Customer Reviews

Five T'ang Poets

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Verses, however masterly, cannot be translated literally from one language into another without losing much of their beauty and dignity." (Bede, English writer and historian, AD 673-735)

For the translator of poetry, and Chinese poetry in particular, the question is: shall I be true to the letter or to the spirit? Usually the answer lies somewhere in the middle. The best translations aim to be true to the spirit without violating the letter more than necessary.

David Young, a poet himself, hopes to be true to the spirit of the five poets from the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-906) while at the same time trying to create poetry in a different language and period. The impulse that lies behind his book is to rescue the poets "from the often wooden and dogged versions of the scholars" and to recreate the beauty and dignity of the poetry in a language used by an American poet at the end of the 20th century. The results are marvelously readable, beautiful translations that I enjoyed more than any other translations of Chinese poetry I have read before or since.

Preceding the translations, Young has written a short introduction to each of the poets. These include a discussion of the special qualities of the poets' works and a selection of recommended translations by other English authors.

The five poets represented in this book are (1) Wang Wei, a devout Buddhist and the Chinese poet of landscape par excellence who wrote poems of a deeply religious sensibility; (2) Li Po, the Chinese archetype of the "bohemian artist and puckish wanderer," a poet beloved for his Taoist unconventionality; (3) Tu Fu, China's greatest poet according to a widely held view because of his technical brilliance and "vigorous poetry that manages to transcend unhappiness and melancholy by its enormous range and immense humanity"; (4) Li Ho, a poet usually not ranked with the Big Three because he is too innovative and defies classification; and (5) Li Shang-yin, who has a reputation as a decadent versifier but, as Young shows, is a "human and humane artist who feels deeply and sees deeply into mysteries of our common existence."

One of my favorite poems in this collection is "Returning to my cottage." It is a good example of Wang Wei's ability to capture stillness and movement in a landscape, to balance observations of things distant and close by, and to create from these images an atmosphere of serenity tinged with sadness. It is a good example for David Young's style of translation, too:

A bell in the distance
the sound floats
down the valley

one by one
woodcutters and fishermen
stop work, start home

the mountains move off
into darkness

alone, I turn home
as great clouds beckon
from the horizon

the wind stirs delicate vines
and water chestnut shoots
catkin fluff sails past

in the marsh to the east
new growth
vibrates with color

it's sad
to walk in the house
and shut the door.

Bottom line: This is one of the few anthologies of classical Chinese poetry in which the English versions of the poems really sound like poetry. There is nothing of the stiff formality and awkwardness of most other translations that disable the lyric voice of the verses. These translations are full of the beauty and dignity of the Chinese originals.

My best friend in this world (outside of my wonderful family) is a guy that I only get to see every few years. He's like the wind. He blows in and out of my life. But he's always in my heart. We are poets.

Being a poet is not a choice. It is a life sentence.

My friend and I are dissimilar in so many ways that it is remarkable that we don't break out in a fight the instant we come into each other's presence. Yet...and yet...

Hearts touched by the flame always find warmth in good company.

Imagine my joy then, at finding a new brother (one from over a thousand years ago) when I picked up this book and met Li Po.

I won't bother you much longer with my words. Instead, let me introduce you to Li Po himself:

Drinking in Moonlight




I sit with my wine jar
among flowers
blossoming trees

no one to drink with

well, there's the moon

I raise my cup
and ask him to join me
bringing my shadow
making us three

but the moon doesn't seem to be drinking
and my shadow creeps around behind me

still, we're companions tonight
me, the moon, and the shadow
we're observing the rites of spring

I sing
and the moon rocks back and forth

I dance
and my shadow tumbles with me

We celebrate for awhile
then go our own ways, drunk

may we meet again someday
in the white river of stars
overhead!

I first read David Young's amazing translations of these great T'ang poets seventeen years ago, when I was one of his students at Oberlin College in Ohio, and they started me on a lifetime of reading and loving these astonishingly ancient and contemporary sounding poets. There is something vibrantly alive, immediate, and inspiring about these 8th century words and the personalities of their wise, striking authors. In reading many translations, you won't find many as clear and right.

This is THE book of translated Chinese poems which opened my eyes to the art of poetry. I've since searched for and read many others, but this remains the best. The translations are masterful - lucid, transparent, simple, and, in English, stand as wonderful poems in their own right.

The Five Tang Poets covered in this book are wonderful.

Wang Wei excellent landscape poems take you to places which are wonderous while not over iydllic. Tu Fu is sad and poinant, talking about the scenes of war. Li Po talks of drinking and intoxication in a way that seems that it is a way of life

Young translates in a free verse form using simple words and goes for the feeling of the poem. The poems are not 100 % literal translations but they are jems. I feel like I am having some of my chinese friends translating a poem for me and they say this is the best I can do you will have to read Chinese to fully understand the poem completely. Young takes us as far as one can go in our language. He took on a difficult task to bring these poems so simple in language and so complex in context and emotion to life, Young has done an excellent job with the tool of the English language

I mean here are these guys living in the 8th century (western) who are as erudite and insightful as any poets to follow. I read and reread them and try to imagine what their live were like - without any form of engineered capability beyond fire and the wheel - and yet with the sophistication of Browning and the insights of Yeats. To me it is awe inspiring and amazing.

This was a lovely small compilation of selections from these major poets! This little book is well worth the price!

I rarely read poetry, but there's something terribly appealing about an ancient culture where bureaucrats routinely wrote poems. And so I occasionally buy books like this one. The five poets sampled here wrote in the eighth and ninth century, the richest period of Chinese poetry.

I liked everything about the book, from the engaging preface to the last poignant verse. Translator David Young starts out by sharing his creative process with us. He's a poet himself, on a mission to save his T'ang poets from the wooden translations of dry scholars. And amazingly, he's contrived to render the poems without footnotes!

Young carefully selects the poems he wants us to enjoy, writing a mini-introduction to the works of each poet. Here he succinctly sums up the poetic personality of the writer, his preoccupations and events that influenced his style.

I was delighted with Wang Wei, the devout painter-poet wandering in a vast wild landscape, finally kneeling by a lake...

meditating
to chase away
the poison dragon of emotion

Li Po I found witty and winsome, inviting the moon to be his drinking companion.

Tu Fu charmed me with his candor:

I wanted my picture to hang
in the hall of fame, the Unicorn Gallery
now in old age
I waddle with the ducks and snowy herons

And I was intrigued by the lives and methods of Li Ho, young poet of extremes, and Li Shang-Yin, clever wielder of allusion.

With this captivating collection, David Young has inspired me to read more T'ang poetry.