Zong-qi Cai

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 servicable 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-ennunciated. 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.… (mehr)

Audio files for many of the poems are provided on the columbia.edu web site. The full address is given in the Preface.
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My father loved this book! He opened it before the winter holiday (I forgot to label it "do not open") and tells me that a 40 year old would not be knowledgeable enough to read this book. He thinks that at the age of 80, he's on the cusp of understanding and that by the time he reaches 100, he should be able to read this book and understand it reasonably well. He stayed up till 4am reading it the day he got it and called me the next day to tell me how wonderful it is.… (mehr)