A compelling, detail-rich resource about Tang verse.
This primer on Tang dynasty–era poetry addresses Chinese history and linguistics and the tricky task of translation.
Retired surgeon Hung’s (The Chinese Language Demystified, 2018, etc.) overview of verse written during the Tang period, which lasted from 618 to 907, will be accessible to novices and a rich resource for experts. He takes a multipronged approach, beginning with a brief description of life in Tang China before delving into its literary traditions. It was a time of economic expansion that also saw an increase in artistic output. The book centers on three poets who were particularly prolific during the period: Li Bai, Du Fu, and Wang Wei, who were each influential in their home country as well as abroad. Hung explains the nuances of classical Chinese characters, which were misinterpreted by prominent Western writers, such as Ezra Pound, to be mainly pictograms. His book aims to give non-Chinese readers the tools to appreciate the beauty of Tang poetry in their original characters as well as in their translations. Hung shows creativity in how he displays the authors’ poems; first, he presents them in calligraphy, then in Pinyin (romanized words, meant to represent the sound of each character) with literal translations of each line. Afterward, he provides examples of several different English translations of each poem. (At times, the book feels like an expanded meditation on Eliot Weinberger’s 1987 book 19 Ways of Looking at Wang Wei.) Readers will receive a new appreciation not just for Tang poetry, but also for the challenges of translating such verse. Not only is classical Chinese very different from modern Chinese, but translators also have to keep in mind rhythm, details, and images, not all of which will have direct English translations. With a keen eye for detail and extraordinary patience, Hung relates the nuances of producing and translating poetry. His explanations are aided by his thoughtful historical accounts of life in Tang China and his descriptions of the political and economic circumstances that marked each poet’s life.
A compelling, detail-rich resource about Tang verse.Pub Date: N/A
ISBN: 978-0-692-04408-7
Page Count: 199
Publisher: Time Tunnel Media
Review Posted Online: Feb. 4, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.
The undisputed champion of the self-conscious and the self-deprecating returns with yet more autobiographical gems from his apparently inexhaustible cache (Naked, 1997, etc.).
Sedaris at first mines what may be the most idiosyncratic, if innocuous, childhood since the McCourt clan. Here is father Lou, who’s propositioned, via phone, by married family friend Mrs. Midland (“Oh, Lou. It just feels so good to . . . talk to someone who really . . . understands”). Only years later is it divulged that “Mrs. Midland” was impersonated by Lou’s 12-year-old daughter Amy. (Lou, to the prankster’s relief, always politely declined Mrs. Midland’s overtures.) Meanwhile, Mrs. Sedaris—soon after she’s put a beloved sick cat to sleep—is terrorized by bogus reports of a “miraculous new cure for feline leukemia,” all orchestrated by her bitter children. Brilliant evildoing in this family is not unique to the author. Sedaris (also an essayist on National Public Radio) approaches comic preeminence as he details his futile attempts, as an adult, to learn the French language. Having moved to Paris, he enrolls in French class and struggles endlessly with the logic in assigning inanimate objects a gender (“Why refer to Lady Flesh Wound or Good Sir Dishrag when these things could never live up to all that their sex implied?”). After months of this, Sedaris finds that the first French-spoken sentiment he’s fully understood has been directed to him by his sadistic teacher: “Every day spent with you is like having a cesarean section.” Among these misadventures, Sedaris catalogs his many bugaboos: the cigarette ban in New York restaurants (“I’m always searching the menu in hope that some courageous young chef has finally recognized tobacco as a vegetable”); the appending of company Web addresses to television commercials (“Who really wants to know more about Procter & Gamble?”); and a scatological dilemma that would likely remain taboo in most households.
Naughty good fun from an impossibly sardonic rogue, quickly rising to Twainian stature.Pub Date: June 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-316-77772-2
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2000
PERSPECTIVES
The memoir of George Dawson, who learned to read when he was 98, places his life in the context of the entire 20th century in this inspiring, yet ultimately blighted, biography. Dawson begins his story with an emotional bang: his account of witnessing the lynching of a young African-American man falsely accused of rape. America’s racial caste system and his illiteracy emerge as the two biggest obstacles in Dawson’s life, but a full view of the man overcoming the obstacles remains oddly hidden. Travels to Ohio, Canada, and Mexico reveal little beyond Dawson’s restlessness, since nothing much happens to him during these wanderings. Similarly, the diverse activities he finds himself engaging in—bootlegging in St. Louis, breaking horses, attending cockfights—never really advance the reader’s understanding of the man. He calls himself a “ladies’ man” and hints at a score of exciting stories, but then describes only his decorous marriage. Despite the personal nature of this memoir, Dawson remains a strangely aloof figure, never quite inviting the reader to enter his world. In contrast to Dawson’s diffidence, however, Glaubman’s overbearing presence, as he repeatedly parades himself out to converse with Dawson, stifles any momentum the memoir might develop. Almost every chapter begins with Glaubman presenting Dawson with a newspaper clipping or historical fact and asking him to comment on it, despite the fact that Dawson often does not remember or never knew about the event in question. Exasperated readers may wonder whether Dawson’s life and his accomplishments, his passion for learning despite daunting obstacles, is the tale at hand, or whether the real issue is his recollections of Archduke Ferdinand. Dawson’s achievements are impressive and potentially exalting, but the gee-whiz nature of the tale degrades it to the status of yet another bowl of chicken soup for the soul, with a narrative frame as clunky as an old bone.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 2000
ISBN: 0-375-50396-X
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1999
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