The Heart of Chinese Poetry

Rating:
Summary: The most unique book on Chinese poetry.
Review: More than poetry, this book teaches Chinese history, language and culture. Each poem appears in 4 forms, English with syntax adjusted, Raw English word-for-word translation, pinyin (pronunciation guide), and Chinese charaters. The commentary on each poem ranges from an explanation of the symbolism to anecdotes about the poets themselves.

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: One of the best books of translated Chinese poetry. The Chinese characters and word by word translation lets one get a real feel for the original. How could this have gone out of print?

Rating:
Summary: Brings us face-to-face with the original Chinese texts.
Review: THE HEART OF CHINESE POETRY. By Greg Whincup. 178 pp. (Anchor Books). New York : Doubleday, 1987. ISBN 0-385-23967-X (pbk.)

Greg Whincup has here had the useful idea of making Chinese poetry come alive for the Western reader by bringing readers face-to-face with the original texts. Although it has been done before, for example by David Hawkes in his 'A Little Primer of Tu Fu' (Renditions Press, 1988), Whincup seems certainly to have done as well, and considering the incredible importance of the Chinese language, and the wealth of its literature, there really ought to be many more books like this.

Whereas Hawkes' book focused exclusively on the work of Tu Fu, Whincup has chosen instead to give us fifty-seven of China's greatest poems from a wide range of writers - Li Bai, Du Fu, Du Mu, Su Shr, etc. If these names look strange it's because Whincup, rather than employing the Wade-Giles system of transcription which everyone is familiar with, has chosen instead to use the far less well-known Yale system of romanization. For those who don't know it, which probably includes almost everyone, he has provided a brief guide on pages 173-74. The book also contains an extensive 5-page English-language Bibliography

The poems have been topically arranged under the following headings : The Heart of Chinese Poetry; The History of Chinese Poetry; Three Poets of the Golden Age; Poems of War; Poems by and about Women; Landscape/Enlightenment.

For each poem we are given : 1. Whincup's final translation; 2. the Yale word-by-word romanization; 3. the printed full-form Chinese character (ideogram; sinograph); 4. a literal translation of each character; 5. explanatory notes. A nice touch is that the texts have been arranged vertically.

As anyone who has read the poems like this can vouch, it really is the only way for the non-specialist to get an idea of how glorious Chinese poems are when understood in their original language. My only complaint is that, although the Chinese font that has been used in the book is a beautiful cursive form and without the stiffness of the usual printed form, it's also incredibly tiny, and the beginner is going to need very good eyes and very good lighting to be able to discern the structure of the more complex characters.

Here is an example of Whincup's final translation of a famous poem, 'Deer Fence,' by Wang Wei (with my obliques added to indicate line breaks) :

"In the empty mountains / I see no one, / But hear the sound / Of someone's voice. // Slanting sunlight / Enters deep forest, / And shines again / On green moss" (p.169).

This is a respectable effort, and readers might care to compare it with Wai-lim Yip's treatment of Wang Wei in his excellent bilingual anthology, details of which follow below.

Whincup's is a wonderful book that, by enabling the reader to come to grips with the Chinese, will help anyone to arrive at a deeper and richer appreciation of Chinese poetry, and to see how far short of the originals any English translation must inevitably fall. You simply can't do in English what can be done in Chinese, and there really ought to be more books like 'The Heart of Chinese Poetry.'

For those who may be interested, here are details of the Yip:

CHINESE POETRY : An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres. Edited and translated by Wai-lim Yip. 358 pp. Durham NC and London : Duke University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8223-1951-9 (pbk.)

Rating:
Summary: Brings us face-to-face with the original Chinese texts.
Review: THE HEART OF CHINESE POETRY. By Greg Whincup. 178 pp. (Anchor Books). New York : Doubleday, 1987. ISBN 0-385-23967-X (pbk.)

Greg Whincup has here had the useful idea of making Chinese poetry come alive for the Western reader by bringing readers face-to-face with the original texts. Although it has been done before, for example by David Hawkes in his 'A Little Primer of Tu Fu' (Renditions Press, 1988), Whincup seems certainly to have done as well, and considering the incredible importance of the Chinese language, and the wealth of its literature, there really ought to be many more books like this.

Whereas Hawkes' book focused exclusively on the work of Tu Fu, Whincup has chosen instead to give us fifty-seven of China's greatest poems from a wide range of writers - Li Bai, Du Fu, Du Mu, Su Shr, etc. If these names look strange it's because Whincup, rather than employing the Wade-Giles system of transcription which everyone is familiar with, has chosen instead to use the far less well-known Yale system of romanization. For those who don't know it, which probably includes almost everyone, he has provided a brief guide on pages 173-74. The book also contains an extensive 5-page English-language Bibliography

The poems have been topically arranged under the following headings : The Heart of Chinese Poetry; The History of Chinese Poetry; Three Poets of the Golden Age; Poems of War; Poems by and about Women; Landscape/Enlightenment.

For each poem we are given : 1. Whincup's final translation; 2. the Yale word-by-word romanization; 3. the printed full-form Chinese character (ideogram; sinograph); 4. a literal translation of each character; 5. explanatory notes. A nice touch is that the texts have been arranged vertically.

As anyone who has read the poems like this can vouch, it really is the only way for the non-specialist to get an idea of how glorious Chinese poems are when understood in their original language. My only complaint is that, although the Chinese font that has been used in the book is a beautiful cursive form and without the stiffness of the usual printed form, it's also incredibly tiny, and the beginner is going to need very good eyes and very good lighting to be able to discern the structure of the more complex characters.

Here is an example of Whincup's final translation of a famous poem, 'Deer Fence,' by Wang Wei (with my obliques added to indicate line breaks) :

"In the empty mountains / I see no one, / But hear the sound / Of someone's voice. // Slanting sunlight / Enters deep forest, / And shines again / On green moss" (p.169).

This is a respectable effort, and readers might care to compare it with Wai-lim Yip's treatment of Wang Wei in his excellent bilingual anthology, details of which follow below.

Whincup's is a wonderful book that, by enabling the reader to come to grips with the Chinese, will help anyone to arrive at a deeper and richer appreciation of Chinese poetry, and to see how far short of the originals any English translation must inevitably fall. You simply can't do in English what can be done in Chinese, and there really ought to be more books like 'The Heart of Chinese Poetry.'

For those who may be interested, here are details of the Yip:

CHINESE POETRY : An Anthology of Major Modes and Genres. Edited and translated by Wai-lim Yip. 358 pp. Durham NC and London : Duke University Press, 1997. ISBN 0-8223-1951-9 (pbk.)

Rating:
Summary: Great
Review: Very pleasing collection of classical Chinese Poetry! The Chinese is provided with the translation so it is also an excellent opportunity to learn more about the Characters as well. This was a joy to read and it connects the reader to the notion that poetry has always been with us and is as inherent to humans as breathing!