Su Dongpo's Song Lyrics

Su Shi, statesman, exile, painter and gourmet, transformed the ci song lyric with poems on the Red Cliff, the moon and his dead wife. Bold, humorous and deeply humane, his song lyrics range from moonlit nights at the Mid-Autumn festival to hunting, wine, friendship and the River of history. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. Each poem is given in clear English that keeps its images and its order of lines, so readers can follow the poet's thought without notes. Poetry was the highest art of traditional China, written by emperors, officials, monks, courtesans and soldiers, and these poems are among the finest ever written in any language.