Li Po and Tu Fu Book

Penguin's compilation of the poetry of Li Po and Tu Fu isn't quite what it appears at first. It collects a healthy sampling of the two poets, but it's only a sampling: each poet is represented by about 50 pages worth of poems, with most of that space taken up with Arthur Cooper's voluminous annotations. And the first half of this book is a lengthy introduction by Cooper, covering not only the basics of these two poets, but is a good primer for Chinese poetry as a whole, ranging from early works like Songs of the South to poets of the T'ang dynasty.

On the whole, this is an interesting collection. It's a nice sampling of these two poets output, aided by Coopers notes and introduction, which helps even those who know next to nothing about Chinese poetry - myself included - get into these poems. Which brings up my main problem with this collection: there simply isn't enough of them! I found that once I was really getting into each of these poets, the well here ran dry. It'd be nice if there was more of their works and less of the little artistic, calligraphic flourishes included here. Maybe someone studying Chinese poetry would appreciate having Chinese script scattered throughout, but I don't think it adds much for the common reader.

Still, I enjoyed the bulk of this book. Recommended for those interested in Chinese poetry, especially if you don't have much of a foundation in it: the introduction itself is worth checking out for those curious in the genre.