Selected Poems of Su Tung-P'o FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
Chinese is a daunting language to translate, but this new selection of poems by the leading poet of the Sung dynasty (960-1279) is in safe hands: Watson ( From the Country of Eight Islands ), a prize-winning translator of numerous volumes of Chinese and Japanese poetry, has translated and compiled an extraordinary book of poems. Su Tung-p'o was a civil servant who traveled to numerous political posts throughout the state. Hence, much of his poetry is a catalogue of his travels--their diverse landscapes, inhabitants, songs and folklore. With his lyrical precision and astonishing eye for detail, Su Tung-p'o renders the Chinese countryside with a vivid particularity: ``Purple plums, yellow melons--the village roads smell sweet; / Black gauze cap, white hemp robe--traveling clothes are cool.'' Less aesthetically rigid than earlier Chinese poets, he sought inspiration both in issues of philosophical complexity and matters of everyday life. This expansiveness, combined with a sophisticated sense of image and metaphor, created a body of work that is strikingly modern. Or, in Su Tung-p'o's own words: ``We're like a rabbit darting from preying hawks . . . lightning glimpsed through a crack.'' (Apr.)
Booknews
Burton Watson is our greatest translator of classical Chinese poetry, and here he presents 115 poems by the greatest poet of the Sung dynasty, Su Shih, more commonly known by his literary name, Su Tung-p'o. Many of the poems originally appeared in Su Tung-p'o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet (Columbia U. Press, 1965). Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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