Poetry For All
Finding Our Way Into Great Poems
Displaying 1 Episode of Poetry For All with the tag “chinese poetry”.
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Episode 75: Du Fu, Passing the Night by White Sands Post Station
August 7th, 2024 | Season 6 | 18 mins 16 secs
aging, chinese poetry, loneliness, nature poetry, night, poetry in translation, restlessness, world poetry
What is a good life, and how do we make sense of the world when it seems like society is collapsing? In this episode, Lucas Bender joins us once again to discuss the work of Du Fu, the great Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Luke helps us to see how Du Fu’s “Passing the Night by White Sands Post Station” can be read in multiple ways depending on how one translates each word of the poem. In doing so, he reveals the poem’s concerns with aging, disappointment, and the possibility of hope in difficult times.