Poems from the Chinese

Poems from the Chinese – is a collection of Chinese poems translated into English by Arthur Waley, English orientalist, sinologist and translator, published in 1920. They are called "Poems from the Chinese", and Arthur Waley assures that there are oriental originals. But if this is so (and, of course, it is), then we have a literary miracle. It is a platitude that the translation of poetry is either bad verse or bad translation. But Waley, translating not just from one language to another, but almost from one planet to another, created a mass of living poetry, in which there is every reason to believe that he recreates Chinese poets without distorting them. It's a tough test for transfers, but Mr. Whaley emerges as a resounding winner. Indeed, serenity is the leitmotif of all this work, the serenity of guaranteed skill in a difficult environment, but even more so in outlook. The beauty with which these verses are inlaid is basically wise beauty, and wisdom has as much to do with the form of Mr. Whaley's mind as it does with the mind of China. There is no need to rush here. Wisdom moves at a steady pace, and between its penetrations to the stars manages to observe the smallest things of life. Her unhurried glance glides over them with patient gold, and they almost without a sigh fit into the ornament and pattern.