A magnificent achievement! Sarah Allan, Dartmouth College Sukhu's elegant English translation belies years of meticulous scholarship to give the modern reader some sense of the extraordinarily difficult original. They are also an invaluable source for research on ancient myths, legends, and cosmology. The Songs of Chu contain some of the most beautiful language in early Chinese literature.

Offers both faithful, accessible renderings of notoriously challenging verse as well as an exacting revision of previous scholarly reception.Those engaged in the study and instruction of Chinese literature, and early poetry in particular, will find in The Songs of Chu an invaluable resource for many years to come. It accounts for the new view of the state of Chu that recent discoveries have inspired. This translation attempts to replicate what the work might have meant to those for whom it was originally intended, rather than settle for what it was made to mean by those who inherited it. Qu Yuan was as important to the development of Chinese literature as Homer was to the development of Western literature. The religious milieu responsible for their imagery supplies the backdrop for his most famous work, Li sao, which translates shamanic longing for a spirit lover into the yearning for an ideal king that is central to the ancient philosophies of China. Its shaman hymns are among the most beautiful and mysterious liturgical works in the world. His work, which forms the core of the The Songs of Chu, the second oldest anthology of Chinese poetry, derives its imagery from shamanistic ritual.

Sources show Qu Yuan (?340–278 BCE) was the first person in China to become famous for his poetry, so famous in fact that the Chinese celebrate his life with a national holiday called Poet's Day, or the Dragon Boat Festival.

The Book of Songs by Stephen Owen