Selected Poems of Li He

Author: Li He
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: The overall characteristics of Li He's poetry, as noted by predecessors, are indeed strange and fantastical. Take his poem "Annoying the Duke" as an example. He puts immense effort into depicting the figure and demeanor of the characters, seeking novelty in his words, with lavish and ornate imagery everywhere. Predecessors often criticized this poem as obscure and difficult to understand. In reality, Li He's poem employs many omissions and hints, creating a hazy and ethereal realm, where we can appreciate the elegant lines and marvelous thoughts within, even without fully grasping the meaning.
The line "Singing voice like spring grass dew" is brilliant in its use of spring grass dew to describe the round and clear quality of the singing voice, fitting and appropriate. "Hair heavy as mist coiled, waist light as wind leaning" perfectly captures the graceful and alluring charm of a beautiful woman, her every gesture full of charm. The descriptions in the poem are dense and fragmented, yet sometimes repetitive. This is like a cluster of wildflowers—each branch exudes fragrance, the colors are vibrant, yet the branches are tangled and lack arrangement. However, we can appreciate the beauty of spring in this tangle.
The last four lines of "Annoying the Duke" begin from two perspectives. The first two lines express the longing and frustration of finding the beautiful woman unattainable ("Seeking palace willows in the Han gardens, the bridge over the river is blocked by the alarm bell"). The last two lines depict the wife's malicious amusement at the poet's misfortune in love ("Moonlight awakens the wife, she should laugh at the empty hall"). This oddity and cunning add to the strangeness of Li He's poetry.
The extraordinary emotions and subtle thoughts are Li He's greatest strengths. In "The Tomb of Su Xiaoxiao," the poet begins with the ghost in his imagination. The orchid dew resembles tears, the orchids like smoke, the lush green grass, and the cool wind among pines and firs form a world of ghosts. Poems like "The Lady of Xiang" and "The Prince of Qin Drinking" share similar characteristics, becoming a prominent feature in Li He's poetry.
The emergence of Li He's distinctive style of poetry in the mid-Tang literary scene was partly determined by the inevitable trend of Tang poetry's development. By the time of Li Bai and Du Fu, the themes, techniques, and forms of Tang poetry had reached an extremely high level. They were monumental achievements, yet also insurmountable obstacles. The situation of mid-Tang poets was precisely this: the brilliance of their predecessors served as a reference, and after the clamor of the literary scene subsided, they could calmly inherit and innovate—necessity compelled them to observe and reflect more finely, to dig deeper, and to explore more broadly.
Compared to Li Bai and Du Fu, mid-Tang poets' styles were less fluid, their forms less refined, their tone less profound, and their minds less broad. However, their forms, techniques, and sentence structures underwent even greater changes. The result of this development was the vibrant and diverse mid-Tang literary scene, where each style had its own charm. The diverse styles of poetry in the mid-Tang literary scene perfectly reflect this invaluable uniqueness, making it the very essence of their individuality and achievements.