Customer Reviews (1)

Failure at the pig ranch ... made very enjoyable
David Lee has created for himself a solid niche in the literary scene: who else writes narrative poetry set in failure, ugly children, failed pig farms, greasy spoon restaurants .... and makes of it a wise observation ofthe universal human story?David Lee succeeds in this again andagain.

In the case of Wayburne Pig we follow the fortunes of a small towncafe owner as he tries his hand at fancy-dancy pig farming ... while heneighbors raise sick sorry specimens of porcine ugly.Not the pretty sideof small town ... but funny and informative about human nature.

David Leemay not appeal to everyone but his sense of oral language and of narrativegive him a large audience. ... Read more

Product Description
what follows are not true translations, more they are reactions in kind. but as i said there is no individual english vloice for the complete du fu and these murphy versions of poems are a paltry beginning to such an enormous task. ... Read more

Product Description
what follows are not true translations, more they are reactions in kind. but as i said there is no individual english voice for the complete du fu and these murphy versions of poems are a paltry beginning to such an enormous task. ... Read more

Product Description
Translations of Li Bai and Du Fu, 8th century Chinese poets. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Disappointed With Translations
I was disappointed with the translations of the poetry in this book.Li Bai (or Li Po as he is also known) wrote my favorite poem of all time, called, "Question and Answer in the Mountains."I learned the poem this way:

Ask me
Why I stay on Green Mountain?
I smile but do not answer
My heart is at ease

Peach blossoms on gently flowing water
Slip away into the distance
This is a world which is not of men

But this book's translation was disappointing, as follows:

You ask me why I stay up here
Alone on the green mountain
I smile but give no other answer --
And yet my heart's at leisure.

The peach blossom floats away on the stream
Carried far by the water
Here apart from the human world
I have heaven and earth together.

great work
Keith Holyoak has done a great job in bringing Chinese poetry to the
fore of Western public. The translator deserves much credit for these
poems read as if they were originally written in English. He brings us
a big step closer to the music of an ancient and culturally distant
century. Some poems take a more metaphysical tone but never fail to be
touching and humane.

I love this book!
Very serene. Simple, but descriptive. Keith paints cozy scenes of Far East life. I cannot only picture it, I can feel, taste and smell these places.

Eastern Shakespeare
Keith Holyoak brings the mastery of these ancient eastern poets to life in our western context. Like Shakespeare these poets works are timeless, themes of joy despair, awe of nature and friendship in the artists work ring true universally, crossing cultures and time lines. A rich historical account at the beginning of the volume is an added bonus. ... Read more