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In Such Hard Times

Bill Porter (aka Red Pine)

The Poetry of Wei Ying-wu translated by Red Pine

Born into an aristocratic family in decline, Wei Ying-wu (737–791) served in several government posts without distinction. He disdained the literary establishment of his day and fashioned a poetic style counter to the mainstream: one of profound simplicity centered in the natural world.

Wei Ying-wu is ranked alongside such Tang dynasty masters as Tu Fu, Li Pai, and Wang Wei. Yet only a handful of his poems had ever been translated into English.

Red Pine—one of the finest translators of Chinese poetry into English and the first to translate the classical anthology Poems of the Masters—now presents 175 of Wei Ying-wu's poems and demonstrates why Wei is "one of the world's great poets." Published in a bilingual Chinese-English format, with extensive notes and an informative introduction, In Such Hard Times is a long-overdue English-language premiere.

Binding: paper

ISBN: 978-1-55659-279-9