Where I Recognized Something of Myself

Selected Poems of Su Tung-p'o by Su Tung-p'o
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is an excellent collection of poetry. I found a lot to enjoy and a lot to personally connect to here.

First of all, I have a strong preference for mostly poetry in books of poetry--I rant elsewhere about making poetry books look too much like textbooks--and this has the perfect (for me) proportions: a useful introduction; many uninterrupted pages of poetry; and, where helpful, notes and explanations, especially biographical, placing the poetry in the context of the poet's life. But not too too much of that. Very sensibly, the poetry is organized in chronological order, which I find helpful.

Second, I find myself liking the poet himself, agreeing with a lot of his worldview and attitude, which makes it easier to connect with his art. He cares about his work in government, wanting to help the people he serves, caring enough that he dares to speak his mind too freely. He values family and friends, he accepts the ups and downs of changing fortune, he loves the natural world, he likes entertaining and having good conversation, and he enjoys a quiet retreat, even if he's living in poverty. His patience and dignity in the face of imperial disapproval and exile (a topic about which I don't quite understand everything) is inspiring, actually. I guess he practiced Zen long enough to get quite good at it... ;)

Third--or maybe I should have made it first--his poetry (and the very readable translation of it) is much to my taste, in subject matter, complexity, sense of humor, emotional content, length, and theme. Not that it's easy in every way; these still are 1000 years old, filled with references that fly by me unless there's a note with it. But still, reading these, one can hear the voice of another human, a man who thinks like I do in a surprising number of ways, who worries about the same things. When he grieves for a young wife gone ten years, you get it.

I realized near the end of the book (and verified by looking up old interviews) that this poet was the inspiration for a character in Guy Gavriel Kay's River of Stars, a fantasy set in a kind-of Sung Dynasty. I liked the character, and the connection made me like the poetry even more. It magnified for me the sense of bittersweet longing and regret that pervades his writing, especially in the last years, because that's the primary emotion in the novel.

And I happened to read the translation Kay favored, so... that's cool.

I suppose I don't need to recommend this book. A much finer writer (and, no doubt, reader) than me already did. But I'll cosign.

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