Reviews for A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China

The average rating for A Thousand Peaks: Poems from China based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-09-06 00:00:00 Fred Goff This is intended for perhaps a middle school audience, but I enjoyed it very much. The first author is a Chinese woman who grew up during the Cultural Revolution and discovered classical Chinese poetry hidden in a box labeled 'poisonous weed' deep in her mother's closet. Now living in the US, she worked with poet Orel Protopopescu to convey their poetry, meaning and history to American children. What sets this apart is the layout, which allows the reader to enjoy each poem in many different dimensions. About 35 poems, one per author, are given one large page each. The poem is shown in Chinese characters, pinyin, word-for-word translation, and as Protopoescu's poetic version in English: four versions. Alongside this are several paragraphs giving the history of the poet, any necessary Chinese history, and a few comments on simple Chinese prosody in many cases. The Chinese translations I'm familiar with give one or two word-for-word translations in the introduction. Giving the literal translation for each poem allows the reader to build up a sense of the flexibility of the Chinese, realizing how many other ways the characters could have been rendered into an English poem. Even better, one builds up an ability to enjoy the straight literal translation. An example or two: huā yĭng Chóng chóng dié dié shàng yáo tái Overlap overlap pile pile up jade step Jĭ dù hū tóng săo bù kāi Several time call houseboy sweep not away Gāng bèi tài yáng shōu shí qù Just let sun clean up away Què jiào míng yuè sòng jiāng lái But let bright moon send back over Flower Shadows One on top of the other, up jade steps they creep. I called the houseboy, but he failed to sweep Away what the sun soon cleaned, And then the bright moon piled them deep. Su Shi (1037-1101, Song Dynesty) Yŏng liŭ Bi yù zhuāng chéng yí shù gāo Emerald jade put together one tree tall Wànqiān chuí zià lü sī tāo Ten thousand thousand hang down green silk ribbon Bù zhī yè shuí cái chū Not know thin leaf who cut out Èr yuè chūn fēng sì jiăn dāo Second month spring wind like scissors Willow Song From the clear green jade of one tall tree ten thousand green ribbons hang silkily. No one knows who cut out the thin leaves; perhaps the wind-scissors of February. He Zhizhang (659-744 Tang dynasty)

Review # 2 was written on 2016-10-11 00:00:00 Philip Norris 1. Culture or group portrayed: Asians. 2. Book information: Liu, S. and Protopopescu, O. (2002). A Thousand Peaks: poems from China. Berkeley, California: Pacific View Press. 3. Summary: This is a book of classical Chinese poetry, spanning several dynasties. The book shows the original Chinese, the literal translation, and then an English interpretation, as well as background or further explanation regarding the poet or the poem. There are some pen-and-ink drawings, as well as a few color illustrations (I'm not sure what they're composed of, as I'm not too versed in art) of China. 4. Cultural/Multicultural evaluation: A Thousand Peaks showcases classical Chinese poetry. It gives a great deal of background for a slim book, and as stated earlier, gives the original Chinese characters and how they would be literally translated before giving an English context. The afterword discusses a little of the process of Chinese-to-English translation, while keeping the meaning or spirit of the poem intact. I think this is an important resource for anyone wanting to learn about Chinese poetry. 5. Conclusion/verdict: Recommended for middle school, as some of the concepts might be difficult for younger readers.