A Heavily Annotated Copy of the Work of One of Our Greatest Sinologists
WALEY, Arthur (translator). A hundred and seventy Chinese Poems. London: Constable and Company. 1923.
8vo. Original black cloth, red lettering to front cover and spine, preserving the front panel of the original red dustjacket lettered in black; pp. xii, 168; deckle edges; hinges cracked but sound, corners bumped; slight browning to edges of leaves, a few minor smudges; annotated throughout by Waley in English and Chinese, with a loose receipt dated 24 April 1923 made out to Waley by The Artists Illustrators Ltd of Fleet Street for the return of ‘9 Original photos of Sculptures (Mr. Raphaels)’, pencil notes in Waley’s hand to reverse.
Second edition, third impression of Arthur Waley’s collection, perhaps the most important anthology of Chinese poetry in English translation, the vast majority of which translated into English for the first time; a working copy heavily annotated by Waley with substantial and largely unpublished revisions.
Self-taught as an orientalist and translator, Waley (1889–1966) ‘selected the jewels of Chinese and Japanese literature and pinned them quietly to his chest. No one ever did anything like it before, and no one will ever do so again. There are now many Westerners whose knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is greater than his, and there are perhaps a few who can handle both languages as well. But they are not poets, and those who are better poets than Waley do not know Chinese or Japanese. Also the shock will never be repeated, for most of the works that Waley chose to translate were largely unknown in the West, and their impact was thus all the more extraordinary’ (Spence, pp. 329–30).
The present collection, ranging from the ancient poets to Waley’s favourite Po Chü-I (Bai Juyi), was first published in 1918. By the mid twentieth century it was recognised that ‘it will not be long before [Waley’s] Chinese Poems is ranked as one of the half-dozen outstanding books of poetry by authors now living’ (Cohen, p. 36). His subtle but decisive changes to the first poem in the anthology, Qu Yuan’s ‘Battle’, are representative. Waley changes the poet’s life dates from firm to approximate and makes numerous changes in manuscript: ‘Standards ~s~obscure~s~ ⟨hide⟩ the sun~s~:~s~ ⟨;⟩ … the warriors press forward. They ~s~menace~s~ ⟨overrun⟩ our ranks~s~:~s~ ⟨;⟩ they ~s~break~s~ ⟨cross⟩ our line. The left-hand trace-horse is dead~s~:~s~ ⟨;⟩ the one on the right is ~s~smitten~s~ ⟨wounded⟩. The fallen horses block our wheels~s~:~s~ ⟨;⟩ ~s~they impede the yoke-horses!~s~ ⟨our chariot is caught fas …’ ‘There are now many Westerners whose knowledge of Chinese or Japanese is greater than his, and there are perhaps a few who can handle both languages as well. But they are not poets, and those who are better poets than Waley do not know Chinese or Japanese. Also the shock will never be repeated, for most of the works that Waley chose to translate were largely unknown in the West, and their impact was thus all the more extraordinary’ (Spence, pp. 329–30).
There were at least eight further impressions of the anthology, and a third edition was published in 1962. Some of these feature minor alterations to the text, but the great majority of the manuscript revisions to our copy appear not to have made it into print.
Johns A2. See Cohen, ‘Dr Waley’s translations’, in Morris ed., Madly Singing in the Mountains (1970); Spence, Chinese Roundabout (1992).
SKU: 2119978