The Clouds Float North

by Xuanji, Yu; Young, David; Lin, Jiann I.; Yu, Hsuan-Chi; Lin, Jiann I.

• ISBN13: 9780819563446
• ISBN10: 0819563447
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-09-01
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

"Outside of her remarkable poems, we know next to nothing about Yu Xuanji," David Young writes. "She was born in 844 and died in 868, at the age of twenty-four, condemned to death for the murder of her maid...We owe the survival of her forty-nine poems to the ancient Chinese anthologists' urge to be complete." The poems gathered in this bilingual (Chinese/English) edition will be read again and again for their beauty. The works preserve Yu Xuanji's passion, her sharp eye for detail, her often witty variations on familiar Chinese themes, all of which give the poems an immediacy one rarely finds in ancient, translated texts. Poems addressed to Yu Xuanji's husband and to other men (some famous poets) and women give us some sense of her relationships; the book also includes other traditional Chinese forms such as meditations on landscapes and occasional poems commemorating feast days. As noted in the introduction, the poetry also provokes us to think about the act of writing, about the culture and politics of the T'ang Dynasty, and about gender.

Table of Contents

Yu Xuanji: An Introduction
Poem for the Willows by the River	p. 1
Sent to a Neighbor Woman Friend	p. 2
The Fragrance of Orchids	p. 3
Tribute to a Master Alchemist	p. 4
Sent to Secretary Liu	p. 5
Washing Yarn Temple	p. 7
Selling the Last Peonies	p. 8
To Thank the Scholar Li for the Gift of a Bamboo Mat	p. 9
Love Letter to Li Zian	p. 10
Boudoir Bitterness	p. 11
Spring Thoughts Sent Affectionately to Zian	p. 13
Watching Them Play Polo	p. 15
Sent to a Friend in a Late Spring Mood	p. 16
Sent to Wen Feiqing on a Winter Night	p. 17
A Poem Sent to Li Ying to Match His "Fishing in Summer"	p. 18
Matching Poem for My New Neighbor to the West, Inviting Him over for Wine	p. 19
A Matching Poem, Reply to a Friend	p. 20
Two Poems	p. 21
Visiting the South Pavilion at Chongzhen Temple Where the Civil Service Exam Results Are Posted	p. 23
Melancholy Thoughts	p. 24
Autumn Lament	p. 25
River Journey	p. 26
Hearing Squire Li Had Gone Fishing, I Sent Him This Poem	p. 27
The Zifu Temple, Founded by the Hermit Ren	p. 28
The Yinwu Pavilion	p. 29
The Double Ninth Festival Delayed by Rain	p. 30
Early Autumn	p. 31
Remembering Strong Emotions	p. 32
For a Friend Who Didn't Arrive Because of Heavy Rain	p. 34
Visiting Master Zhao and Not Finding Him	p. 35
Curing Yourself When Lovesick	p. 36
Sent to Feiqing	p. 38
Visiting Ezhou	p. 39
Living in the Mountains in Summer	p. 40
Late Spring Improvisation	p. 41
Joining Somebody's Mourning	p. 42
Letter to a Friend	p. 43
Sent to Zian, Long Distance, from the Hanjiang River	p. 44
An Allegory	p. 45
Letter to Zian, Sad from Gazing into the Distance, from Jiangling	p. 46
Sent to Zian	p. 47
Saying Goodbye	p. 48
A Warm Note to Squire Li Jinren	p. 49
Saying Goodbye, II	p. 50
Letter to an Exam Candidate, from Shanxi to the Capital	p. 51
Reply to a Poem, Matching the Form	p. 53
Three Beautiful Sisters, Orphaned Young	p. 54
Snapping Willows	p. 57
Fragments	p. 58
Notes	p. 61
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