About the Book
My China in Tang Poetry is a personal celebration of the genius of the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. Susan Wan Dolling, writer, teacher and storyteller provides a feast of new translations and readings of the poetry with consummate knowledge, understanding and an enthusiasm that is infectious. In her telling, these stories and poems are not archaic or hard, but engaging and alive.
Volume Two, Floating on Clouds, gives us two men described as recluses, Meng Haoran and Wang Wei, and the so-called "Four Female Talents of the Tang Era", Li Ye, Xue Tao, Liu Caicun and Yu Xuanji.
About the Author :
Susan Wan Dolling is a Chinese American writer who was born in Hong Kong, attended the Diocesan Girls' School, studied in Japan, and graduated from Princeton University with an AB in English and Creative Writing, and PhD in Comparative Literature. She has taught English and Literature at Fordham University and Chinese Literature at the University of Texas at Austin. Her translations of modern Chinese literature and classical Chinese poetry can be found in such publications as Poetry Magazine, Words Without Border, Two Lines, The Columbia Anthology of Modern Chinese Literature, and Renditions. Two excerpts of her unpublished novel, The Price of Sunshine, is on the website, The Write Launch. Her translation of Wang Wen-hsing's Modernist novel, Family Catastrophe is in University of Hawaii Press's Fiction from Modern China Series.
Review :
"Susan Wan Dolling has lived with Tang poetry for decades, and like the best teachers she knows how to make her familiarity ours. She tells the stories behind the poems, and her translations, clear and natural and fluid, have a sure sense of how emotions build and shine. Far more than an anthology, this series is a comprehensive tour of Tang poetry and culture with a genial, expert and witty guide." - James Richardson, Professor of Creative Writing, Emeritus, Lewis Center for the Arts, Princeton University
"This book makes me want to drop everything and do nothing but learn about Chinese poetry! Dolling brings poets Li Bai and Du Fu vividly to life, both in her translations and in the stories she tells about 8th-century China, along with her own memories about growing up in Hong Kong. The notes to the poems cover poetics, wordplay, proverbs, history, geography, legends, folk songs, festivals, food, flowers, and more - everything you need to fall in love with these poems, these poets, and their world." - Laura Gibbs, author of Aesop's Fables: A New Translation
"Susan Wan Dolling compares translation to performance art-and this is a virtuoso performance. Combining fresh translations of China's greatest poets with vivid context and engaging personal anecdotes, Dolling's work interprets the Tang dynasty and its literary luminaries for a new generation of readers." - Kevin Peraino, author of A Force So Swift: Mao, Truman, and the Birth of Modern China, 1949
""Susan Wan Dolling has given readers, from academics to lovers of poetry, a refreshing and innovative staging of Tang poetry. Informed personal readings accompanied by stories behind the poets and poems capture the enduring appeal of Tang poetry. In my many years of teaching Classical Chinese poetry, this series is a fresh take that is accessible to the general audience unfamiliar with Chinese as well as being delightful for the audience steeped in the tradition (and everyone in between)." - Chiu-Mi Lai, Ph.D., Professor of Instruction, University of Texas
"Susan Wan Dolling's My China in Tang Poetry is surprisingly easy and entertaining reading. Susan's scholarship as well as vivid imagination shine through her storytelling and educated postulations, informative for both Tang poetry aficionados and neophytes. Her resplendent translations of the Chinese poetry are brilliant." - Diana Lin, Hong Kong Journalist
"These volumes are a must for anyone who is interested in the Tang poetry which is the heart of the literature and culture of China." - Margaret Sun, author of Betwixt and Between
"Susan Wan Dolling is a scholar/poet who has breathed and danced these poems every day of her life. These beautiful translations are proof positive that translation is never a matter of just translating words. Thank you, Susan, for this gift of poetry." - Nadia Benabid, translator of Return to Painting by Nobel Laureat Gao Xingjian
"In China, past and present, most kids grow up reciting Tang poems, and some even try their hand at writing these five or seven character lines when they feel inspired. Writing in the genre, usually poems of four or eight lines, might sound simple, but in fact it is not. As one grows older and read more and more of the annotated texts, one becomes more and more appreciative of the details of both the artistry and historical richness of these poems. As translator and annotator of these Tang poems, Susan Wan Dolling has done a fantastic job. The meticulousness of her annotations should be appreciated, and her renderings, accurate and smoothly readable (both script-wise and sound-wise) are definitely enjoyable." - Diana Yue, translator of Flying Carpet: A Tale of Fertillia by Hong Kong's own Xixi
