Selected Poems of Chu Yuan
Rendered into English by Sun Dayu
Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press, 1996
Hardcover, 850 x 1168, 665 pages
ISBN 7810099760

Chu Yuan (or Qu Yuan, circ. 339-278, or 345-286 B.C.) is one of the great poets in ancient China. The history of poetry in China dates back for more than three thousand years according to written records. The number of poets, who left behind their names counts up by the thousands. Among those who turned out volumes of memorable poems, Chu Yuan takes the lead. Selected and translated poems include "Lee Sao: Suffering Throes", "Nine Songs", Sylva of Nine Pieces", "Distant Wanderings", "Divining to Know Where I Should Stay", "The Fisherman".

"As a flaming spirit of eternity, Chu Yuan is extolled as a thinker, personality, statesman and poet of the first magnitude in his native land. His conception of beneficence for the commonweal of the people as the beau-ideal of his political philosophy in close connection with ethics, and his deeds of fortitude through tribulation and martyrizing suicide cannot but give universality and permanence to him when immortalized by his superexcellent, fiery poetry. His hatred of tyranny and aggression was in his life as is in his poetry on a par with love of humanity and justice. His valiant, selfless opposition to totalitarian power politics-the regal and legalized terrorism of Tsing and its insidious spy trickeries-inconsequence of his whole-hearted support of united coalition in Ts'ou's foreign policy against cross conjunction, has won him on everlasting renown. So, in China's history, he keeps good company with the three hwang, five t'ih, three kings and their excellent ministers and Confucius and Mencius, as ho has openly avouched his place in these lines:
The world is in a muddle, kenning me not,
Heedless of it, I fleetly ride aloft;
Bridling blue dragonets two, white dragons three;
I and Tsoon-hwah range the land of the fairy.
Ascending the heights of the Mountains Quen-lung,
I eat gem sprouts that give life immortal;
Enjoying longevity with Heaven and Earth,
I vie in glory with the moon and sun. (ll. 6-12, Over the Streams)"
    --Sun Dayu's Introduction

Sun Dayu has devoted during his long life so much of his time and energy to the study and translation of Chu Yuan's poetry that there develops an intellectual as well as an emotional affinity between the ancient poet and the living.

This book of Sun's with its text featuring such beautiful wording, appropriate and precise as well as verifiably faithful in meaning , and such exceedingly detailed explanations and annotations so steeped in academic research as not easily to be superseded or neglected. It is the first contribution in a magnificent volume by a Chinese scholar and poet to the society. It will be glistening with unique beams of its own all the time.

About English Translator: Sun Dayu, born in 1905 in Shanghai, is a native of Zhuji County, Zhejiang province. His original name is Sun Ming-chuan and his style, Shou-zhu. Having successfully completed his courses, in the senior class, at Qing Hua College (now, Qing Hua University) in Beijing in 1925, he went to the U.S. to continue his education at Dartmouth College in 1926, and graduated as A.B. magna cum laude in 1928. During 1928-1930, he pursued a postgraduate study of English and American literature at Yale University, and then, came back in 1930 as professor of English literature at Wuhan University, Beijing Normal University, Women's College of Arts and Sciences, Beijing University, Qingdao University, Zhejiang University, Jinan University, Central Politics Institute, Fudan University and East China Normal University respectively. Chief works are The Book of Sun Sudan in A Collection of Modern Chinese Poetry, Sun Dayu's Book of Poems and Other Writings, Selected Poems of Chü Yuan (English Translation), translations of Shakespeare's works of Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter's Tale, Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice.

Chinese Painting Illustrations ("Chu Yuan," "Lee Sao: Suffering Throes," "The King of Clouds," "The Lady of Hsiang," "The Major God of Life-ruling," "The Minor God of Life-ruling," "East King," "The Count of Ho," "The Mountain Sprite," "Hymn on Spirits of State Warriors Slain in War," and "Epode to All the Hymns Above") by Liu Danzhai.