Evoking Tang

By Qiu Xiaolong

In Evoking Tang, his translated collection of Chinese classical poems, writer Qiu Xiaolong breathes new life into the works of the Tang Dynasty masters, introducing their universal themes— of love and lament, friendship and longing, the serentiy to be found in natural beauty— to a whole new audience of Western readers. The Tang period is the golden age of Chinese poetry. In Evoking Tang, a bilingual collection, Qiu Xiaolong offers English translations of more than 70 classic Chinese poems. The original texts represent the work of almost 40 poets from the Tang period, whose poems are comparable in importance, for English-speaking readers, to those of Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Longfellow. Qiu’s translations reflect his mastery of he subtle nuances of the English language as well as his intimate familiarity with American and English poets such as T. S. Eliot and William Butler Yeats. The translation of the beloved poems of the Tang Dynasty remains faithful to their original meaning and imagery, yet proves enjoyable to English readers as poetry. The anthology is illustrated with 30 traditional Chinese paintings, which are included to aid interpretation and to stir the imagination of readers as they enter the poetic world.