Lament in Love

The verses of Qu Yuan (340-278 BC)

For two millennia, Qu Yuan has been honoured as the first Romantic poet in East Asia. During the Warring States, the prodigious aristocrat and statesman was twice exiled, and wrote verses in the Chu dialect, liberating poetry from the four-syllable metre.

The prodigious aristocrat Qu Yuan was a minister of Chu, a major power during the Warring States. Pressing for Vertical Alliance but not listened to, he was twice exiled. Bewailing affliction, he wrote verses in the Chu dialect, and liberated poetry from the four-syllable metre. Qu Yuan's vers libre, like his suicide, has been immortalised in East Asia, as one honours the Romantic poet and a wounded statesman, ill-treated and loyal to the end. Attribution to Qu Yuan has at times been disputed; some opuses stand emblematic. Two prose pieces and two poems are offered in a new translation by Mingyuan Hu. This book is part of the Erstwhile Series.

Contributor: Mingyuan Hu (Translated by), Mingyuan Hu (Edited by)

Translator: Mingyuan Hu

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