Classical Chinese Poetry

"I met David Hinton in October at a conference at Harvard and I read his translation. The thing that struck me is his language. Some translators try to make the language a bit dated – English which is almost not like modern English. With Arthur Waley, you wouldn’t say his language is archaic, but it’s still not like the living language you use today. David is trying to render the translation with a modern sensibility. The language is so fresh! I like that. Of course he has to describe in English things in classical Chinese poetry, no question about that. But the language he chooses for this job is very modern. Drinking Wine I live here in a village house without all that racket horses and carts stir up, and you wonder how that could ever be. Wherever the mind dwells apart is itself a distant place. Picking chrysanthemums at my east fence, I see South Mountain far off: air lovely at dusk, birds in flight returning home. All this means something, something absolute: whenever I start to explain it, I forget words altogether."