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Hyun Woo Kim's avatar

I think it's practically impossible to understand it without lots of footnotes. I might work on them later in a book form

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Man Hei Wong's avatar

Good effort my gosh

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Hyun Woo Kim's avatar

We will be seeing more long poems from Bai Juyi, but his works somehow feel not tiresome like Han Yu's

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David A. Westbrook's avatar

Oh wow! This is great -- though I couldn't make head or tail of it without your help, Hyun Woo.

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Debbie Liu's avatar

What an intriguing poem and poet! It must have been amazing for the people back in the Tang when they were discovered. I think Du Fu wrote a poem about the stone drums too. Great translation!!

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Hyun Woo Kim's avatar

See the part where it says "There is no man in Shaoling, and the Banished Immortal died;/My talent is thin—what can be done with the Stone Drums, and how?" "no man in Shaoling" refers to Du Fu.

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Debbie Liu's avatar

Oh, I didn't get the Du Fu reference, thank you. So both Li Bai and Du Fu are dead by the time he wrote the poem - I've discovered this poem was written in 811. I don't know much about Han Yu - another poet to explore. Thanks, Hyun Woo. I really like this poem.

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Hyun Woo Kim's avatar

I think he was much better at being an essayist than a poet. I am biased, but he lacks that spark to be a good poet. You might want to check out his pieces on how one should write. His influence had prevailed well until Lu Xun called for literature in vernecular Chinese.

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Austin Fong's avatar

nice

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