Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 天火 · tianmu.org

Classical Poetry

Classical Chinese poems in older English translations.

✦ ─── ⟐ ─── ✦

Texts

A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems — Arthur WaleyArthur Waley’s 1918 anthology of Chinese poems translated into unrhymed English, from Ch’ü Yüan and the anonymous songs of the first century B.C. through T’ao Ch’ien and the poets of the following centuries to T’ang and Sung poets and a seventeenth-century song, with a second part given wholly to Po Chü-i, and with Waley’s introductions on Chinese poetry and on Po Chü-i’s life.A Lute of Jade — L. Cranmer-ByngL. Cranmer-Byng’s selection of Chinese poems rendered into English verse, from three of the Odes and Ch‘u Yuan’s exile song through Li Po, Tu Fu and Po Chu-i to Ou-Yang Hsiu’s “Autumn”, with his introduction on Chinese poetry, short notes on the poets and a list of books for further reading.Chinese Poems — Charles BuddCharles Budd’s 1912 English verse translations of fifty-five Chinese poems, from anonymous songs of the Han dynasty or earlier through Tao Tsien, Li Tai-peh, Tu Fu and the Song poets to examination poems of the T’sing dynasty, with his own essays on the history and tonal technique of Chinese poetry, biographical notes on eleven poets, and notes to the poems.Fir-Flower Tablets — Florence Ayscough and Amy LowellFlorence Ayscough and Amy Lowell’s 1921 anthology of Chinese poems in English, chiefly Li T’ai-po with poems by Tu Fu and others from the Book of Odes to the Southern T’ang, and eighteen “written pictures,” with Lowell’s preface, Ayscough’s long introduction on the background of Chinese poetry, 166 notes, a plan of a Chinese house and a table of historical periods.More Translations from the Chinese — Arthur WaleyArthur Waley’s 1919 book of sixty-eight pieces translated from the Chinese and arranged in order of time, from Ch‘ü Yüan’s “The Great Summons” through Wang Wei, Li Po and fifty-two pieces by Po Chü-i to two T‘ang prose tales, poems by Wang Chien and Ou-yang Hsiu’s “Autumn”, with Waley’s introduction, notes and appendix.