I first met the poetry of Tu Fu almost sixty years ago when I was teaching at Berkeley Prep in Tampa and one of the students (hi, Evan) lent me his copy of Chinese poems, translated by Kenneth Rexroth.
I soon acquired my own copy and I still love the poetry, especially that of Tu Fu.
By the Winding River
Every day on the way home fromMy office, I pawn another Of my Spring clothes. Every dayI come home from the river bankDrunk. Everywhere I go, I oweMoney for wine. HistoryRecords few men who lived to beSeventy. I watch the yellowButterflies drink deep of theFlowers, and the dragonfliesDipping the surface of theWater again and again.I cry out to the Spring wind, And the light and the passing hours,We enjoy life such a little While, why should men cross each other? Tu Fu