Elegies of Chu

Download or read book Elegies of Chu written by and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022 with total page 337 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Elegies of Chu is an anthology of early Chinese poems and contains the work of Qu Yuan and other poets from the southern state of Chu and the Han dynasty. From Qu Yuan's own challenges to a corrupt regime, to the sensuous descriptive poetry of Song Yu, to the divine encounters of the 'Nine Songs', the anthology privileges individual voices of protest, longing, and transcendence, and so presents us with a unique and unparalleled vantage point on Chinese culture. The contents begin with the predicament of an alienated courtier, and range across the vast landscapes of the Han empire. The anthology provides readers with an understanding of Chinese literature and its evolution from free-spirited, mythico-religious songs to the more formal, polished style of the Han court. This entirely new translation by Nicholas Morrow Williams aims to be faithful to the linguistic specificity and baroque sensibility of the original poems. Book jacket.