Li Bai
Li Bai ( Chinese 李白 , Pinyin Lǐ Bái ; 701 - 762 ), also Li Po , is considered, alongside Dù F l ( 杜甫 ), to be the most important lyrical poet in China during the Tang period .
Names
| Names | |
|---|---|
| Chinese script : | 李白 |
| Xìng 姓 : | 李 Lǐ |
| Pinyin : | Lǐ Bái , classic: Lǐ Bó |
| Wade-Giles : | Li Pai , classic: Li Po |
| Cantonese : | Léih Baahk |
| Rōmaji : | Rihaku |
| Korean : | 이백 or 이태백 |
| Zì 字 : | Tàibái 太白 |
| Hào 號 : | Qīnglián Jūshì 青蓮 居士 |
| aka: | Shīxiān, 詩仙 immortal of poetry |
| Vietnamese : | Lý Bạch |
The birth name Lis is Bái ( 白 - "white", Wade-Giles : Pai ). In Taiwan , the classic pronunciation Bó (Wade-Giles: Po ) is still used today. His adult name Tàibái ( 太白 - " morning star ") points to a dream that the mother is said to have had before the birth. In the spelling Li Tai Po , the poet first became known in Europe at the end of the 19th century.
The pseudonym Lis is Qīnglián Jūshì ( 青蓮 居士 , "Hermit of the Blue Lotus"). He was also given various nicknames such as Shīxiān ( 詩仙 , "immortal of poetry") and Jiǔxiān ( 酒仙 , "immortal of wine").
biography
youth
Lǐ Bái was the son of a wealthy merchant. His place of birth is unknown, some places are mentioned in the province of Gansu , but also Suiye in Central Asia (near today's Tokmok , Kyrgyzstan ), where his great-grandfather is said to have been exiled. Certain linguistic influences of this origin can be proven in Lǐ's work.
When Lǐ Bái was five years old, his family moved to Jiangyou , near what is now Chengdu in Sichuan Province . Lǐ was exposed to Confucian and Taoist influences, but ultimately his family background did not offer him many opportunities for advancement in the Tang Dynasty . Despite his desire to become a civil servant, he did not take the imperial civil servant exams. Instead, at the age of twenty-five, he began to travel through China in the manner of a traveling journeyman, which contrasted sharply with the ideal of a Confucian nobleman.
The poet in court
In 742 he came to Chang'an, the capital of Tang . There Lǐ's daring manner aroused the interest of the nobility and the common people alike. He was particularly fascinated by the imperial secretariat chief Hè Zhīzhāng ( 賀 知 章 ), a frank character who was also inclined to drink and who initially believed that he had a true immortal in front of him in Lǐ . On He's recommendation, Emperor Xuánzōng ( 唐玄宗 ) Lǐ appointed an official of the renowned Hanlin Academy . When the letter of appointment was delivered, Lǐ is said to have been completely drunk in a tavern , but after a short refreshment with cold water, he was nevertheless able to write a poem off the cuff at the behest of the emperor, which found general approval: Qingpingtiao , a praise on the famous concubine Yáng Guìfēi ( 楊貴妃 ) and the peonies .
Together with Hè Zhīzhāng and Zhāng Xù ( 張旭 ), Lǐ Shìzhi ( 李 適 之 ), Cuī Zōngzhī ( 崔 宗 之 ), Sū Jìn ( 蘇 晉 ), Wáng Jìn ( 王 璡 ) and Jiaō Suì ( 焦 遂 ) formed a poet Lǐ Báiì , mentioned in a contemporary poem entitled "The eight poets of the carousing party". These gentlemen who enjoyed drinking later became the patron saints of wine merchants and innkeepers .
On the move
After only two years Lǐ was dismissed from civil service for unknown reasons. It is suspected that the eunuch Lishi was intrigued by the eunuch : he is said to have falsely told the concubine Yáng Guìfēi that in a poem L verglichen Bái had compared Yng's incomparable beauty with that of another concubine from the Han period . From then on, Lǐ roamed China for the rest of his life. In the autumn of 744 and then again the following year, he met Dù Fǔ ( 杜甫 ), the second famous poet of the era. Although the two masters only met twice, their acquaintance was to find considerable expression in Dù Fǔ's work: he dedicated about a dozen poems to his colleague Lǐ Bái, while Dù Fǔ dedicated only one to him.
exile
In 755 Lǐ Bái was drawn into the revolt of Ān Lùshān ( 安禄山 ). After its failure, he was exiled to Yelang in 757 , but was allowed to return early in 759 .
death
Lǐ Bái died in 762 in Dangtu, Anhui Province . According to tradition, he drowned when he was intoxicated and tried to hug the reflection of the moon on a river. Other sources report mercury contamination that L Bái is said to have contracted as a result of alchemical studies, while others report alcohol poisoning .
The best-known depiction of Lǐ Bái is an ink painting by Liáng Kǎi , a painter from the 13th century - long after the poet's death. The picture is entitled "Lǐ Bái - a poem declaiming" and is depicted in almost every anthology of his works.
plant
About a thousand poems are attributed to Lǐ Bái, including
- eight rhapsodies ( Fu )
- 149 tracks based on official musical songs ( Yuefu )
- 59 Old Style Poems ( Gushi )
- 779 poems in the old and new style ( Gujintishi ) as well
- 58 pieces of prose.
The authorship of numerous works seems doubtful. Frequently Lǐs work but because of the expressed feelings, also because of its spontaneous clay with the Taoism associated. Nevertheless, there are also more conventionally influenced works, for example his Gufeng (“Old Wise Men”) often take up the perspective of the Confucian moralist.
There are numerous legends in circulation about Lǐ Bái's genius : For example, it is reported with what ease he put his poems on paper. Allegedly, he could write at astonishing speed without a single correction. His preferred genre was the jueju , the short poem with four lines of five or seven characters ; 160 of these have been preserved. Lǐ Bái's language is not as sophisticated as the Dù Fǔs, but nevertheless impresses with its pronounced power of imagination and the direct connection that the poet knows how to establish with the reader.
Lǐ Bái's best-known poem is Yuè Xià Dú Zhuó ( 月 下 獨酌 ), in German Feast in the Moonlight (E. Schwarz), in which the poet withdraws with a jug of wine and toast with his shadow and the moon . In the West it is often regarded as the epitome of Chinese poetry and has been translated into almost all European cultural languages, mostly several times. The subject of wine and the moon is also frequently recurring in Lǐ's work, in addition to which friendship and longing are often the subject, further nature experiences of mountains, bays and pine forests as well as the beauty of women . Occasionally, however, there is also a critical examination of contemporary historical problems such as the war , the corruption of the civil service or the hard life of ordinary people.
Impact history
Lǐ Bái's libertarian individualism aroused fascination among contemporaries and subsequent generations, but it also provoked considerable opposition. In the Song era , for example, Wáng Ānshí ( 王安石 ) complained that nine out of ten poems by Lǐ Bái were about women and wine. Guō Mòruò ( 郭沫若 ) was reserved to prove that L dass Bái only mentions drinking in 16% of the texts, while Dù Fǔ comes to 21%.
Lǐ Bái's works were systematically collected in the 13th century, and finally published by Wāng Qí ( 汪 琦 ) in 1758 . At this point, however, 90% of the original oeuvre had allegedly been lost.
Lǐ Bái's works were first translated into a European language in 1862 by the Marquis d'Hervey-Saint-Denys , who translated them into French . The number of translations into German is very extensive , including Wilhelm Grube , Erwin Ritter von Zach , Alfred Forke , Manfred Hausmann , Vincenz Hundhausen , Hans Schiebelhuth , Günter Eich , Günther Debon , Ernst Schwarz and Jan Ulenbrook .
Copies such as those by Hans Bethge or Klabund (1916), which are not based on the original Chinese text, but are already based on translations, do not belong here . The same applies to Ezra Pound's translation into English , which is based on Japanese templates.
Bethge's Lǐ-Bái transcriptions from his anthology The Chinese Flute were later to serve as a template for Gustav Mahler's famous orchestral work Das Lied von der Erde .
Translation Problems - Using the Example of "Night Thoughts"
One of the most famous poems by Lǐ Bái is Yè sī ( Chinese 夜 思 ), mostly translated with night thoughts . The poem is also known under the title Jìngyèsī ( Chinese 靜夜思 ), Thoughts on a Silent Night .
original
| original | Pinyin | transmission |
|---|---|---|
| 床前明月光 | chuáng qián míng yuè guāng | (Bed - before - bright - moon - light) |
| 疑 是 地上 霜 | yí shì dì shàng shuāng | (doubt - this - ground - on - frost) |
| 舉 頭 望 明月 | jǔ tóu wàng míng yuè | (lift - head - look - bright - moon) |
| 低頭 思 故鄉 | dī tóu sī gùxiāng | (lower - head - think - home) |
Translations
Nine different versions may provide an insight into how difficult it is to properly translate and translate Chinese poetry:
| Translator / writer | text |
|---|---|
| Wilhelm Grube |
The moon shines brightly at my bed, covering the rain with a pale sheen like cold frost. I lift my head and look up at the bright moon, then I let it sink again and think of my home. |
| Alfred Forke |
In front of my bed I see moonlight, as if the ground was covered with snow. I look up to the moon, which looks above, thinking of home my head sinks. |
| Hans Bethge |
I lay in a strange land. The moon painted a white glow in front of my bed. I raised my head - at first I thought it was the frost of the morning that I saw shimmering, but then I felt: the moon, the moon! and bowed his face to the earth, and my home beckoned me from afar. |
| Manfred Hausmann |
In front of my bed was a glow of midnight like frost, white in the moonlight. I raised my head - the moon was full and shiny - and let it sink again, homesick. |
| Vincenz Hundhausen |
A white light plays in front of my bed. Is it the morning already? I dont know. And as I raise my face doubtfully, I see the moon breaking through the clouds. I have to go back to bed and think of my home without a home. |
| Hans Schiebelhuth |
I saw moonlight in front of my bed, wondering if there wasn't frost on the ground. I raised my head, saw the mountain moon outside, I bowed my head, remembering my distant home. |
| Günter Eich |
The moonlight in front of my bed is so white that I thought it was frosty. With my head raised I look up to the moon, With my head bowed I think of the home village. |
| Dieter Ziethen |
In front of the bed I see the moon's glare glaring, I feel as if the ground is covered by a hoop. I lift my head into the light, lowering it, my thoughts roam home. |
| Daniel Roth |
Moonlight in front of my bed shines down like frost. Look up at him, sink into home. |
literature
- Hans Bethge : The Chinese Flute. Re-sealings of Chinese poetry, vol. 1. YinYang Media Verlag, Kelkheim 2001 ISBN 3-9806799-5-0
-
Günther Debon : Li Tai-Bo. Intoxication and Immortality , Verlag Kurt Desch, Munich Vienna, Basel 1958
- Günther Debon: Li Tai-bo. Poems. A selection , Philipp Reclam, Stuttgart 1962; New edition 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-018675-6
- Klabund : Li-Tai-Pe Insel, Frankfurt 1959
- Helwig Schmidt-Glintzer : History of Chinese Literature Bern 1990, ISBN 3-406-45337-6
- Erwin Ritter von Zach , Hartmut Walravens , Lutz Bieg: Li T'ai-po, Gesammelte Gedichte . Wiesbaden: IX, 2007 ISBN 978-3-447-05587-1 ; Books XI-XV, 2000 ISBN 978-3-447-04279-6 ; Books XVI-XXV and XXX, 2005 ISBN 978-3-447-05158-3
- Chang, Shoou-Huey: China reception in Yiddish . On the Li-Tai-Po translations in: Yiddistik Mitteilungen. Yiddish studies in German-speaking countries. Scientific half-yearly publication. University of Trier, 1997, issue 18, pp. 1-16 ISSN 0947-6091
- Xue, Siliang: Possibilities and Limits of the Translation of Classical Chinese Poetry into German: A Contribution to Translation Studies and Translation Criticism . Heidelberg: Groos, 1992 (TextConText Supplement 4). ISBN 3-87276-677-5 . Chapter 4 (pp. 88–128) deals exclusively with the poem Yèsī mentioned above, comparing and analyzing 11 German translations.
- 100 Tang and Song Ci Poems (Chinese / Pinyin / English, compiled and translated by Xu Yuanzhong) including two poems by Li Bai. ISBN 978-7-5001-1811-4
- 100 Tang Poems (Chinese / Pinyin / English, compiled and translated by Zhang Tingchen & Bruce M.Wilson), including 7 poems by Li Bai. ISBN 978-7-5001-1810-7
- Yan Zhao, Dieter Ziethen: I quietly hear blossoms fall - poems from the Chinese classical period . Groebenzell: Hefei Huang Verlag, 2009. ISBN 978-3-940497-24-6
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipo's archaistic allegories (古風) (Ges. Works, Book II) translated . Asia Major Volume 1, 1924, pp. 491-520, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipo's poems, III. Book (30 lyric poems) . Asia Major Volume 1, 1924, pp. 521–544, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipos poems. IV book (37 lyric poems) . Asia Major Volume 3, 1926, pp. 49–70, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipo's poetic works. I. book . Asia Major Volume 3, 1926, pp. 421–466, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipos poems. V book . Asia Major Volume 4, 1927, pp. 29–49, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
- Erwin Ritter von Zach: Lit'aipo's poems. IX. Book; Lit'aipos poems, Xth book . Asia Major, Volume 5, 1940, pp. 41–103, ihp.sinica.edu.tw (PDF)
Web links
- Literature by and about Li Bai in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by Li Bai in the Gutenberg-DE project
- Poems by Lǐ Bái (selection)
- Marleen Stoessel: Li Tai-Po: "The porcelain pavilion" . Frankfurter Anthologie, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , March 13, 2015 (Refers to a poem in the Hans Bethges anthology which was set to music by Gustav Mahler. Li Bai's authorship for this poem is doubtful.)
- http://www.kle-roth.de/Li_Bai_%C3%9Cetzungen_Daniel_Roth
Individual evidence
- ↑ Overview: people.zeelandnet.nl ( Memento of the original from May 2, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Li Bai |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 701 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 762 |