Li Bai

Li Bai (Chinese李白, Pinyin lǐ Bái ) (* 701, † 762 ), and Li Po, applies not only to you Fǔ (杜甫) as the greatest lyric poets in China's Tang period.

  • 5.1 original
  • 5.2 translations

Name

The birth name is Lis Bái (白, white ', Wade- Giles: Pai ). In Taiwan it is still the classic debate Bó ( Wade- Giles: Po ) are common. His name Taibai majority (太白, Morning Star ') indicates a dream to have had the mother before birth. In the notation Li Tai Po the poet has become the late 19th century for the first time in Europe known.

The pseudonym Lis is Qinglian Jushi (青莲 居士, " Hermit of the Blue Lotus "). He also received various epithets such as Shixian (诗仙, " Immortal of Poetry " ) and Jiǔxiān (酒仙, " Immortal of Wine" ).

Biography

Youth

Lǐ Bái was the son of a rich merchant. His birthplace is unknown, some places in Gansu province are called, but also Suiye in Central Asia ( near modern-day Tokmok, Kyrgyzstan ), where his great-grandfather said to have been banished. Certain linguistic influences of this origin can be detected in Lǐs work.

As lǐ Bái was five years old, his family moved to Jiangyou, near the present-day Chengdu in Sichuan Province. Confucian and Taoist influences lǐ was exposed, but ultimately not offered him his family background many opportunities for advancement in the Tang Dynasty. Despite his desire to become a civil servant, he did not take part in the imperial examinations. Instead, he began to travel through China, which contrasted strongly with the ideal of a Confucian gentleman at the age of twenty-five years in the manner of a Wayfarer.

The Poet Laureate

742 he came to the Tang capital Chang'an. There aroused Lǐs bold type, the interest of the nobility as the common people alike. Special fascination he exerted on the imperial secretariat chief He Zhizhang from (贺 知 章), a frank and also inclined towards to drink character who at first believed to have in lǐ a true immortals before him. On Hes recommendation appointed Emperor Xuanzong (唐玄宗) lǐ to officials of the prestigious Hanlin Academy. In Delivering the letter of appointment to lǐ to have drunk was in a tavern, after a short refreshment with cold water but its still been able to write to the Emperor's behest impromptu a poem that was generally well received: Qingpingtiao, a worship the famous concubine Yáng Guifei (杨贵妃) and the peonies.

Together with He Zhizhang and Zhang Xu (张旭) lǐ Shizhi (李 适 之), Cui Zongzhi (崔 宗 之), Su Jin (苏 晋), Wang Jin (王 琎) and Jiao Sui (焦 遂) formed lǐ Bái a circle of poets which are mentioned in a contemporary poem entitled " the eight poets in the drinking bout ." This hard-drinking men later became the patron saint of wine merchants and innkeepers.

Traveling Exhibitions

After only two years lǐ was dismissed from government service due to unknown cause. It is assumed that a cabal of eunuchs Lishi: He is the concubine Yáng Guifei have behind wrongly placed, lǐ Bái have compared unparalleled in a poem Yang's beauty with that of another concubine of the Han period. From then grazed lǐ for the rest of his life by China. In the autumn of 744, and then again a year later he met you Fǔ (杜甫), the second famous poet of the era. Although the two champions met only twice, should find their acquaintance, especially in Fǔs you work significant rainfall: about a dozen poems he dedicated his colleagues lǐ Bái, during this you Fǔ only one appropriated.

Exile

755 lǐ Bái was drawn into the revolt of An Lushan (安禄山). After the failure of which he was exiled after 757 Yelang, but allowed 759 return prematurely.

Death

Lǐ Bái died 762 in Dangtu ( Anhui Province ). According to tradition, he should be drowned when he tried while intoxicated, to embrace the reflection of the moon on a river. Other sources report a mercury spill, the lǐ Bái is said to have incurred as a result of alchemical studies, and others from alcohol poisoning.

The most famous representation lǐ Bais is a ink painting by Liang Kǎi, a painter from the 13th century - long after the poet's death. The image is titled " lǐ Bái - declaiming a poem " and is seen in nearly every anthology of his works.

Work

Lǐ Bái be attributed to about a thousand poems, including

  • Eight rhapsodies (Fu)
  • 149 items for music official songs ( Yuefu )
  • 59 poems in the Old Style ( Gushi )
  • 779 poems in the Old and New Style ( Gujintishi ) and
  • 58 prose pieces.

In many works of authorship appears indeed doubtful. Frequently Lǐs work is linked because of the sentiments expressed, but also because of its spontaneous tone with Taoism. Nevertheless, there are also conventional embossed works, so grab about his Gufeng ( "old ways "), often to the point of view of Confucian moralists.

About lǐ Bais genius are numerous legends in circulation: So is reported about the ease with which he brought his poems to paper. Supposedly he could without writing a single correction with amazing speed. His preferred genre was the Jueju, the short poem with four lines of five or seven characters; 160 pieces are received thereof. Lǐ Bais language is not as sophisticated as the Fǔs you, but nevertheless impressed by strong imagination and the immediate connection that knows prepare the poet to the reader.

Lǐ Bais best-known poem is Yue Xia Du Zhuo (月 下 独酌) to German revelry in the moonlight ( E. Schwarz ), in which the poet with a pitcher retires wine and abuts with its shadow and the moon. In the West, it is widely regarded almost as the epitome of Chinese poetry and was in almost all European cultural languages ​​, mostly with multiple translated (overview :). The topic of wine and moon versa otherwise frequently in Lǐs work again, besides friendship and desire are often the subject of further natural experiences of mountains, bays and pine forests as well as feminine beauty. But sometimes also takes a critical look at contemporary historical issues such as the war, the corruption of the civil service or the hard life of ordinary people.

Effect story

Lǐ Bais libertarian individualism awakened by his contemporaries as the generations fascination, but also provoked significant opposition. So complained about Wáng Anshi (王安石) in the Song period, nine out of ten poems lǐ Bais negotiated by women and wine. Guo Moruo (郭沫若) remained to prove that at lǐ Bái only in 16% of texts from drinking is talk while you Fǔ so far after all comes to 21%.

In the 13th century lǐ Bais works were systematically collected, published in 1758, finally, by Wang Qi (汪 琦). At this time 90 % of the original oeuvre, however, were reportedly lost.

Were first translated into a European language lǐ Bais works 1862. By the Marquis d' Hervey -Saint- Denys, who transferred into French Very extensive, the number of transfers is the German, Wilhelm mentioned are mine, Erwin Ritter von Zach, Alfred Forke, Manfred Hausmann, Vincent Hundhausen, Günter Eich, Günther Debon, Ernst Schwarz and Jan Ulenbrook.

This subheading does not include adaptations such as those of Hans Bethge or Klabund (1916 ), which are not based on the Chinese original, but in themselves to translations. The same applies to Ezra Pound's translation into English, based on the Japanese originals.

Bethge lǐ - Bái broadcasts from his anthology The Chinese Flute would later serve as a template for Gustav Mahler's famous orchestral work, The Song of the Earth.

Translation problems - the example of " Night Thoughts "

One of the most famous poems of lǐ Bái is Yè sī (Chinese夜 思), usually translated as Night Thoughts. The poem is also known under the title Jìngyèsī (Chinese静夜思) thoughts in a silent night.

Original

Translations

Seven different versions may give an insight into how difficult it is appropriate to translate Chinese poetry and transmitted:

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