8a71\u8a9e\u7684\u5272\u88c2 Speaker: Professor Xiaofei Tian \u7530\u66c9\u83f2 (Harvard University) Moderator: Professor Shu-mei Shih \u53f2\u66f8\u7f8e Late imperial Chinese culture was a theater culture, and the metaphor of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/5898da75918cb5e4a3d78a67a578d6e4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/5898da75918cb5e4a3d78a67a578d6e4.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.its.hku.hk\/bulkemail\/html_email\/images\/5898da75918cb5e4a3d78a67a578d6e4.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2748,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=2748","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":4},"title":"A Student’s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"August 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Forthcoming from Brill, A Student's Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese, edited by Paul W. Kroll with William G. Boltz, David R. Knechtges, Y. Edmund Lien, Antje Richter, Matthias L. Richter, & Ding Xiang Warner. From the press description: A Student\u2019s Dictionary of Classical and Medieval Chinese is the long-desired\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3527,"url":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?p=3527","url_meta":{"origin":3390,"position":5},"title":"Klein on New Premodern Chinese Poetry Translations in LARB","author":"Lucas Klein","date":"July 18, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Los Angeles Review of Books @lareviewofbooks has published \"Tribunals of Erudition and Taste: or, Why Translations of Premodern Chinese Poetry Are Having a Moment Right Now,\" my take on what looks like something of a resurgence in translation into English. I use a nineteenth-century debate between Matthew Arnold and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Links"","block_context":{"text":"Links","link":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"2016-07-15_1030","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xichuanpoetry.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/2016-07-15_1030.png?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3390"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3392,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3390\/revisions\/3392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xichuanpoetry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}