POEMS OF THE MASTERS

POEMS OF THE MASTERS:
China’s Classic Anthology of
T’ang and Sung Dynasty Verse
translated by Red Pine
Copper Canyon Press

I yell to a woodcutter across the stream. This is the last line of a poem in which the 8th century Taoist recluse Wang Wei describes patterns of cloud and light in the mountains. Just so, the poems in this remarkable anthology speak to readers--across an immense distance of time and space--of loneliness, beauty, the consequences of political action, the stillness of autumn. Red Pine’s wonderful translations and the clarity of his accompanying notes make these poems accessible and intimate to us.
In another poem about watching clouds, Tu Fu concludes, I’ve always been drawn to the past/but this time my heart trembled. This anthology will evoke the same response in any reader. Red Pine and the good people at Copper Canyon deserve a place in the Taoist paradise for bringing us this beautiful book.