Editing Li Bai (section)

==Translation==
Li Bai's poetry was introduced to Europe by [[Jean Joseph Marie Amiot]], a Jesuit missionary in Beijing, in his ''Portraits des Célèbres Chinois'', published in the series ''Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les mœurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois, par les missionnaires de Pekin''. (1776–1797).<ref name="Obata, v"/> Further translations into French were published by [[Marie-Jean-Léon, Marquis d'Hervey de Saint Denys|Marquis d'Hervey de Saint-Denys]] in his 1862 ''Poésies de l'Époque des Thang''.<ref name="Saint-Denys">
D'Hervey de Saint-Denys (1862). ''Poésies de l'Époque des Thang'' (Amyot, Paris). See Minford, John and Lau, Joseph S. M. (2000). ''Classic Chinese Literature'' (Columbia University Press) {{ISBN|978-0-231-09676-8}}.</ref>

[[Joseph Edkins]] read a paper, "On Li Tai-po", to the Peking Oriental Society in 1888, which was subsequently published in that society's journal.<ref>Obata, [https://archive.org/details/workslipochines00conggoog <!-- quote=Mr. Edkins' paper. --> p. v.]</ref> The early sinologist [[Herbert Allen Giles]] included translations of Li Bai in his 1898 publication ''Chinese Poetry in English Verse'', and again in his ''[[History of Chinese Literature]]'' (1901).<ref>Obata, v–vi</ref> The third early translator into English was L. Cranmer-Byng (1872–1945). His ''Lute of Jade: Being Selections from the Classical Poets of China'' (1909) and ''A Feast of Lanterns'' (1916) both featured Li's poetry.

Renditions of Li Bai's poetry into [[Modernist poetry in English#Imagism|modernist English poetry]] were influential through [[Ezra Pound#Ripostes, translation work|Ezra Pound]] in ''Cathay'' (1915) and [[Amy Lowell]] in ''Fir-Flower Tablets'' (1921). Neither worked directly from the Chinese: Pound relied on more or less literal, word for word, though not terribly accurate, translations of [[Ernest Fenollosa]] and what Pound called the "decipherings" of professors Mori and Ariga; Lowell on those of [[Florence Ayscough]]. [[Witter Bynner]] with the help of [[Kiang Kang-hu]] included several of Li's poems in ''The Jade Mountain'' (1939). Although Li was not his preferred poet, [[Arthur Waley]] translated a few of his poems into English for the ''Asiatic Review'', and included them in his ''More Translations from the Chinese''. Shigeyoshi Obata, in his 1922 ''The Works of Li Po'', claimed he had made "the first attempt ever made to deal with any single Chinese poet exclusively in one book for the purpose of introducing him to the English-speaking world."<ref name="Obata, v">Obata, v</ref> A translation of Li Bai's poem ''Green Moss'' by poet William Carlos Williams was sent as a letter to Chinese American poet David Rafael Wang where Williams was seen as having a similar tone as Pound.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://jacket2.org/commentary/wcws-voice-near-end-green-moss|title = WCW's voice near the end: Green moss &#124; Jacket2}}</ref>

Li Bai became a favorite among translators for his straightforward and seemingly simple style. Later translations are too numerous to discuss here, but an extensive selection of Li's poems, translated by various translators, is included in John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, ''Classical Chinese Literature'' (2000)<ref>Ch 19 "Li Bo (701–762): The Banished Immortal" Introduction by Burton Watson; translations by Elling Eide; Ezra Pound; Arthur Cooper,  David Young;  five poems in multiple translations, in John Minford and Joseph S. M. Lau, eds.,  ''Classical Chinese Literature'' (New York; Hong Kong: Columbia University Press; The Chinese University Press,  2000), pp. 721–763.</ref> For a more recent publication, see the selection of Li Bai's poetry in Chinese and in English translation, with biographical context and commentary, in Susan Wan Dolling's ''My China in Tang Poetry, Book 1: Superstars'' (2024).<ref>{{citation|last=Dolling |first=Susan Wan  |date=2024 |title=Superstars: My China in Tang Poetry, Book 1 |location=Hong Kong|publisher=[[Earnshaw Books]] |isbn=978-988-8843-71-8}}.</ref>