Li Sao: And Other Poems of Qu Yuan

by Qu Yuan, Yang Xianyi

This collection includes twenty-five poems of the great ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340-278 B.C.), which constitute all his extant works. The English transaltion has been made from the Chinese text edited by Wang Yi of the Han dynasty, while the interpretations are based on the modern Chinese translations of Guo Moruo, an authority on Qu Yuan studies, who is himself a poet.

Genres: Poetry

116 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1990

About the author

This is a Chinese name. The family name is Qu.

Qu Yuan (Chinese: 屈原; 343–278 BC) was a Chinese poet and minister who lived during the Warring States period of ancient China. He is known for his contributions to classical poetry and verses, especially through the poems of the Chu Ci anthology (also known as The Songs of the South or Songs of Chu): a volume of poems attributed to or considered to be inspired by his verse writing. Together with the Shi Jing, the Chu Ci is one of the two great collections of ancient Chinese verse. He is also remembered as the supposed origin of the Dragon Boat Festival.

Historical details about Qu Yuan's life are few, and his authorship of many Chu Ci poems have been questioned at length. However, he is widely accepted to have written Li Sao, the most well-known of the Chu Ci poems.

Reviews

[Brian]

Li Sao

There’s lyricism and evocative imagery of nature here- flowers, fragrances. Orchids, lotuses, wisteria, azaleas, melilots, sorrels, clover, white lichen, pepper, jasmine lintels, ivy tendrils, clover, cassia bark and cinnamon: autumn breezes sighing, Colours of Jade and Jasper. Lots of emotions too; this sadness makes these poems reach across the millennia?
“A golden bough I sought to brush the sun”
“Beside the burning river, red as blood”

He’s a thinker too: “The great fate” and “the young fate” talking about the gates of heaven and reckoning at the end of life, and grief “The Riddles” asking so many questions about the structure of the universe- so morality and cosmology

Fantastical elements two thousand years before Tolkien: “crossing the river” with splendid garment, gleaming sword and riding dragons

His loyalty and his downfall: “since in that kingdom my virtue spurned, why should I for the city yearn?”

Qu Yan drowned himself - this and other references in his poetry -

“Wide through the world, no wisdom can be found
I’ll seek the stream where once the sage could be found”

The odes describe the gods in florid terms - “The Lady of the Clouds” is almost spectacularly visual for such a short poem

I like how “The Goddess of the Xiang River” and “The Lady of the Xiang River” can be read as the the goddess watching the lady by the river and then hearing the lady’s woe, rather than what the translator describes as two descriptions of the goddess.

“Sorrow to her eyes more beauty lends”

And the way both poems finish with the same last two lines:

“Time passes by and never comes again:
In carefree life I shall at ease remain”

“The Young fate” is a love poem to - the goddess? Love? Life?

“No joy excels the rapture of first love.
In lotus garb, with melilotus bright,
Swiftly she comes: as sudden is her flight”

“Stray thoughts” is incredibly modern - seeing someone you care for admire (love?) someone else

[Ryan]

A fragrant, bittersweet song of a learned officials exile. A wonderful poem that feels like it could have been written by a 19th century Romantic-era poet. Very dense, though—I confess I needed to read it twice to really appreciate it.