Classical Chinese Poetry

In the way of the pioneer translators of Chinese poetry during the past century--of Arthur Waley, Burton Watson, Willis Barnstone--David Hinton has heard and lured into English a new manner of hearing the great poets of that long glory of China's classical age. His achievement is another echo of the original, and a gift to our language. "W. S. Merwin" Hinton has established himself as the premier Chinese translator of our generation ... He is a national treasure. "William Mullen, The New York Sun" I don't know if [Hinton's "Selected Poems of Po Chu-i"] is superior to the original or not, but it's superior to anything I've ever seen in Chinese, and about the same for English. "A. R. Ammons" Hinton's music is subtle, modulated ... He has listened to the individual tone of each poet, and his craft is equal to his perception ... He continues to enlarge our literary horizon. "Rosemary Waldrop, citation for the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award" ["The Late Poems of Meng Chiao"] affords us what is all too rare in Chinese translations: the sustained, recognizable resonance of a single voice at a single moment ... This is a real contribution to the small body of genuine poetic translation. "Richard Howard" Given the magnitude of his ability and his overall project, Hinton is creating nothing less than a new literary tradition in English, an event of truly major importance not only to English literature but also to the literature of my own language. I cannot recommend the value of his work too highly. "Bei Dao"