The Selected Poems of Po Chu-I

Hinton is able to catch the feel of a Zen religous life by a famous civil servant of the late Tang Dynasty. He captures the bitter sweet character of the life many Chinese poets chose where they were two totally different people -- mystics and civil servants. We can find few people in world history on which to model our lifes with more real depth than Po Chi I, Su Tung Po, and Wang Wei.

From the low walls of our small courtyard to the notice-board outside our district gate,

Ive searched and searched, ashamed our love proved meager, wishing I could do it all over.

But a caged bird cant bear a master for long, and the branch means nothing to a blossom

freed on the wind. Where can she be tonight? Only the moons understanding light knows.

This was written in the 9th century C.E. by the famous Chinese Tang dynasty poet Po Chu-I. Pos beautiful lines are Taoist and Chan (Zen) Buddhist in influence, but something about them sings transcendent and is not easily categorized. Consider how much is contained in this poem: worry, a confession of wrongdoing, an admission of love, something about nature and the need for human freedom, and a tiny fragment of intuitive (mystic) insight when he adds: "Only the moons understanding light knows." Whew! How did he do it, all carefully wrapped in deceptively simple rhyming couplets in the Chinese? Im awed by this work, as I am by Pos modern English translator, David Hinton. This book is recently available in trade paperback by New Directions Publishing. Any of these Chinese poets (Hinton translates Meng Chiao and my favorite, Tao Chien, too, as well as others) will radically change your view of life, for theirs was a powerful and elegant civilization when Rome was still fighting off its hordes. These are beautiful, poignant, often sad, but very wise reflections about existence, metaphysics, and how to live a rich life.