Mountain Home: The Wilderness Poetry of Ancient China
by David Hinton (Editor)
On This Page
Description
"China's tradition of "rivers-and-mountains" poetry stretches across millennia, representing the earliest and most extensive literary engagement with wilderness in human history. It is a plain-spoken poetry of immediate day-to-day experience, and yet seems most akin to China's grand landscape paintings. Although its wisdom is ancient, rooted in Taoist and Ch'an (Zen) thought, this work feels utterly contemporary, especially as rendered here in David Hinton's wonderful and accessible show more translations." "The rivers-and-mountains tradition embraces a remarkable range of topics: comic domestic scenes, social protest, travelogue, and sage recluses shaping mountain landscapes into forms of enlightenment. But throughout that range, these poems articulate the experience of living as an organic part of the natural world. And in an age of global ecological disruption and mass extinction, this tradition grows more urgently and universally important by the day." "Mountain Home begins with an introduction, which explains China's vision of wilderness as the fundamental cosmological model of reality. The poems follow the rivers-and-mountains tradition from its origins in the 5th century C.E. through the Sung Dynasty (13th century), the period during which it opened all of its possibilities. The development of this tradition is traced in concise introductions to each of the nineteen poets translated. As wilderness is the heart of Chinese poetry, this group includes virtually all of ancient China's greatest poets. Indeed, this may well be the finest general collection of ancient Chinese poetry available in English. These breathtaking translations offer a new poetry that will charm and inform not just readers of poetry, but also the large communities interested in environmental awareness or Chinese spirituality."--Jacket. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
This is a translation of selected poems of the poets of the classical Chinese Rivers and Mountains tradition. The selection of authors is satisfyingly wide. The poems are arranged by author, in chronological order. The translator provides a short introduction to each author which is somewhat helpful. I cannot speak to the adequacy as such of the translations, but Hinton's translations here and in other books of his strike me as clear, simple, free of affectations, and good poetry in English. They also preserve a sense of the differences among the authors, so that the English versions don't come out sounding like they were all written by the same person. The footnotes are helpful. I found this a very satisfying anthology, and recommend show more it highly. show less
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
David Hinton's many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy create contemporary works of compelling literary power that also convey the texture and density of the originals. He has written many books of essays and poetry, and his work has earned wide acclaim and many national awards.
Classifications
- Genres
- Poetry, Fiction and Literature
- DDC/MDS
- 895.11008036 — Literature & rhetoric Asian Literature Literatures of East and Southeast Asia Chinese Chinese poetry Anthologies and collections Collections
- LCC
- PL2658 .E3 .M65 — Language and Literature Languages and literatures of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Languages of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania Chinese language and literature Chinese literature Collections
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 112
- Popularity
- 289,467
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.09)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 3
- ASINs
- 1
