Poetry. Asian Studies. This book is not an attempt to grasp the "essence" of Chinese poetry, nor is it an endeavor to produce an over-polished version of English that claims aesthetic superiority over other works in the same field. It grapples rather with the nature of translation and poetry, and explores poetic issues from the perspective of translation and translation issues from the perspective of poetry. With its agenda hidden, translation is too often the handyman for the metaphysical, mystical, or universal notion of poetry. When emerging from obscurity, translation becomes an ally with poetic material and enacts the wordness of the words. This book strives to strengthen the alliance between translation and poetry.

"In this anthology of classic poetry from China, Yunte Huang transforms our sense of 'Chineseness' by replacing the Orientalized scenic and stylistic tropes of traditional translations with multilevel encounters with the Chinese language. In acknowledging the foreigness of its source texts, this collection reimagines the task of translation and the possibilities for crosscultural points of contacts, in the process changing the way we read Chinese poetry."—Charles Bernstein