BOOK REVIEWS
137
Mr. Liu to task for an alleged sacrifice of sense and style to rhyme. There is, however, much to be said for Mr. Liu on this debatable issue. Poetry does not aim merely at the transmission of information or even of ideas. It is in essence a mood, the purpose of which is to induce the same mood in the reader. A completely literal translation no doubt conveys to the reader all the telling details in the original, but often fails to impart the æsthetic pleasure which rhyme and rhythm can alone create. A rhymed translation may lose in factual reality and may at times sound affected; nevertheless, it more often succeeds in conveying the original mood of the poem. Provided that the meaning is clear to the translator, there is always room in the rendering of Chinese poetry for a choice between rhymed verse and prose, and between an emphasis on what is said and how it is said. Mr. Liu's English version of Ma Chih Yuan's lyric to the tune "T'ien Ching Sha" perhaps justifies his method:
Withered vines, aged trees, twilight crows.
Beneath the little bridge by the cottage the river flows.
On the ancient road and lean horse the west wind blows
The evening sun westward goes,
As a broken-hearted man stands at heaven's close.
The translation as it stands does not, may I say so for the translator, pretend to be poetry in its own right: it is entirely up to the reader to judge whether or not it is superior to a completely literal translation which would look something like this:
Withered vines-old trees-twilight crows.
Little bridge-flowing water
— people's house. Ancient road-west wind—lean horse.
Evening sun- west set
Broken-bowel man at heaven's end.
The book classifies themes in Chinese poetry into Nature, Love, History, Time, Nostalgia and Leisure. The conspicuous absence of Friendship in these categories is a bit disturbing to most readers whose impressions of Chinese poetry are based on the "Three Hundred Tang Poems". But Mr. Liu explains the omission as follows: "Some Western translators, it seems to me, have over-emphasized the importance of friendship between men in Chinese poetry and correspondingly underestimated that of love