Li Bai and Du Fu - Poems to Each Other
One very revealing part of the Tang legacy is the handful of poems that Li Bai and Du Fu wrote to each other. Poems about friendship or those exchanged between friends were a standard element of the Tang poetic canon. But the poems between Li Bai and Du Fu have an incredible poignancy as they say so much about how these two great poets saw themselves and each other. Just imagine, for example, how meaningful it would be if Shakespeare and John Donne happened to exchange a few personal sonnets. So in a way, we have been permitted a much more intimate glimpse into the hearts and minds of these Tang poets even at such great temporal and cultural remove than we have of the most renowned poets in our own tradition.
Let me start first with one of Li Bai’s poems About Du Fu. As far as I know, Li Bai wrote a total of three poems about his younger colleague whereas Du Fu (ever the eager younger brother) wrote eight or nine such poems in return. Of course, they may have exchanged others, which have been lost over the course of the last 1200 years. Nonetheless, I think it’s somewhat revealing of the timbre of their friendship that of the contemporaneous poems we have from them, it seems their friendship was pursued more at Du Fu’s initiative.
One other thing I should mention before getting to Lan Hua's
translation
of this poem. Li Bai uses an interesting word in his title for this
poem, using the character Xi (戏) instead of the more conventional term
Shi (诗), to
indicate these words were written in a playful sense,
almost in gest, but also in a gesture of a deep truly abiding sense of
friendship....
A Poem About Du
Fu
Having a snack on
The mountaintop
Together with Du Fu
He was wearing
A broad rimmed
Bamboo hat to protect
Against the hot July sun
Since the last time
We met he’s
Looking so thin
And now just as before
He’s agonizing
Over his poetry
戏赠杜甫
饭颗山头逢杜甫
顶戴笠子日卓午
借问别来太瘦生
总为从前作诗苦
And here is one of the poems Du Fu wrote in return:
Dreaming of Li Bai
(II)
All day long
Rows of clouds
Drift across the horizon
Wanderers who will never return
But for three nights now
You have appeared
In a dream so vivid
I could touch your flesh
Briefly you spoke
About your long hard journey
Crossing rivers and lakes
In a small fragile boat
Fearfully tossed
By wind and waves
While the capital teems
With the rich and powerful
And their lavish gear
There you stood in the doorway
Scratching your silvery head
A sign of life’s burdens
A lone and haggard man
No my friend
There’s not a single cloud
In the vast heavens
That could withstand
The rigors borne by
Your weary old frame
Surely you’ll enjoy
A thousand years
Or ten thousand years
Of the greatest fame
But still for now you’re destined
For a lonely and distant grave
夢李白 (之二)
浮雲終日行
遊子久不至
三夜頻夢君
情親見君意
告歸常局促
苦道來不易
江湖多風波
舟楫恐失墜
出門搔白首
若負平生志
冠蓋滿京華
斯人獨憔悴
孰云網恢恢
將老身反累
千秋萬歲名
寂寞身後事
If you’re interested in reading more of these
poems and learning more about the bond between Li Bai and Du Fu, we
would recommend a book called Endless River by the translator
Sam
Hamill. It’s a slight volume that you can carry Li Bai and Du Fu around
in your pocket as you ramble about. Hamill has a nice colloquial style
as a translator and the poems have been well arranged to simulate the
notion of an extended dialogue between these great poets (even though
the book includes a number of poems that were actually part of those
they directly addressed to one another).
To purchase Endless River on Amazon