Where It's Another Banger

One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese : Love and the Turning Year by Kenneth Rexroth
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a very nice collection of ancient Chinese poetry, published in 1970. The great majority of Chinese poetry in translation has come out since then (I'm sure I'm right but I have zero proof for that statement) but I think you could stack this up against almost any volume that has come out in the last 50 years and it would compare very favorably.

I'm not making any claims about the accuracy of the translations (though I suspect it's alright), or whether these selections are a decently representative sampling of (mostly) Tang and Song poetry, or about the "importance" of any of the poets found here. (There are many highly regarded poets here, like Wang Wei and Tu Fu and others, but there are also a bunch I'd never heard of before--which is cool, actually.) And, in fact, as far as representation is concerned, female poets might be overrepresented here--which I applaud. So is love poetry. But the point is: this is not a textbook or a primer. It's a lovely collection of genuine poetry.

I found it an enjoyable read, and had to limit myself to just a handful of poems a day to make it last. The author chose poetry that's particularly accessible for Western readers, with themes that resonate with many of us, and I think it really works. Here's part of "I Return to the Place I Was Born," by T'ao Yuan Ming:

From my youth up I never liked the city.
I never forgot the mountains where I was born.
The world caught me and harnessed me
And drove me through dust, thirty years away from home...
The farm is only ten acres.
The farm house has eight or nine rooms...
When you come through the gate into the court
You will find no dust or mess.
Peace and quiet live in every room.
I am content to stay here the rest of my life.
At last I have found myself.

I totally understand what he's talking about. I feel just the same. And it's from about 1600 years ago.

That poem is found in other collections, but many of the poems here are not in anything else I've run on to. It has sent me on a search for collections of some of the poets in here, and some of them exist, but are rare (and stupid expensive). Still, I hope it'll hook me up with a few new poets and their works.

Like the previous volume, this is highly recommended, and makes a good starting point for anyone casually interested in Chinese poetry.

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