Three Chinese Poets – Vikram Seth

Three Chinese Poets – Vikram Seth

I picked this book primarily because after reading both verse and prose from the author.

I know the translation would make a great reading. It did. I liked the poetry, the ideas, and whatever Chinese poets must have thought about was communicated as well as possible in well-compiled text. I cannot read or understand Chinese, but my Chinese friends found the translations to be inadequate and half-hearted representations of what they described as timeless, classic poetry.

Knowing the difficulty in faithfully representing a different culture for an author, and the complexity of translation of any verse, cultures, times and metaphors, I think Vikram Seth as always did a commendable job.

For real taste of his poetic genius, read The Golden gate or All you who sleep tonight!