A Little Primer of Tu Fu

The deepest and most varied of the Tang Dynasty poets, Tu Fu (Du Fu) is, in the words of David Hinton, the “first complete poetic sensibility in Chinese literature.” First published in 1967, this book presents thirty-five Chinese poems with a pinyin transliteration, a character-by-character translation, and commentaries on the subject, form, and historical background. Hawkes gives us a nuts-and-bolts account of how the poems of one of the world’s greatest poets are constructed. It’s an irresistible challenge for readers to invent their own translations.