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Arthur Waley (1889–1966)

Author of Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China

41+ Works 2,382 Members 16 Reviews 4 Favorited

About the Author

Arthur Waley (1889-1966) is highly regarded for his many translations of Chinese & Japanese literature. (Bowker Author Biography)
Image credit: Photo from Poetry since 1939, British Council, 1945

Works by Arthur Waley

The Book of Songs: The Ancient Chinese Classic of Poetry (0600) — Translator — 256 copies
Translations from the Chinese (1919) — Translator — 252 copies
Buddhist Texts Through the Ages (2014) — Editor — 248 copies
The No Plays of Japan (1922) — Editor — 218 copies
Chinese Poems (1946) — Translator — 159 copies
170 Chinese Poems (1919) — Editor — 115 copies
Confucius and Lao Tzu: The Analects of Confucius (2005) — Translator — 50 copies
Japanese Poetry: The 'Uta' (1965) 38 copies
Four Cautionary Tales (1947) — Preface — 11 copies
The Temple and Other Poems (1923) 10 copies
Poems from the Chinese (1926) 4 copies
Kutune Shirka (2010) 2 copies

Associated Works

The Analects (0070) — Translator, some editions — 6,067 copies
The Tale of Genji (2015) — Translator, some editions — 5,474 copies
The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon (1002) — Translator, some editions — 2,725 copies
Monkey (1942) — Translator, some editions — 1,841 copies
A Pocket Book of Modern Verse (1954) — Contributor, some editions — 443 copies
Buddhism: Its Essence and Development (1951) — Preface, some editions — 367 copies
The plum in the golden vase, or, Chin Pʻing Mei (1300) — Introduction — 285 copies
The Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse (1950) — Contributor, some editions — 264 copies
The Tale of Genji [part 1] (1961) — Translator, some editions — 210 copies
Confucianism: The Analects of Confucius (1977) — Translator — 169 copies
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Translator — 72 copies
The Sacred Tree (1926) — Translator, some editions — 25 copies
Lady Murasaki's Tale of Genji: The Manga Edition (2022) — Contributor — 18 copies
Waiting for the Moon: Poems of Bo Juyi (2012) — Translator, some editions — 6 copies

Tagged

(94) 11th century (149) anthology (235) Asia (122) asian literature (85) Buddhism (231) China (881) Chinese (317) Chinese literature (311) Chinese philosophy (143) classic (246) classics (359) Confucianism (339) Confucius (154) diary (103) eastern philosophy (84) fiction (1,155) Folio Society (132) Heian (210) historical fiction (74) history (294) Japan (1,091) Japanese (384) Japanese literature (656) Kindle (67) literature (617) medieval (72) memoir (104) non-fiction (503) novel (268) Penguin Classics (79) philosophy (1,120) poetry (705) read (96) religion (446) Taoism (101) to-read (931) translated (74) translation (223) unread (148)

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Reviews

Sleeper book of translations that span a poet's life, has a 'narrative thread' that I'm sure Waley meant for but the book itself and the poetry is enrapturing.
 
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sn_fk_n | May 15, 2022 |
One of the best works of translations from ancient Chinese poetry I've had the good fortune to stumble on. Beautiful moments in landscape observed well over a thousand years ago, and still shimmering in this English translator's verse from the early twentieth century.
 
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Tom.Wilson | 2 other reviews | Jul 11, 2018 |
In this paper Arthur Waley gets away with inaccuracy, slovenly scholarship and infelicitous judgements only because his audience knows even less about his subject than he does.
2 vote
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tomcatMurr | May 8, 2018 |
Published in 1918 when Waley was twenty-nine years old, his first translations of Chinese poetry still bear up under close scrutiny. It remains probably the best general anthology of Chinese poetry by a single translator in English. Waley's renderings are always serviceable, more often than not totally accurate, and often sublime. The introduction to part 1 gives a useful overview of the development of Chinese versification throughout its long history, and the introduction to part 2 contains a potted biography of the great Tang poet Bai Juyi.

'Above all, considering imagery to be the soul of poetry, I have avoided either adding images of my own or suppressing those of the original.'
… (more)
4 vote
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tomcatMurr | 2 other reviews | Mar 5, 2018 |

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Works
41
Also by
16
Members
2,382
Popularity
#10,778
Rating
3.9
Reviews
16
ISBNs
161
Languages
4
Favorited
4

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