Awakened Cosmos: The Mind of Classical Chinese Poetry

A deep and radically original exploration of Taoist and Chan (Zen) Buddhist wisdom through the lens of the life and work of Tu Fu, widely considered Chinas greatest classical poet.What is consciousness but the Cosmos awakened to itself? This question is fundamental to the Taoist and Chan (Zen) Buddhist worldview that shapes classical Chinese poetry. A uniquely conceived biography, Awakened Cosmos illuminates that worldview through the life and work of Tu Fu (712-770 C.E.), Chinas greatest classical poet. Tu Fus writing traces his life from periods of relative normalcy to years spent as an impoverished refugee amid the devastation of civil war. Exploring key poems to guide the reader through Tu Fus dramatic life, Awakened Cosmos reveals Taoist/Chan insight deeply lived across the full range of human experience.Each chapter presents a poem in three stages: first, the original Chinese; then, an English translation in Hintons masterful style; and finally, a lyrical essay that discusses the untranslatable philosophical dimensions of the poem. The result is nothing short of remarkable: a biography of the Cosmos awakened to itself in the form of a magisterial poet alive in Tang Dynasty China.Thirty years ago, David Hinton published Americas first full-length translation of Tu Fus work. Awakened Cosmos is published simultaneously with a newly translated and substantially expanded version of that landmark translation: The Selected Poems of Tu Fu: Expanded and Newly Translated (New Directions).