A Golden Treasury of Chinese Poetry
A Golden Treasury of Chinese Poetry
Translated by John A. Turner, S.J.
With notes and Chinese texts
Compiled and edited by John J. Deeney
With the assistance of Kenneth K. B. Li
1976
346 pages
ISBN 0-295-955-06-6
The Merit of this particular collection of 121 poems is that the translations themselves are poetry and that almost the entire range and variety of classical Chinese poetry is covered through the sensitive and learned rendering of a single translator. In his words, “My intention is to make the translation of a poem to read like a poem itself … Poetry cannot really be translated into prose. The translation of a poem into prose, which is merely verbally accurate, is not itself a poem and remains a crib.” This is particularly true of Chinese poetry. What amazes the reader, in this fresh representation of the tradition, is the extraordinary versatility and remarkable poetic sense reflected in the translations which grace these pages.
—John J. Deeney
This title is also available in the Renditions Paperbacks series.
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Preface — 1
Acknowledgements — 8
Introduction — 9
List of Poems — 23
121 Poems and Translations — 32
Notes — 316
Author Index — 335
Title Index — 337
First Line Index — 340
The Translator — 343
The Editor — 345
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TRANSLATOR(s)
Father John Turner first went to Hong Kong from Ireland in 1935, already a mature scholar of classical Gaelic, Latin and Greek. From the time of this arrival in Hong Kong, he took the study of Chinese language and literature as his main task in life. In addition to his great interest in and love for Chinese culture, he added Chinese painting and calligraphy to his artistic accomplishments. From 1947 to 1949, he was professor of European Literature at Sun Yat-sen National University, Canton. Apart from two periods in Ireland and about a year in Taiwan, the last thirty-six years of his life were spent in Hong Kong teaching English Literature and Translation as well as working on an English-Cantonese dictionary. One of his particular interests was spoken Cantonese in its various styles and unwritten expressions, popular speech and drama. The use, and abuse, of language was a subject of endless fascination and discussion for him.
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EDITOR(s)
John J. Deeney, Ph.D., a close friend of Fr. Turner, has been in the East for over 30 years. His interest in Chinese Literature began in 1956 when he began studying the Chinese language in Taiwan, an interest which he has pursued ever since in his teaching of English and Comparative Literature. On a number of occasions he has returned to his native America to lecture on Chinese Literature.
In addition to teaching at National Taiwan University in Taipei, (1965–1977) and since 1977 at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he is occupied with research and publication of materials related to East-West cultural exchange, particularly through translation.