Poets in China

       Studying for American poetry for a term, I think I need to pick up some Chinese poems too.

        After learning a lot of English poetries, I found out that the style between Chinese poems and English poems are so different, even distinct. For Chinese Poems, they tend to be short, usually around 5 to 7 sentences. Furthermore, Chinese Poets usually wrote poems during their travels around the world, and they wrote less about political issues, and even when they wrote about the government back then, they tend to put more pathetic attitude instead of writing poems to encourage people to rebel.

       People began to write poems in Tang Dynasty. There are some famous poets , such as Li Po, Tu Fu.

      Following is a poem from Li Po:


       

  "Questions and Answers Among the Mountains                                              Li Po           translated by Robert Kotewall and Norman L. Smith    You ask me why I dwell in the green mountain;
     I smile and make no reply for my heart is free of care.
    As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown,
     I have a world apart that is not among men." [1]

    
     In this poem, Li Po expressed his dislike of the society and dream of a better place, which human can live without discrimination, greed. Also, "As the peach-blossom flows down stream and is gone into the unknown," indicates that the wonderland that he is thinking about is not the place that we lived, but a place like mountains, which surrounded by nature.

     

Following is the poem praising mother:

          "WANDERER'S SONG
                        ----- Meng Jiao  The thread in the hand of a kind mother
  Is the coat on the wanderer's back.
  Before he left she stitched it close
  In secret fear that he would be slow to return.
  Who will say that the inch of grass in his heart
  Is gratitude enough for all the sunshine of spring?" [2] 

  
       This poem is about the poet's love about his mother. In this poem, poet is a man who worked hard in a different city rather than his hometown, and he stated the lonely feelings of people who left their homes and struggled in a new city for their futures.


    Poetries are different in different countries, but I think I should learn more different kinds of poems in order to absorb more informations about poem techniques in order for me to write better poems!