Where Red Pine Gives Us As Much Tao Yuanming As We Can Get

Choosing to Be Simple: Collected Poems of Tao Yuanming by Tao Yuanming
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A very nice collection of poems by an important 5th century Chinese writer, with an excellent translation. Easy 4 stars.

Not too long ago, I read another translator's version of Tao Yuanming's poetry, and I found the same thing I did here--the verses (as rendered in English) are a pleasure to read, and the poet is an interesting person, but I never quite make a deep connection with the work. That's on me, perhaps, but my whole reason for searching through the works of so many unknown (to me) poets is to find those that really resonate. It's an Easter egg hunt, looking for treasures hidden around the world, and this one is a near miss. There's a lot to like here, and much of it worked, so I still rank it as quite good and worthy of recommending to others, but I won't lie--I was hoping for a bit more.

When I saw that Red Pine was coming out with his version, I had to have it, and though the other edition is fine, I definitely prefer this one overall. He offers so much support for the English-speaking reader, so much biographical and literary help, that I feel like we're getting as close to the original as is possible for someone on another continent living 1600 years after the fact. We'll never get the full context, of course, nor will we be able to appreciate the subtle use of language and interplay of sound, but with the various helps we get a lot of the intended meaning, along with the sense of the figurative language and description. That's still a lot, making this an excellent source for both study and pleasure.

The only thing lacking for me were the poems I wanted to collect for myself, poetry that says something to me personally. Most of his poetry is specifically autobiographical, and while I share many beliefs and attitudes with the poet--he wants to read poetry and drink wine [I prefer coffee, but okay] and live in the country and have picnics and avoid entanglements with outside world--there were only two or three poems that spoke deeply to me. I was hoping for more. In other words, this set of poetry wasn't really about me; it was about him. That's cool. It doesn't all have to be about me. :)

So yes, I liked it; the 4/5 includes the poetry, the translation, the detailed notes, and the beautiful edition, and I'm happy to endorse and recommend the book. And while I may not love the verses in the deeply personal way I was hoping, I can still say I have a great deal of appreciation for it.

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