One Hundred More Poems from the Chinese: Love and the Turning Year

I have had a life-long passion for all kinds of poetry; however, my favorite style of poetry has always been the Asian poetry forms such as Haiku and Senryu. I also love the Chinese poems for the same reasons. Many times these kinds of poetry have been called “Zen poetry” because of the brevity of most of these Asian poems. I have numerous volumes of Asian poetry and I recently purchased this wonderful 142 page soft cover book (One hundred more poems from the Chinese Love and the turning year edited by Kenneth Rexroth) from Amazon at a bargain price. I have tried,(unsuccessfully) to enjoy the long drawn out, boring and often filled with meaningless prose “free verse” poetry of the west, which is popular with university professors and pseudo-intellectuals. This is why I no longer subscribe to the main street poetry journals. Contrast this to the poems of the east, which are almost, always clear, easy to understand and capture a “Zen” moment in time.This fantastic volume is the second in the series (One hundred poems from the Chinese) and there are so many wonderful poems that this short review cannot do it justice. The beauty of these poems is that almost all of them are short and to the point. They tell so much in a few words. William Shakespeare, who was the master of prose and poetry, has said: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Most Asian poetry forms follow the famous “Bard’s” advice when it comes to their poetry.This is a brief sample of the numerous poems you will find in this volume: Life is long, my lover will soon be here, a faithful wife, since you left, enlightenment, evening lights on the river, rising in winter, spring sorrow, a mountain spring, lost, sorrow, clear bright, drunk under flower shadows, her beauty is hidden, seventh day seventh month, she thinks of her beloved, drafted, freezing night, summer day and winter night.I really liked just about every single poem in this collection and if you are into Chinese poetry you should check out this fantastic volume.Rating: 5 Stars. Joseph J. Truncale (Author: Haiku Moments: How to read, write and enjoy haiku).

Is our pleasure. The poet was enamored with Asian poetry and transmitted many poems from Chinese and Japanese into exquisite English."A good rain knows it's season, " writes Tu Fu, and a good poet knows that a great translation captures the essence as well as the words of the poem.This is one of three books Rexroth published on these themes. Each one is delicious. Highly recommended.

Lots of insightful, touching, straight-from-the-heart sentiments in this book. I doubt you'll be disappointed.

Possibly the best of all Rexroth's translations. I'd say most of the poems could be considered great. Some are stunning in both their depth and simplicity.

Many years ago I read a poem from this that left an impression on me. It took me forever to figure out that this was the book I had read. Eventually I tracked it down and ordered it. Now that I have it, I am less impressed.

The book seemed cheap although the price was expensive, it was new but the cover and binding very slight. I have an older copy from many years back. The poems are delightful. I bought it as a gift for a friend.

Brilliant and sensitive. I feel transported to the time and place of thesewonderful poets. I highly recommend this and his series of 100 poems booksfrom Japan and China.

Kenneth Rexroth is a superb translator and this is a well curated selection. A future edition could usefully include original texts.

Superb collection of poems translated by Kenneth Rexroth, I guess it's not easy to translate these poems and maintain their original essence but Rexroth has done a great job, this volume along with several others has given a good insight into the poetry of early (and later) Chinese poets.Very often the most simple lines can mean something very complex but you don't have to dissect these poems just enjoy them.