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mary_soon_lee's review against another edition
"The Book of Songs" is the oldest of the Chinese classics, a collection of 305 songs that date back over two thousand years to the Zhou kingdom. These songs/poems held a huge importance in Confucianism and in Chinese literature. They are presented in the order they appeared in the classic edition known as the Mao version. I knew little about this prior to reading the book, and I apologize for any mistakes I've made in my comments.
Now classed as poetry, the original versions derived from songs: folk songs, songs from rituals, ceremonial songs -- some of them perhaps courtship songs with men and women singing in call and response, some of them perhaps accompanied by dance as well as music. Although they arose from songs, the music has been lost. Add to this the difficulty of translating lyrics, where it is almost impossible to preserve rhythm, rhyme, sound, and it doesn't surprise me that I found the English renditions rather flat. I imagine reading a song like Greensleeves in translation and without the music.
This book contains Arthur Waley's translation of the bulk of the songs along with his comments. In addition, it contains a foreword by Stephen Owen, plus Joseph R. Allen's translations of fifteen songs that Waley omitted, plus Allen's comments and an extensive postface that Allen wrote on the literary history of "The Book of Songs." The foreword and postface help explain the origins of the songs/poems, their historical importance, and the commentaries and interpretations that were attached to them.
The postface uses song 81 as an example of how later material attached to the text. Here is Allen's translation:
Along the Highroad
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your cuff,
Do not hate me;
Old ways take time to overcome.
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your hand,
Do not be angry with me;
Love takes time to overcome.
The influential Mao version of the book, dating from about two thousand years ago, contained accompanying notes both of a lexical nature and on the general meaning. Of number 81, it says, '"Along the Highroad" describes thinking of one's noble lord; Duke Zhuang of Zheng neglected the proper way and the noble lords abandoned him. The men of the state longed for them/him.' [Note that the original contains no mention of Duke Zhuang.]
Another influential version of the book, Kong Ying-da's version from 641 CE, went into greater length on the general meaning--still tying it to Duke Zhuang--and on specific words. (Allen's postface quotes the discussion of the word translated as cuff.)
Whereas in the 12th century, a paraphrase by Zhu Xi has no mention of Duke Zhuang, saying instead "A licentious woman was abandoned by someone; upon the point of him leaving her, she grabbed his cuff in order to detain him.... These too are the lyrics of a love song between a man and a woman."
Historically, the interpretations that attached to "The Book of Songs" were very important. For myself, I am most interested in what the songs/poems show of life in China thousands of years ago: farming, courtship, being a soldier or a servant or a wife, divination, beliefs about ancestors. I liked it when I felt the emotion behind the songs/poems. I liked how some of the lines remain very timely, e.g. from number 195:
Shallow words are what they heed,
And shallow words make their debate.
Some of the notes are fascinating, for instance the brief statement on number 280 that "Musicians were generally blind men," or the explanation preceding number 209 that a young man, referred to as the Dead One, would impersonate their dead ancestor during sacrifices.
As poetry, stripped of music, translated into English, this book is somewhat lacking. As a record of a Chinese classic, plus a discussion of its historical importance, plus a glimpse into life thousands of years ago, it is fascinating. Hard to rate overall, but I'll settle on 4 out of 5 Confucian stars.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
Now classed as poetry, the original versions derived from songs: folk songs, songs from rituals, ceremonial songs -- some of them perhaps courtship songs with men and women singing in call and response, some of them perhaps accompanied by dance as well as music. Although they arose from songs, the music has been lost. Add to this the difficulty of translating lyrics, where it is almost impossible to preserve rhythm, rhyme, sound, and it doesn't surprise me that I found the English renditions rather flat. I imagine reading a song like Greensleeves in translation and without the music.
This book contains Arthur Waley's translation of the bulk of the songs along with his comments. In addition, it contains a foreword by Stephen Owen, plus Joseph R. Allen's translations of fifteen songs that Waley omitted, plus Allen's comments and an extensive postface that Allen wrote on the literary history of "The Book of Songs." The foreword and postface help explain the origins of the songs/poems, their historical importance, and the commentaries and interpretations that were attached to them.
The postface uses song 81 as an example of how later material attached to the text. Here is Allen's translation:
Along the Highroad
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your cuff,
Do not hate me;
Old ways take time to overcome.
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your hand,
Do not be angry with me;
Love takes time to overcome.
The influential Mao version of the book, dating from about two thousand years ago, contained accompanying notes both of a lexical nature and on the general meaning. Of number 81, it says, '"Along the Highroad" describes thinking of one's noble lord; Duke Zhuang of Zheng neglected the proper way and the noble lords abandoned him. The men of the state longed for them/him.' [Note that the original contains no mention of Duke Zhuang.]
Another influential version of the book, Kong Ying-da's version from 641 CE, went into greater length on the general meaning--still tying it to Duke Zhuang--and on specific words. (Allen's postface quotes the discussion of the word translated as cuff.)
Whereas in the 12th century, a paraphrase by Zhu Xi has no mention of Duke Zhuang, saying instead "A licentious woman was abandoned by someone; upon the point of him leaving her, she grabbed his cuff in order to detain him.... These too are the lyrics of a love song between a man and a woman."
Historically, the interpretations that attached to "The Book of Songs" were very important. For myself, I am most interested in what the songs/poems show of life in China thousands of years ago: farming, courtship, being a soldier or a servant or a wife, divination, beliefs about ancestors. I liked it when I felt the emotion behind the songs/poems. I liked how some of the lines remain very timely, e.g. from number 195:
Shallow words are what they heed,
And shallow words make their debate.
Some of the notes are fascinating, for instance the brief statement on number 280 that "Musicians were generally blind men," or the explanation preceding number 209 that a young man, referred to as the Dead One, would impersonate their dead ancestor during sacrifices.
As poetry, stripped of music, translated into English, this book is somewhat lacking. As a record of a Chinese classic, plus a discussion of its historical importance, plus a glimpse into life thousands of years ago, it is fascinating. Hard to rate overall, but I'll settle on 4 out of 5 Confucian stars.
About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition
3.0
Going absolutely insane thinking about 絷之维之，以永今朝 but it's fine I'm cool
Arthur Waley's translation of the Shijing (詩 song, poem, ode + 經 classic book, religious text) was first published in 1937. The edition I have is from 1960. What I mean by this is don't get your hopes up as to the quality of the translations themselves. I love Waley's translations, I really do, because he clearly tried his best; it's just that translation studies were still young and unstandardised. The organisation of Waley's Shijing is also nonstandard: the numbering of the poems doesn't align with current scholarship, and the categorisation of the poems themselves deviates from the typical arrangement. The translations of the poems themselves, as Waley himself notes, "(with very rare exceptions) are line for line. Head-rhyme, internal rhyme, and alliteration, all occur as occasional ornaments." However, as Waley remarks, although he:
As an example of how Waley's numerical system functions, here's his translation of a poem he labels as 56:
As you can see in this example, Waley's translations themselves are not actually that technically inaccurate, but the confusing and nonstandard formatting of the contents of the Shijing severely detracts from the value of Waley's version. I personally like Waley and his well-meaning translations, and it's certainly easier for me to parse the more bewildering bits, given my background in translation studies, but again: I wouldn't recommend this translation to anyone who isn't already well-versed in... well, verse.
Arthur Waley's translation of the Shijing (詩 song, poem, ode + 經 classic book, religious text) was first published in 1937. The edition I have is from 1960. What I mean by this is don't get your hopes up as to the quality of the translations themselves. I love Waley's translations, I really do, because he clearly tried his best; it's just that translation studies were still young and unstandardised. The organisation of Waley's Shijing is also nonstandard: the numbering of the poems doesn't align with current scholarship, and the categorisation of the poems themselves deviates from the typical arrangement. The translations of the poems themselves, as Waley himself notes, "(with very rare exceptions) are line for line. Head-rhyme, internal rhyme, and alliteration, all occur as occasional ornaments." However, as Waley remarks, although he:
[...] would much rather have kept to the traditional order, which does not arrange the poems according to subject [but rather poetic form]. But after experimenting in this direction I came to the conclusion that the advantages of an arrangement according to subject far outweighed, for the purposes of the present book, the disadvantages of tampering with the accepted order. I hope that the tables at the end of the book will enable the specialist to identify the pieces without difficulty. If any reader posseses a copy of the Songs in which the pieces are not numbered 1-305, as they are, for example, in the Harvard-Yenching Index text, [they] will find that it is a very easy manner to insert the numbers.Waley divides the poems into the following topics: "Courtship," "Marriage," "Warriors and Battles," "Agriculture," "Blessings on Gentle Folk," "Welcome," "Feasting," "The Clan Feast," "Sacrifice," "Music and Dancing," "Dynastic Songs," "Dynastic Legends," "Building," "Hunting," "Friendship," "Moral Pieces," and "Lamentations," respectively. For all of the reasons above, I really can't recommend Waley's translation of the Shijing to anyone not already intimately familiar with the content, structure, and history of the text.
As an example of how Waley's numerical system functions, here's his translation of a poem he labels as 56:
If along the highroadIn the "Finding List" appendix at the back of the book, "56" on the table in Waley's notation corresponds to "81" in the Mao notation. Poem 81 falls under the category of Zheng odes 鄭風 (75–95). Cross-referencing that in the Chinese text of the Shijing, which is, unsurprisingly because it is several millennia old, in the public domain, results in this poem:
I caught hold of your sleeve,
Do not hate me;
Old ways take time to overcome.
If along the highroad
I caught hold of your hand,
Do not be angry with me;
Friendship takes time to overcome.
遵大路兮、摻執子之袪兮。Very roughly, here's what that would look like when broken down by character, with an asterisk for each word that requires further explaining:
無我惡兮、不寁故也。
遵大路兮、摻執子之手兮。
無我魗兮、不寁好也。
following / big- / -road* / ah,* / grasp / hold / [suffix] / [modifier] / sleeve cuff / ah.Words in brackets indicate parts of speech that modify other words instead of standing on their own, i.e., the "modifier" (之) in this sense indicates that the following character modifies the preceding one, or the "emphasis" (也) adds emphasis to the preceding statement. The "big road" (大路) refers to a wide road or main road, i.e., a boulevard or avenue. The "ah" (兮) is an exclamatory particle, either at the end of a part of a line or at the end of the line entirely. The second instance of "hate" is actually a clumsy stand-in for a character I'd never before encountered but which means something more like "ugly" or "vile" (魗) and has more or less the same meaning of disdain, distaste, or lack of affection. Another translation of the same three characters (not-me-hate), by James Legge, is "do not think me vile," which also works. Yet another option could be "do not revile me."
not / me / hate / ah, / not / swift / past / [emphasis]
following / big- / -road / ah, / grasp / hold / [suffix] / [modifier] / hand / ah.
not / me / hate* / ah, / not / swift / friendship / [emphasis]
As you can see in this example, Waley's translations themselves are not actually that technically inaccurate, but the confusing and nonstandard formatting of the contents of the Shijing severely detracts from the value of Waley's version. I personally like Waley and his well-meaning translations, and it's certainly easier for me to parse the more bewildering bits, given my background in translation studies, but again: I wouldn't recommend this translation to anyone who isn't already well-versed in... well, verse.
abetterbradley's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know how this book wound up on my to read list. I love poetry but I feel that something was lost in translation with this version of The Book Of Songs. I couldn't get into it and I don't know why
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