Works
Du Mu was skilled in shi, fu and ancient Chinese prose. He is best known as the writer of sensual, lyrical quatrains featuring historical sites or romantic situations, and often the themes of separation, decadence, or impermanence. His style blends classical imagery and diction with striking juxtapositions, colloquialisms, or other wordplay. He also wrote long narrative poems, as well as a commentary on the Art of War and many letters of advice to high officials.
One of his best-known poetry is "Qingming Festival" (Qingming Festival is a day of remembrance for the dead when people visit the graves of their ancestors to pay respect.)
-
-
- 清明
- 清明時節雨紛紛，
- 路上行人欲斷魂。
- 借問酒家何處有？
- 牧童遙指杏花村。
- Qingming Festival
On day of Qingming Festival, a drizzly rain falls.
On the road, the traveller, disconsolate.
Enquiring, where can an inn be found?
A cowherd boy points, far away, to Apricot Blossom Village. -
Read more about this topic: Du Mu
Famous quotes containing the word works:
“The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)
“His character as one of the fathers of the English language would alone make his works important, even those which have little poetical merit. He was as simple as Wordsworth in preferring his homely but vigorous Saxon tongue, when it was neglected by the court, and had not yet attained to the dignity of a literature, and rendered a similar service to his country to that which Dante rendered to Italy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“I know no subject more elevating, more amazing, more ready to the poetical enthusiasm, the philosophical reflection, and the moral sentiment than the works of nature. Where can we meet such variety, such beauty, such magnificence?”
—James Thomson (1700–1748)