No More Learning

Since the lecturer has raised the question whether Li T'ai-po or Tu
Fu is the greater poet, I would say that the Chinese of the present
day consider Tu Fu to be the greater. It strikes me as curious that
European people who know something about Chinese poetry should prefer
Li T'ai-po. Perhaps very few people have heard of Tu Fu. Certainly
there is no translation of the most important of Tu Fu's poems in the
English language. In China every child who has studied poetry knows
something about Tu Fu's poems. Tu Fu is placed first by the Chinese
because he is the greatest national poet. He expresses national
feelings in a way that can be appreciated by everybody. Li T'ai-po's
poems deal chiefly with wine and women, love and sensual things, but
Tu Fu's poems are full of men and women, elderly people and children,
their joy, their anguish, the hardship of the soldier, and things of
that sort. In a word, Tu Fu's poetry expresses what we ordinary men and
women wish to express and cannot.

Mr. G. WILLOUGHBY-MEADE: One or two observations occur to me in
connection with the translation of this poetry into English. The two
greatest reading publics are the Anglo-American and the Chinese. The
Anglo-American people have produced an enormous amount of poetry which
they do not often quote, and the Chinese have produced an enormous
amount of poetry which, according to experts, they quote a great deal.
Now, at the present moment that peculiar British shyness for quoting
poetry seems to have largely disappeared in consequence of the writings
of soldier poets.
These poems have been written under conditions of
great danger, difficulty, and discomfort, and it seems to me that it
would be a very good thing if poetry illustrating the thought of these
men could be placed before the Anglo-American public.

The CHAIRMAN proposed a hearty vote of thanks to the Lecturer, which
was carried by acclamation.




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* * * * *

Transcriber's Note

p. 10 "Ch'i Kuan" changed to "Ch'i Kuan""





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