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Tao Yuan-ming stands first in the line of China's great lyric
poets. Tao Yuan-ming, who lived around 400 A.D., stands first in
the line of China's great lyric poets. Just as the Impressionists
taught us to see in a new way, Tao taught the Chinese a lyrical
attitude toward life. Creator of an intimate, honest, plain-spoken
style, Tao was a man whose life spoke as eloquently as his art.
Indeed, no poet's life and art have ever been more of a piece. Born
into corrupt and turbulent times, Tao resigned his post as
Magistrate, choosing to live the humble and difficult life of a
farmer. He and his family would pay dearly for this choice,
enduring hunger, cold and poverty. But he never wavered from it,
holding steadfastly to the Confucian virtue of "firmness in
adversity." For a scholar to live this kind of reclusive life,
giving up wealth and power, represented the highest moral virtue to
the Chinese Tao was given the posthumous title "Summoned Scholar of
Tranquil Integrity." Integrity is certainly the first word that
springs to mind in thinking of Tao.
Beowulf & Beyond is the first and only collection of
translations into modern English to include not only Beowulf but
all of the best-known works of Anglo-Saxon literature in one
convenient volume. The texts translated here are taken chiefly from
the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the
English People, The Exeter Book and the Anglo-Saxon Genesis, as
well of course as Beowulf itself. Previously, students have had to
buy a separate book to read essential works like "The Seafarer",
required reading in all courses of early English literature. And
even these may miss some of the greatest delights of this period:
the wonderful stories from Bede, the charms, sayings, spells and
riddles that inspire students to dig deeper into this strange and
magical world. Dan Veach provides a brief introduction to each
text, giving just enough background to allow the modern reader with
no specialist knowledge to understand the historical context of the
work and its author. There is a longer introduction to Beowulf,
discussing the poem in some detail; its opening paragraph tells us:
"Those returning [to Beowulf] with distant memories from school
will be shocked to discover just how fantastic it really is-how
chilling the drama, how delicious the scene-setting, how engaging
the characters. These translations are, in the words of A.E.
Stalling writing in the book's Preface, the work of a "deeply
learned translator who, at the same time, wears his learning so
lightly, locating each work with a brief introduction and letting
its humanity gleam through." Dan Veach's translations, which derive
their power from cleaving "close to the bone" of the original
Anglo-Saxon, capture the power and punch of the original in a
supple verse that sweeps the reader irresistibly onward.
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