Classical Chinese Poetry

“In the way of the pioneer translators of Chinese poetry during the past century—of Arthur Waley, Burton Watson, Willis Barnstone—David Hinton has heard and lured into English a new manner of hearing the great poets of that long glory of China’s classical age. His achievement is another echo of the original, and a gift to our language.” —W. S. Merwin

“Hinton has established himself as the premier Chinese translator of our generation . . . He is a national treasure.” —William Mullen, The New York Sun

“I don’t know if [Hinton’s Selected Poems of Po Chü-i] is superior to the original or not, but it’s superior to anything I’ve ever seen in Chinese, and about the same for English.” —A. R. Ammons

“Hinton’s music is subtle, modulated . . . He has listened to the individual tone of each poet, and his craft is equal to his perception . . . He continues to enlarge our literary horizon.” —Rosemary Waldrop, citation for the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award

“[The Late Poems of Meng Chiao] affords us what is all too rare in Chinese translations: the sustained, recognizable resonance of a single voice at a single moment . . . This is a real contribution to the small body of genuine poetic translation.” —Richard Howard

“Given the magnitude of his ability and his overall project, Hinton is creating nothing less than a new literary tradition in English, an event of truly major importance not only to English literature but also to the literature of my own language.  I cannot recommend the value of his work too highly.”— Bei Dao