Li Shangyin [Paperback]

A one-of-a-kind collection of work by little-known Late Tang poetic master Li Shangyin.


Li Shangyin is one of the foremost poets of the late Tang, but until now he has rarely been translated into English, perhaps because the esotericism and sensuality of his work set him apart from the austere masters of the Chinese literary canon. Li favored allusiveness over directness, and his poems unfurl through mysterious images before coalescing into an emotional whole. Combining hedonistic aestheticism with stark fatalism, Li’s poetry is an intoxicating mixture of pleasure and grief, desire and loss, everywhere imbued with a singular nostalgia for the present moment.

This pioneering, bilingual edition presents Chloe Garcia Roberts’s translations of a wide selection of Li’s verse in the company of other versions by the prominent sinologist A. C. Graham and the scholar-poet Lucas Klein. Garcia Roberts's translation represents an original approach to one of the most distinctive and challenging voices of the classical Chinese canon…Li’s startling images and aural complexity gain new life in Garcia Roberts’s hands.” —Theophilus Kwek,Asymptote

“Li Shangyin’s poetry embodies passion, commitment, and conflict....He extended the scope of Chinese poetry by exploring spheres of experience previously untouched by poets.” —James J. Y. Liu
“His use of allusion is the subtlest in Tang poetry – abrupt transitions in which an allusion provides the unmentioned bridge, delicate variations on commonplace references, oblique glimpses of historical events, direct presentation of a scene before his eyes in which one senses elusive parallels with a scene in history or poetry.” —A. C. GrahamLi Shangyin(813–858) had an unremarkable career as a low-level official in various capacities, which included county sheriff, classics professor, and colllC6