Re: poetry

In a message dated 2000:09:21 7:30:45 PM, romilly@EGL.NET writes:

>Attn. Yoon Ha Lee, and czHANg too, though he probably knows:
>>Wow.  :-p  I must see if Chinese poetry is available in English
>>translation--reading poetry in translation makes me wince, but I honestly
>>don't have the time right now to learn Chinese from scratch without help!>
>
>Something of a classic is Arthur Waley's _Translations from the Chinese_,
>Knopf 1919, 1941 (maybe later too).  English only-- but nice poems.
    Yes, Waley is well-known. Nice stuff if you like a flowery rendition of
the original Chinese. Waley took some liberties in translating poetry
(understandable considering Classical Chinese poetry is notoriously
elliptical in the extreme - almost like contemporary Language poetry here in
the "west."  He had to "fill in" areas in order make it more sensible to
English readers.)

    Again I recommend the translations of Wai-Lim Yip: _Chinese Poetry: An
Anthology of Major Modes and Genres_ , Duke University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-822
3-1946-2, available via Amazon.com....(in English with original Chinese AND
word-by-word interlinear!)

    Waley's translations of prose on the other hand is admired by most (even
Chinese who are bilingual, I have heard...). My favourite Waley is his
translation of _Monkey: Journey to the West_.
    Highly recommend picaresque tale of China's counterpart to the
NativeAmerican TricksterGod Coyote!!!! (Monkey, a.k.a. Sun Wu K'ung, Sage
Equal to Heaven, is one of my childhood heroes... might explain why I tend to
being whimsical & mischievious...)

    okay, I have written enough...
    czHANg