Original circa 8th century AD.
 Translated by Vikram Seth.
 From "Three Chinese Poets", 1994.

Notes

The King of Chu in the seventh century BC defeated the ruler of Xi and took

his wife. She had children by him but never spoke to him.

Fourteen centuries later Wang Wei, then twenty years old, wrote this poem

in the following circumstances. One of his patrons, a prince, had acquired the wife of a cake-seller. A year later he asked her if she still loved her husband, and she gave no answer. The man was sent for, and when she saw him her eyes filled with tears.

This took place before a small but distinguished literary gathering, and

the prince, moved, asked for poems on the subject. Wang Wei’s poem was finished first, and when it was read out, everyone else agreed it was pointless to try to write something better.

The prince reportedly returned the cake-seller’s wife to her husband.

– Vikram Seth, “Three Chinese Poets”

I’ve always found Chinese poetry to be imbued with a peculiar poignancy, a sense of loss which is no less acute for being remembered. I don’t know if this an artefact of translation, or part of the essence of the poetry itself, informed as it is by the weight of millennia of history. Probably a bit of both; either way, I like it.

— Thomas

[On Wang Wei, Tu Fu and Li Po]

To compare the incomparable, if the difficulty of translating Wang Wei is

akin to the difficulty of playing Mozart, the difficulty of translating Du Fu with his rich counterpoint of historical allusion can be compared to that of playing Bach. As for translating the wild and romantic Li Bai – it is rather like playing Beethoven, often full of sound and fury, signifying (usually) a great deal. But in each poem, as important as the texture or tone of the work is the exact content of what is being said – and the translator’s task is not to improvise cadenzas in the spirit of the piece but to stick, as tellingly as he can, to the score.

– Vikram Seth, “Three Chinese Poets”

Minstrels Links

Li Po:

Poem #504, About Tu Fu
Poem #683, To Tu Fu from Shantung
Poem #749, Parting
Poem #794, In the Quiet Night
Poem #826, Self-Abandonment

Vikram Seth:

Poem #650, All You Who Sleep Tonight
Poem #754, Protocols
Poem #460, Round and Round