More Poems By The “Cold Poet” Meng Chiao

Photo: Angela (ang156 on Flickr)

"When he pours his libation of tears to the ghosts in the stream / The ghosts gather, a shimmer on the waves." -- Meng Chiao

Today, I’m reading poetry by Meng Chiao, from Poems of the Late T’ang, edited and translated by A. C. Graham, published by New York Review Books Classics.

Classical Chinese poetry reached its pinnacle during the T’ang Dynasty (618-907 AD), and the poets of the late T’ang are known for combining formal innovation and raw emotional intensity.  Meng Chiao, know as the “cold poet,” wrote of the remote high mountains and a retreat from civilization.

A. C. Graham, the translator of today’s poems, was born in 1919 and taught in the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.  He was a well-known translator of Chinese philosophy and literature.  He died in 1991.

In this podcast I read the poems: “On Mount Ching,” “Wanderer’s Song,” “Song of the Old Man of the Hills,” “Autumn Thoughts” (Two of fifteen),  and “The Stones Where the Haft Rotted.”