Po chü-i : selected poems /

One of the foremost translators of classical Chinese, Watson has translated works covering an astonishingly wide range of time and genre, including philosophy of the Warring States period, 480-249 BCE (Chuang Tzu); history from mythological times to the former Han dynasty, 206 BCE-8 CE (Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Records of the Grand Historian of China); and the poetry of the great northern Sung scholar Su Tung-p'o (Su Tung-p'o: Selections from a Sung Dynasty Poet). The present handsome volume makes more masterpieces of classical Chinese available to the English reader. One of the great poets of the T'ang dynasty, Po Ch"u-i (772-846) influenced later Chinese literati and became very well known in Japan. Watson provides translations of 129 poems and also includes a short prose piece, an introductory essay, a chronology of Po's life, and a selected bibliography. Unencumbered by heavy scholarly notes and commentary, the book is light and casual; the eloquent and beautiful style of the translations matches Po's style of poetry, which is known for its clarity and simplicity. Unfortunately, the publisher did not include the poem titles in the table of contents, which is an inconvenience. This volume is appropriate and recommended for humanities collections at all levels. C. D. Smith; Grand Valley State University