I recently added this post, Three Poems of Po Chu-i. It is a small sample of the work of Po Chu-i (772-846), one of China’s most enduringly popular poets.
The first of the three extracts collected in this post appeared in NL Clay’s Advanced English Exercises (1939), in a section on the validity of arguments.
“THOSE who speak know nothing;
Those who know are silent.”
These words, as I am told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzu.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzu
Was himself one who knew,
How comes it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?
It would also have deserved a place among Clay’s exercises in reading aloud.
Po Chu-i was known (and at times scolded) for the natural simplicity of his verse, but it was that very quality that helped his work to endure. All three poems in this post are simple and direct, yet full of thought-provoking reflection.