The Silk Dragon II: Translations of Chinese Poetry

Sze (The Glass Constellation) provides essential context in the preface of this admirable “mini-anthology,” explaining that previous anthologies of Chinese poetry “tend to focus either on poems written in classical Chinese up to 1919 or on poems written in the vernacular after the start of the May Fourth Movement,” whereas his offers a “slender selection of lyrical poems that starts around 406 CE and moves chronologically into our current time.” He succeeds in capturing the verve and range of Chinese poetry, including selections from Li Bai, Zhang Ji, and Wang Yuyang among classical examples, as well as Yang Mu, Chen Li, Yan Li, and Yang Lian from the vernacular. Tao Qian’s “Drinking Wine III” offers a lively exuberance (“The birds fly to the woods, singing./ I whistle and whistle on the east veranda—/ go ahead, embrace this life!”), while Wang Han’s “Song of Liangzhou” ends with the haunting question, “Since ancient times,/ how many soldiers ever returned?” More recently, Wen Yiduo, who was assassinated by the Kuomintangin 1946, delivers a powerful music in lines like “Water sobs and sobs in the bamboo pipe gutter./ Green tongues of banana leaves lick at the windowpanes.” This is a vital introduction to Chinese poetry. (Apr.)