The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry [Paperback]

Eliot Weinberger (Editor)

Book Description

Series: New Directions Paperbook | Publication Date: October 30, 2004

A groundbreaking anthology of classical Chinese translations by giants of Modern American poetry.

A rich compendium of translations, The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry is the first collection to look at Chinese poetry through its enormous influence on American poetry. Weinberger begins with Ezra Pound's Cathay (1915), and includes translations by three other major U.S. poets—William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder—and an important poet-translator-scholar, David Hinton, all of whom have long been associated with New Directions.

Moreover, it is the first general anthology ever to consider the process of translation by presenting different versions of the same poem by various translators, as well as examples of the translators rewriting themselves. The collection, at once playful and instructive, serves as an excellent introduction to the art and tradition of Chinese poetry, gathering some 250 poems by nearly 40 poets. The anthology also includes previously uncollected translations by Pound; a selection of essays on Chinese poetry by all five translators, some never published before in book form; Lu Chi's famous "Rhymeprose on Literature" translated by Achilles Fang; biographical notes that are a collage of poems and comments by both the American translators and the Chinese poets themselves; and also Weinberger's excellent introduction that historically contextualizes the influence Chinese poetry has had on the work of American poets.

Editorial Reviews

Review

A magnificent collection....Hinton takes his place as our era's preeminent literary translator of Chinese. -- Jim Schley, Vermont Magazine, September/October 2004

A valuable and pleasurable volume. -- Elimae Books, Cooper Renner, 3 February 2005

An example of cultural cross-fertilization at its best. -- Conger Beasley, Jr., New Letters, Winter 2004/05

Arguably...the most influential and divergent English translations that modern and contemporary poets produced. -- American Poet, Spring 2004

One of the Best International Books of the Year, 2003. -- The [London] Times Literary Supplement

Organized with care and a sort of brilliance, it expresses, like the poems, a multi-dimensional aesthetic and indomitable energy. -- The Providence Journal, Tom D'Evelyn, 29 May 2005

The Best Anthology of 2003. -- Contemporary Poetry Review

The one Chinese poetry anthology to have if you're only having one. -- Jeff Simon, Buffalo News, 27 July 2004

Two hundred and fifty Chinese poems...possessed of vividness and immediacy that still quiver on the page. -- Foreword, Melanie Drane, May/June 2005

About the Author

Translator and essayist Eliot Weinberger's first study of multiple Chinese translations was the perennially popular 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei. New Directions publishes three collections of his inventive essays. Other books include 9/12 (political essays), a translation of Jorge Luis Borges' Selected Non-Fictions (winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), and translations of Octavio Paz, Vicente Huidobro, Homero Aridjis, and Bei Dao. In 1992, he was the first recipient of the PEN/Kolovakas Award for the promotion of Hispanic literature in the US, and in 2000 was the first American literary writer awarded the Order of the Aztec Eagle by the Mexican government.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: New Directions (October 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811216055
• ISBN-13: 978-0811216050
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #401,966 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #59 in Books > Literature & Fiction > World Literature > Chinese

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Making It New, May 11, 2003

By 

Kevin Maynard (ST ALBANS, Hertfordshire United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry (Hardcover)

The rediscovery of Greek and Roman literature kickstarted the Renaissance in Europe. In a similar way, though on a somewhat smaller scale, the conveniently Imagist makeover of Chinese poetry by Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell undoubtedly had a seismic and far-reaching effect on later 20th century American poetry. In his learned Introduction to this outstanding and indispensable Anthology, Weinberger traces the many subsequent debts owed by a galaxy of fine American poets to that seminal work of re-invention. Such impressively talented scholar-translators as Burton Watson, J. P Seaton, Jonathan Chaves and several others receive an honourable mention, though their work is well anthologised elsewhere, and Weinberger's brief seems to have been only to include full-time poets: with the possible exception of Hinton, that is. (However, Sam Hamill's, Arthur Sze's and David Young's names have inexplicably been left out: all three of them marvellous contemporary re-interpreters of the classical Chinese tradition, and all three fine poets in their own right.)

Weinberger concentrates in particular on five exemplary writers: Ezra Pound himself, William Carlos Williams, Kenneth Rexroth, Gary Snyder, and David Hinton. They are certainly all major figures, and it's useful to have them grouped together in this way (particular since the last of them diverges in such interesting ways from the Imagist 'Less is More' tradition: though he certainly 'makes it new' in accordance with that central dictum, which is even quoted in the original Chinese characters both on the cover and on the titlepage).

I thought I already knew quite a lot about American translators from classical Chinese---a whole shelf of mine already groans under their weight---but the William Carlos Williams renderings were entirely new to me, and so were some of the later Pound translations.

For this reader it's hard to contain his excitement at such a beautifully produced edition (only spoiled by a spine-label that's somehow been glued on upside down), and I recommend anyone interested in either recent American poetry or in the classical Chinese tradition to go out and buy it straight away. It will admirably complement Minford and Lau's recent historical anthology of all translations (both European and American, and both scholarly and 'creative'), which of course covers a much broader range, but which is similarly ground-breaking and enthralling to read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chanting the Splendid Achievements of Forebears, December 12, 2007

By 

Crazy Fox (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The New Directions Anthology of Classical Chinese Poetry (Paperback)

This is a superb anthology several times over. First and foremost, it brings together in one book several centuries of the finest classical poetry from China, starting at the beginning with selections from "The Book of Odes" and drawing a finish line at the end of the Sung Dynasty in 1279. Pretty much all the major poets from the T'ang and Sung are represented here along with earlier masters like T'ao Ch'ien and many interesting lesser-known figures throughout. And in line with New Directions' general attitude that poems should sound like poems, the translations here all flow musically and ring harmoniously in the mind's ear.

Still, there are many other excellent anthologies of Chinese poetry as well. What really distinguishes this one is that all five of the translators are accomplished American poets in their own right. Here we find the eccentric, wildly inaccurate and yet sometimes intuitively ingenious renderings by Ezra Pound, the tersely colloquial if likewise linguistically careless versions by William Carlos Williams, the sensitive and quietly subtle though pretty much reliable verses by Kenneth Rexroth, the deeply spiritual explorations of nature with a counter-cultural edge by Gary Snyder, and finally the translations of David Hinton which alchemically combine poetic sensibility and academic acumen in a proper balance. All in one anthology.

Much more than a mere continuum of accuracy (from less to more) is to be found here, though. Looking only through the somewhat eccentric gaze of these five poet-translators also makes this book something of a history of American literature's long engagement and fascination with the Chinese poetic tradition and, more specifically, of that tradition's influence and impact on modern American poetry itself--a payoff supplemented by the editor's fine introduction discussing this phenomenon in some detail as well as rare, hard-to-find essays by the poets themselves on the subject. Taking this unusual tack also makes this book a study in the undeniably haphazard art of translation itself, for the editor frequently includes different translations of the same poem--seeing how Ezra Pound and Gary Snyder both interpreted and rendered the same original into very different English versions is pretty instructive and enlightening. In one case we are even shown how Kenneth Rexroth translated the same poems quite differently over time, once in 1956 and again in 1970. Personally I found this to be a fascinating highlight really distinctive if not utterly unique to this anthology.

So whether your primary interest is in Classical Chinese poetry or Modernist American poetry, this anthology is a modern classic in and of itself. And if you happen to be intrigued by how these two traditions interacted and entangled themselves in one of the great cultural interactions of human history, this is an indispensable book for your collection.