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Love and the Turning Year: One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese
Love and the Turning Year includes a selection from the Yueh Fu folk songs from the Six Dynasties Period (fourth-fifth centuries A.D.). Most of the songs are simple, erotic lyrics. Some are attributed to legendary courtesans, while others may have been sung at harvest festivals or marriage celebrations. In addition to the folk songs, Rexroth offers a wide sampling of Chinese works by 60 different poets, from the third century to our own time. Rexroth always translated Chinese poetry as he said solely to please myself. And he created, with remarkable success, English versions which stand as poems in their own right."
142 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
6 people are currently reading
147 people want to read
About the author
Kenneth Rexroth
203 books110 followersKenneth Rexroth was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist.
He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.
Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.
Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.
He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider himself to be a Beat poet, and disliked the association, he was dubbed the "Father of the Beats" by Time magazine.
Largely self-educated, Rexroth learned several languages and translated poems from Chinese, French, Spanish, and Japanese. He was among the first poets in the United States to explore traditional Japanese poetic themes and forms.
Rexroth died in Santa Barbara, California, on June 6, 1982. He had spent his final years translating Japanese and Chinese women poets, as well as promoting the work of female poets in America and overseas.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
August 17, 2024
“I wanted to become a famous poet. / I wanted to get ahead / So I pretended to be sad.”
A beautiful book of poetry. You would not believe how many times “wild geese” are mentioned in ancient Chinese poetry. - but I love it
A beautiful book of poetry. You would not believe how many times “wild geese” are mentioned in ancient Chinese poetry. - but I love it
April 1, 2021
What a beautiful selection and translation! Rexroth has rapidly become my favorite translator of chinese poetry. It shows what a major poet he was himself.
February 26, 2016
In Rexroth's introduction he says, "[This] is offered with no pretense of scholarship or to mastery of that complex subject, Sinology. I have translated the pieces I enjoyed reading and I have enjoyed translating them, so I hope readers will find them enjoyable." Ken, it is so. His joy comes through and some of these ecstatic lyrics will make you sit up straight and say, "Oh that's gorgeous." Many of these are poems of longing, earthy, simple but complex, often sublime.
This from an anonymous poet of the Six Dynasties:
My Lover Will Soon be Here
My lover will soon be here.
He said he would come to the garden gate.
My mother is still up.
I can hear my heart beat
Like a sword on a shield.
This from an anonymous poet of the Six Dynasties:
My Lover Will Soon be Here
My lover will soon be here.
He said he would come to the garden gate.
My mother is still up.
I can hear my heart beat
Like a sword on a shield.
June 20, 2018
Excellent translations. Got used to the bold use of enjambement. Many poems by female poets. I was frustrated as usual by the lack of pointers to editions used, first lines in Chinese, etc. However, the back matter has a helpful bibliography of translations of Chinese poetry into English, French, German, and Italian with Rexroth’s evaluations (eg Waley’s Li Po is “only good” because he didn’t much like the poet). Should be fun hunting down anthologies not in my collection.
April 27, 2017
DRINKING WITH FRIENDS AMONGST THE BLOOMING PEONIES
We had a drinking party
To admire the peonies.
I drank cup after cup till
I was drunk. Then to my shame
I heard the flowers whisper,
"What are we doing, blooming
For these old alcoholics?"
LIU YU HSI
March 11, 2017
One of the best books of chinese poetry I have ever read.
January 29, 2024
Find all of the Rexroth translations and put them by your bed. Enjoy slowly or quickly. Consider the moon.
April 8, 2025
This is a very nice collection of ancient Chinese poetry, published in 1970. The great majority of Chinese poetry in translation has come out since then (I'm sure I'm right but I have zero proof for that statement) but I think you could stack this up against almost any volume that has come out in the last 50 years and it would compare very favorably.
I'm not making any claims about the accuracy of the translations (though I suspect it's alright), or whether these selections are a decently representative sampling of (mostly) Tang and Song poetry, or about the "importance" of any of the poets found here. (There are many highly regarded poets here, like Wang Wei and Tu Fu and others, but there are also a bunch I'd never heard of before--which is cool, actually.) And, in fact, as far as representation is concerned, female poets might be overrepresented here--which I applaud. So is love poetry. But the point is: this is not a textbook or a primer. It's a lovely collection of genuine poetry.
I found it an enjoyable read, and had to limit myself to just a handful of poems a day to make it last. The author chose poetry that's particularly accessible for Western readers, with themes that resonate with many of us, and I think it really works. Here's part of "I Return to the Place I Was Born," by T'ao Yuan Ming:
From my youth up I never liked the city.
I never forgot the mountains where I was born.
The world caught me and harnessed me
And drove me through dust, thirty years away from home...
The farm is only ten acres.
The farm house has eight or nine rooms...
When you come through the gate into the court
You will find no dust or mess.
Peace and quiet live in every room.
I am content to stay here the rest of my life.
At last I have found myself.
I totally understand what he's talking about. I feel just the same. And it's from about 1600 years ago.
That poem is found in other collections, but many of the poems here are not in anything else I've run on to. It has sent me on a search for collections of some of the poets in here, and some of them exist, but are rare (and stupid expensive). Still, I hope it'll hook me up with a few new poets and their works.
Like the previous volume, this is highly recommended, and makes a good starting point for anyone casually interested in Chinese poetry.
I'm not making any claims about the accuracy of the translations (though I suspect it's alright), or whether these selections are a decently representative sampling of (mostly) Tang and Song poetry, or about the "importance" of any of the poets found here. (There are many highly regarded poets here, like Wang Wei and Tu Fu and others, but there are also a bunch I'd never heard of before--which is cool, actually.) And, in fact, as far as representation is concerned, female poets might be overrepresented here--which I applaud. So is love poetry. But the point is: this is not a textbook or a primer. It's a lovely collection of genuine poetry.
I found it an enjoyable read, and had to limit myself to just a handful of poems a day to make it last. The author chose poetry that's particularly accessible for Western readers, with themes that resonate with many of us, and I think it really works. Here's part of "I Return to the Place I Was Born," by T'ao Yuan Ming:
From my youth up I never liked the city.
I never forgot the mountains where I was born.
The world caught me and harnessed me
And drove me through dust, thirty years away from home...
The farm is only ten acres.
The farm house has eight or nine rooms...
When you come through the gate into the court
You will find no dust or mess.
Peace and quiet live in every room.
I am content to stay here the rest of my life.
At last I have found myself.
I totally understand what he's talking about. I feel just the same. And it's from about 1600 years ago.
That poem is found in other collections, but many of the poems here are not in anything else I've run on to. It has sent me on a search for collections of some of the poets in here, and some of them exist, but are rare (and stupid expensive). Still, I hope it'll hook me up with a few new poets and their works.
Like the previous volume, this is highly recommended, and makes a good starting point for anyone casually interested in Chinese poetry.
September 27, 2017
A year ago today by
This very gate your face and
The peach blossoms mirrored each
Other. I do not know where
Your beautiful face has gone.
There are only peach blossoms
Flying in the Spring wind.
Visit to the Hermit Ts’ui
Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies,
Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows.
I envy you, drunk with flowers,
Butterflies swirling in your dreams.
CH’EN YU YI
THE OLD HAREM
The old harem is quiet and deserted.
The flowers still bloom in the neglected courtyard.
A few white haired old women sit in the sun,
Idly gossiping of the days of the dead emperor.
LI SHANG YIN
This very gate your face and
The peach blossoms mirrored each
Other. I do not know where
Your beautiful face has gone.
There are only peach blossoms
Flying in the Spring wind.
Visit to the Hermit Ts’ui
Moss covered paths between scarlet peonies,
Pale jade mountains fill your rustic windows.
I envy you, drunk with flowers,
Butterflies swirling in your dreams.
CH’EN YU YI
THE OLD HAREM
The old harem is quiet and deserted.
The flowers still bloom in the neglected courtyard.
A few white haired old women sit in the sun,
Idly gossiping of the days of the dead emperor.
LI SHANG YIN
June 6, 2022
This is such a good poetry collection, spanning from the Han Dynasty (200 BC) to the Qing Dynasty (around 1700). Most of the poems center around themes of the beauty of nature, growing older, and reminiscing on the past. While I think some of the pretty language would come through better in its original Chinese, this book is filled with classic Chinese poems filled with beautiful words.
June 10, 2022
This was very entertaining to read over vacation, have gained some new favorite poems. His sass tho, that was refreshing: "The Communist government should hire a new editor for their English language publications."
April 11, 2019
I'm entranced by Kenneth Rexroth's derivations from the Chinese.
Read
March 15, 2022I like all the nature poems.
September 1, 2022
Underwhelming translation, inept at keeping the poetry of the originals
December 30, 2022
the moon imagery in this is spectacular
June 8, 2012
I enjoyed it. But some I was neutral towards, and some enthusiastic. Here was my favorite poem in it:
Pan Yue/P'an Yüeh (247-300)
"In Mourning for His Dead Wife"
Winter and Spring have come and gone.
Once more Autumn overtakes
Summer. She has returned to
The Hidden Springs. And all the
World separates us forever.
Who will listen to my secrets
Now? Who will I live for now?
I try to do my job at Court,
And reluctantly go through
The motions of duty, and
Take up the tasks I had dropped.
When I come home I can think
Only of her. When I come
In our room I expect to see her.
I catch her shadow on the
Screens and curtains. Her letters
Are the most precious examples
Of calligraphy. Her perfume
Still haunts the bedroom. Her clothes
Still hang there in the closet.
She is always alive in
My dreams. I wake with a start.
She vanishes. And I
Am overwhelmed with sorrow.
Two birds made a nest and then
There was only one. A pair
Of fishes were separated
And lost in the current.
The Autumn wind blows. The morning
Is misty, with dripping eaves.
All through the troubled night I was
Not able to forget in sleep.
I hope the time will come when
I am calm enough to beat
On a pot like Chuang Tzu did
In mourning for his dead wife.
Pan Yue/P'an Yüeh (247-300)
"In Mourning for His Dead Wife"
Winter and Spring have come and gone.
Once more Autumn overtakes
Summer. She has returned to
The Hidden Springs. And all the
World separates us forever.
Who will listen to my secrets
Now? Who will I live for now?
I try to do my job at Court,
And reluctantly go through
The motions of duty, and
Take up the tasks I had dropped.
When I come home I can think
Only of her. When I come
In our room I expect to see her.
I catch her shadow on the
Screens and curtains. Her letters
Are the most precious examples
Of calligraphy. Her perfume
Still haunts the bedroom. Her clothes
Still hang there in the closet.
She is always alive in
My dreams. I wake with a start.
She vanishes. And I
Am overwhelmed with sorrow.
Two birds made a nest and then
There was only one. A pair
Of fishes were separated
And lost in the current.
The Autumn wind blows. The morning
Is misty, with dripping eaves.
All through the troubled night I was
Not able to forget in sleep.
I hope the time will come when
I am calm enough to beat
On a pot like Chuang Tzu did
In mourning for his dead wife.
May 24, 2023
Another 5-star poetry collection that was so good, I took pictures of some of the poems to remember them always.
June 8, 2025
5/5
I'm in love with this collection. This was my first time reading Chinese poetry. The minimalist style of the poems astounded me. I thoroughly enjoyed how themes and messages were able to be portrayed through simple methods. It didn't seem like there was any fluff. I was also surprised at how descriptive so much of this poetry was. A lot of the poems read like short stories.
"Love and Turning: One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese" opened my perspectives on what poetry can be, while also teaching me more about the power contained in minimalist writing.
I'm in love with this collection. This was my first time reading Chinese poetry. The minimalist style of the poems astounded me. I thoroughly enjoyed how themes and messages were able to be portrayed through simple methods. It didn't seem like there was any fluff. I was also surprised at how descriptive so much of this poetry was. A lot of the poems read like short stories.
"Love and Turning: One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese" opened my perspectives on what poetry can be, while also teaching me more about the power contained in minimalist writing.
August 1, 2011
Rexroth includes many more poets in this volume than he did in his first book of Chinese translations. The poems remain austere and, in most cases, of significant power. The notes are succinct but helpful for understanding something of the context, both historical and artistic, in which these poets wrote. Highly recommended.
December 15, 2011
I found this little gem in a cool used bookstore in Evanston. When you go to pay for your books they are weighed! What a great bookstore. Anyway, the poems in this volume are sweet, inspiring and perfect for this season of 'turning inward.' I recommend.
January 19, 2015
Beautiful all around.
March 23, 2015
2.5 Stars
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews