Bo Li

Li Po (A.D. 701-762) lived in T'ang Dynasty China, but his influence has spanned the centuries: the pure lyricism of his poems has awed readers in China and Japan for over a millennium, and through Ezra Pound's translations, Li Po became central to the modernist revolution in the West. His work is suffused with Taoism and Ch'an (Zen) Buddhism, but these seem not so much spiritual influences as the inborn form of his life. There is a set-phrase in Chinese referring to the phenomenon of Li Po: "Winds of the immortals, bones of the Tao." He moved through this world with an unearthly freedom from attachment, and at the same time belonged profoundly to the earth and its process of change. However ethereal in spirit, his poems remain grounded in the everyday experience we all share. He wrote 1200 years ago, half a world away, but in his poems we see our world transformed.

The Adventure of the Speckled Band, by Arthur Conan Doyle Death Arrives on Schedule, by Hansjörg Martin The Feeling of Power, by Isaac Asimov The Expedition, by Rudolf Lorenzen The Cegua, by Robert D. San Souci Master and Man, by Leo Tolstoy Just Lather, That's All by Hernando Téllez Nervous Conditions, by Tsitsi Dangarembga Marriage Is a Private Affair, by Chinua Achebe Cranes, by Hwang Sun-won Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Gir, by Anne Frank Letter to Indira Tagore, by Rabindranath Tagore Letter to the Rev. J. H. Twichell, by Mark Twain When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, by Le Ly Hayslip By Any Other Name, by Santha Rama Rau Kaffir Boy, by Mark Mathabane China Men, by Maxine Hong Kingston The Last Seven Months of Anne Frank, by Willy Lindwer Account Evened With India, Says P.M., From Dawn Tests Are Nowhere Near India's: Fernandes, From The Times of India Pakistan Nuclear Moratorium Welcomed, From the BBC Online Network The Frightening Joy, From De Volkskrant Building Atomic Security, From Zycie Warszawy Macbeth, by William Shakespeare "Master Harold"... and the Boys, by Athol Fugard The Stronger, by August Strindberg The Diameter of the Bomb, by Yehuda Amichai Taking Leave of a Friend, by Li Po Thoughts of Hanoi, by Nguyen Thi Vinh Mindoro, by Ramón Sunico Ode to a Pair of Socks, by Pablo Neruda Haiku by Matsuo Bashō Haiku by Takarai Kikaku Haiku by Anonymous Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night, by Dylan Thomas Letter to the English, by Joan of Arc Nobel Lecture, by Alexander Solzhenitsyn Gettysburg Address, by Abraham Lincoln Inaugural Address, by John F. Kennedy Of Repentance, by Michel de Montaigne A Small Place, by Jamaica Kincaid A Modest Proposal, by Jonathan Swift Cup Inanity and Patriotic Profanity, From the Buenos Aires Herald Staying at a Japanese Inn: Peace, Tranquillity, Insects, by Dave Barry Why Can't We Have Our Own Apartment?, by Erma Bombeck Lohengrin, by Leo Slezak A Wedding Without Musicians, by Sholom Aleichem

'Can I bear to leave these blue hills?' A generous selection from three of the greatest and most enjoyable of Chinese poets Introducing Little Black Classics: 80 books for Penguin's 80th birthday. Little Black Classics celebrate the huge range and diversity of Penguin Classics, with books from around the world and across many centuries. They take us from a balloon ride over Victorian London to a garden of blossom in Japan, from Tierra del Fuego to 16th century California and the Russian steppe. Here are stories lyrical and savage; poems epic and intimate; essays satirical and inspirational; and ideas that have shaped the lives of millions. Wang Wei (roughly 699-761). Wang Wei's Poems is available in Penguin Classics. Li Po (701-762). Tu Fu (712-770). Li Po and Tu Fu is available in Penguin Classics.

"Li Po (701-762) is considered one of the greatest poets to live during the Tang dynasty--what was considered to be the golden age for Chinese poetry. He was also the first Chinese poet to become well known in the West, and he greatly influenced many American poets during the twentieth century. Calling himself the "God of Wine" and known to his patrons as a "fallen immortal," Li Po wrote with eloquence, vividness, and often playfulness, as he extols the joys of nature, wine, and the life of a wandering recluse. Li Po had a strong social conscience, and he struggled against the hard times of his age. He was inspired by the newly blossoming Zen Buddhism and merged it with the Taoism that he had studied all his life. Though Li Po's love of wine is legendary, the translator, J. P. Seaton, includes poems on a wide range of topics--friendship and love, political criticism, poems written to curry patronage, poems of the spirit--to offer a new interpretation of this giant of Chinese poetry. Seaton offers us a poet who learned hard lessons from a life lived hard and offered his readers these lessons as vivid, lively poetry--as relevant today as it was during the Tang dynasty. Over one thousand poems have been attributed to Li Po, many of them unpublished. This new collection includes poems not available in any other editions"--