How to Read Chinese Poetry: A Guided Anthology (How to Read Chinese Literature)

Robert Frost called poetry that which is "lost in translation", but this marvelous volume does its best to remedy that situation. Zong-qi Cai assembles an intense band of absolutely passionate scholars to delve deeply into over 140 examples of classic Chinese poetry. Each poem is part of a chapter devoted to a particular style and period of Chinese poetry, and most are given in both traditional Chinese, pinyin, and English translation, together with a paragraph placing the poem in context and providing some exegesis, AND a series of on-line sound files that let you hear the poem in Chinese.The translations on their own range from serviceable to brilliant, with most falling in the massive chasm in between. The great translators of Chinese poetry, Rexroth, Pound, Hinton, almost universally turn out better poems inspired by the Chinese original. However, the poems presented do a wonderful job of helping even those with little or no Chinese (I am in the "little" category myself) bridge over into the Chinese version, because they struggle to be faithful to both the vocabulary and structure of the original. Combined with the pinyin and sound file, even someone with no Chinese at all can "find" much of what the translation might have otherwise "lost", belying Mr. Frost's pithiness. Taken together with the material presented on the poem, the translations become almost universally brilliant. I have found no better access into the untranslatable than this volume.Perhaps the most masterful chapter is on the Tung era Shi poetry, a pentasyllablic "regulated" verse, by Zong-qi Cai himself, where he not only provides us with a clear and straightforward explanation of the poetic structures that define the genre but also gives us a cosmological explanation of how those structures reflect a "yin-yang" balance, and then shows us how the structures and cosmology play out in several well-known Tang-era poems. In these few packed pages, we come to understand what Du Fu was doing better than we can by reading whole volumes about him and his work. This changed the way I read Tang poetry (whether in translation or not).Even if this chapter stands out, however, the quality of the book is consistently excellent, and each chapter deserves to be savored slowly; each is packed with wisdom and beauty. I have called this both one of the best books ON poetry and OF poetry I have come across, and the authors have also graced us as well with a workbook that is geared toward the Chinese learner, and gives us an opportunity to work closely with another 100 poems building vocabulary and translation ability. The authors also set up a facebook page devoted to following through with the work of the book.A quick word on the sound files: they cater to learners of Chinese, and are somewhat stilted and over-enunciated. This makes them easier to follow for English-speakers, but perhaps not as beautiful as some other readings you might hear. The editorial decision is very much in line with helping us access the untranslatable, even without much language training, but after getting that access, it is worth seeking out more expressive readings.

Whether you read Chinese or not, this is a wonderful introduction to a fabulous realm that most in the West do not know. This book allows you to understand and appreciate the expression in Chinese poetry as well as the underlying philosophies and customs and the rhyme and meter. An outstanding book!

I took a long time to read this book, about 8 or 9 months. I kept being blown away and then coming back to it. There's also the frustration of wanting to be able to appreciate this material MUCH better, but I can't imagine a better introduction. Columbia University Press also hosts a web page with mp3 files of dozens and dozens of these poems being recited.I did a few years of mandarin with traditional characters decades ago back in college but have been brushing up on it again the last few years with simplified characters, so some frustration was caused by not recognizing more of the book's traditional characters, but traditional characters and toneless pinyin are an academic convention so it's not really a shortcoming that this book follows the academic convention. I've communicated with the editor and he's planning a workbook with simplified characters which I will definitely eat up.If you don't follow Chinese and have any interest at all, you are bound to love this book. The translations do justice to the original much more than most of what's out there and the text is uniformly interesting. The book even offers many word-by-word grids with translation to help any readers appreciate the prosody of how each syllable is loaded with meaning so their sequence has a semantic rhythm used by the master poets with power and elegance.Chinese culture is vast and varied and this book offers a revealing introduction to why poetry has such a leading, treasured role in the high culture. As an opportunity for individual expression, its status is very unique and offers endless personally touching insights. The role of convention is also interesting because there are many conventions but these masters regularly use the existence of them cleverly to raise layered implications or introduce form-defying touches, all with flair. While this book can only survey the basics because of its vast scope, I hope to be much more than a newcomer someday and will always be grateful for this introduction.

The book was exactly as advertised, delivered promptly and in good condition, thanks to Lambert5. A very comprehensive and valuable insight into a wide range of Chinese poetry.

A kind of textbook/anthology survey. Having the mp3 files available on the Columbia U. Press website pulls this all together, even for those with little or no Chinese. The book is in English, with the poems given in Chinese with romanized transliterations (and all the tone marks). For the songs, literal word-by-word layouts are also given. The poetic interpretations and historical explanations are clear, balanced, and take in historical views of these classics. Discussion of possible interpretations of conventional imagery and topics is illuminating. The paperback is 28 x 22 cm and pretty heavy--like a textbook. There is a ten-page Index of Thematic Contents after the normal Table of Contents, with the categories "Intellectual and Cultural Milieu," "Themes," "Prosody," and "Diction," "Syntax," and "Structure." This more than makes up for the lack of the General Index. Every chapter has a reference bibliography with English and Chinese citations separate.

This is a textbook on reading Chinese poetry in the traditional style. It takes a historical approach, introducing poems written in the earliest eras as well as some works relatively modern. An excellent work that fulfills a real need for students of Chinese culture and literature, useful aids such as transliteration of texts into Latin script and glossing the individual characters of the poems with translations are utilized. Sections are written by experts in their field.

This book comprehensively discusses the features and challenges of reading and understanding Chinese poetry. I've read about 20 books on the topic and this one comes out on top. It thoroughly analyses the poetry of each major dynasty, providing a wealth of examples (translated poems).After reading this book I gained a new appreciation of Chinese poetry, and felt better able to translate Tang Dynasty poems into English (I'm a translator). I highly recommend this book to academics, translators and lovers of poetry alike.

I came looking for a book that would present both hanzi, pinyin, and a translation, as well as some additional context and explanation surrounding Chinese poetry, and left with so much more. A really great in-depth look across a wide spectrum of styles. I'm still reading and digesting, but an incredible text for someone looking to actually gain some understanding.

I bought the ebook kindle but all the poems' font is practically too tiny, which makes it impossible to read the characters, or the translation.