Preface：Odes of Chu State Enjoys an Everlasting Ch...
Song Deli
On the Father's Day in 2011，I imitated Qu Yuan's famous poem“Soul Summoning”to compose a poem with the same title to mourn my late father.I poured all my painstaking care into this poem to express my earnest longing and boundless admiration to my father.
Soul Summoning
The Father's Day，it has come on time.
The grace of my dad，it will never be forgotten.
Dad，I miss you.I hope you will come to have a reunion.
My dad，you have gone away for years.
Come back！Come back without any delay.
Let your soul come back！Let it come back without any
hesitation.
Dad，you were just an ordinary farmer；I was only a boy of a poor family.
You were only a mere nobody
In the eyes of the world，
But you were an upstanding and dauntless giant.
You were only a blade of grass
In the eyes of the world，
But you were a tree towering to the sky.
You were only a lump of yellow earth
In the eyes of the world，
But you were a mountain reaching the clouds.
Dad，you have gone with the wind
Leaving me not a single word，
But what you said to me when I was little
Is my Bible guiding me to advance indomitably.
You were a firefly in the eyes of the world，
But you were the moon and the sun in the sky
Which gave me unlimited light and warmth.
You were a drop of water in the eyes of the world，
But you were a boundless ocean deep as your grace.
Dad，you were only a tiny spark
In the eyes of the world，
But you are an everlasting lamp in my heart
Which has been lighting my way forward.
You were not much in the eyes of the world，
But you set me a brilliant example
And made a glorious history for me.
Dad，you have been in the paradise for years.
Is it cold or hot there as on earth？(https://www.daowen.com)
Is it noisy or peaceful there as in this world？
Do you feel boring and alone？
Oh，dad，do you miss me？
If you do，please come into my dream
And listen to me singing you
This soul-summoning-song in English！
Come back！Come back without any delay.
Let your soul come back！
Let it come back without any hesitation.
After that，I posted it in my blogs and received quite a few follow-up comments.From then on，I posted this poem in my blogs every Father's Day.The reason I did this is that I love Qu Yuan's poems and respect his behavior.
As a literary translator，I translated many Chinese ancient classics，except for novels，including all sorts of poetry of Tang Dynasty，iambic verse of Song Dynasty，drama of Yuan Dynasty，The Book of Songs，chuci，yuefu poems.
Chuci was a new type poetry created by Qu Yuan，the great poet in the Warring States Period.It was，after the Book of Songs，either a general poetry collection which exerted far-reaching influence on Chinese literature or the first general collection of romantic poetry in the history of Chinese literature.With the literature forms and dialect phonology of Chu State（the present Hunan and Hubei Provinces），the poet described the landscape and figures，history and amorous feelings of Chu area.These poems had a strong local color so they were called Odes of Chu State.
Though odes of Chu State were produced as early as in the Warring States Period，yet the formal title“chuci”appeared at the beginning of Western Han Dynasty.The book was edited by Liu Xiang and given headlines and notes by Wang Yi in Eastern Han Dynasty.This book originally included sixteen pieces composed by Qu Yuan and Song Yu in the Warring States Period and Huainan Xiaoshan，Dongfang Shuo，Wang Bao，Liu Xiang in Han Dynasty.Later on，Wang Yi added Nine Thoughts and thus the collection included seventeen pieces at last.The whole book took Qu Yuan's works as its main contents.The others were composed just in the forms of Qu Yuan's works.Here I have selected and translated nine of Qu Yuan's and one of Song Yu's（Nine Debates），ten in all.Authors are no longer indicated in the book.
Chuci exerted unique meanings on the Chinese cultural system，especially on the aspect of literature.It initiated the poetry of Chinese romantic literature.It was just because of this，were the literature works in this style from then on called the Chuci Style.As for the four categories of Chinese literature，namely，poetry，novel，prose and drama，they were all affected by chuci to various degrees.
The subject on chuci and its relevant research was called chuci Studies.This work was introduced to Japan as early as in the flourishing Tang Dynasty.It went into Europe after the 16th century.In the 19th century，it was already paid extensive attention to by European countries.Translations in varied languages and research works began appearing in large amount.In the field of international Sinology，chuci has long been one of the research hotspots.
Since this is a translation，the translating style is to be mentioned unavoidably.The style in the translation of chuci is quite different to ones I adopted in my other translations.The most precious one is that I adopted relatively long sentences because I think that the poet was never successful in his whole life.Therefore，all of his works were in a depressed mood.In view of this，I adopted relatively long sentences so as to put my translation into a solemn atmosphere.
Because of another character，namely，each of his works was too long，or somewhat too long at least，I want to help readers avoid reading fatigue by using sentences in pairs.All pairs were separated from each other by a space.And each sentence within a pair had a same length or one to two letters more or less.The first four pairs of Ode to Orange are as follows.
Essence of heaven and earth fostered orange trees.
By nature they're used to the water and soil in here.
Their inborn features could never change.
They will live in the south Chu State forever.
Deep-rooted their nature cannot be changed.
They're determined not to break their words.
The leaves are fresh with white flowers.
White and pure they are lovely indeed.
As far as rhyme is concerned，my translation belongs to free verse.Therefore there is no strict restriction.Yet I did my best to perfect it anyway.The first four pairs of sentences of Leaving Sorrowfully are as follows.
I'm offspring of the ancient emperor Gaoyang.
I was told that my late father's name was Boyong.
In the month of Yin and in the year of Yin，
I was born exactly in the day of Gengyin.
My father thought about my birth time，very careful.
Then he gave me a nice name that was matched well.
Lingjun is a name given by my father.
My formal name was called Zhengze.
Besides，there were a lot of Chinese plant names in the original works.It's sorry there is no equivalent in English.Even if there are，they are too long or strange to the common readers because they are usually jargons.In view of that the purpose of the poet was not to emphasize the plant names in themselves but only to borrow them to express his inner feelings，I adopted a flexible way of Chinese pinyin to translate these plant names.In order to remind readers，I used inclined letters，such as lingzhi for lucid ganoderma，zhilan for a sort of orchid named zhi.
In a word，Chuci is a great work.Its brilliant light will shine the Chinese literature forever.Its charm will draw more and more attention both at home and abroad.
At last，I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the following experts who gave me great help，including three editors Tian Rui，Ye Shufen and Wan Furong，and two experts Xu Zhixiao and Yan Xiaojiang.Professor Xu of Fudan University was in charge of the proof-reading of my Chinese manuscript.Professor Yan of Natong Univerty was in charge of the proof-reading of my English translation.Their elaborate work guaranteed the high quality of this book.
April，2017，New Jersey，USA