Category Archives: Literature

BOOK: “Golden Treasury of Quatrains and Octaves” [i.e. 千家诗] Trans. by Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming

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Golden Treasury of Quatrains & OctavesGolden Treasury of Quatrains & Octaves by Xu. Yuanchong (translator)
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — China Translation Corp

This is the bilingual (Chinese-English) edition of an anthology of Tang and Song Dynasty poems commonly known in Chinese as 千家诗 (it has a much longer formal title,) which was jointly translated by Xu Yuanchong and Xu Ming (no relation.) The book is organized into four parts by the form of poem: 7-character line quatrains, 7-character line octaves, 5-character line quatrains, and 5-character line octaves. The anthology includes poems by Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Jia Dao, Ouyang Xiu, Yang Wanli, Su Shi, and many other important Tang and Song poets — from Emperors to Hermits. That said, while the aforementioned Chinese title suggests there are works of a thousand poets involved, that’s an exaggeration. (And that’s probably all the better. While this was the golden age of Chinese poetry, going that wide into surviving poetry might involve hitting the dregs.)

Each entry has a title, byline, the poem in Simplified Chinese script and pinyin (Romanized phonetic script,) an English language translation, notes in Chinese, and a line or two of commentary in English. All but the seven-character line octaves take up just one page per poem. (Seven-character line octaves take two pages per poem.)

This is a great anthology. There’s an introduction to give insight into what approach the translators took. They stuck to rhyming verse to emulate the originals in form, but more can be learned from the introduction.

I’d highly recommend this anthology for poetry readers.

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PLAY: “A Streetcar Named Desire” by Tennessee Williams

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A Streetcar Named DesireA Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available online – Internet Archive

I’ve never seen the play, nor the movie. Of course, this is one of those works that has so scrawled itself across pop-culture that it’s impossible to go in without some reference from it kicking around in one’s brain, be it the pained shout of “STELLA!” or character names like “Blanche DuBois” or “Stanley Kowalski.” Even the name of the plantation on which the fallen socialite sisters grew up, Belle Reve, has been lent to a prison for supernatural villains in the world of DC Comics.

At the play’s heart are two sisters raised in a wealthy Southern family. One, Stella, has adapted well to the family’s fall from grace. Stella has married a fellow who is rough around the edges (to say the least,) Stanley, but Stella is satisfied that Stanley is a dependable provider — even if he does rough her up a bit now and again. The other sister, Blanche, hasn’t coped nearly so well. Blanche lies perpetually to try to shield herself from reality — and to present a more appealing reality to others. It is when Blanche, having nowhere else to go, moves into the small New Orleans apartment of Stanley and Stella that the tension is set to form the play’s story.

I enjoyed reading this play. It’s well-paced and effectively mixes comedy and drama. It’s in character building where the play shines. The main characters are well-defined and behave quite believably within the context of each one’s neuroses and vices. The constant conflict between Blanche and Stanley drives the story.

I’d highly recommend this for readers of plays and / or of American Literature.

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BOOKS: “John Brown” by W.E.B. Du Bois

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John BrownJohn Brown by W.E.B. Du Bois
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Available free online at Project Gutenberg

“John Brown’s Raid on Harpers Ferry” is one of those historic events like the “Teapot Dome Scandal” that American kids have to memorize a rote fact about to regurgitate on an American History test a couple times during their scholastic lives, never to be thought of much again, forever a familiar name lacking all depth of understanding. (At least that’s how it was in my day.) Unlike the Teapot Dome Scandal, which I suspect is not learned about in detail because it was somewhat complex and boring, I think the minimalist coverage of John Brown might reflect a bit of national embarrassment. For Brown’s tale is not complicated, and it’s certainly not boring. Brown thought slavery was an abomination, and he devoted his life to freeing slaves by whatever means he could, which culminated in a raid on an arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, West Virgina, at the convergence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers, a raid intended to liberate weapons to the cause of arming freed slaves and other abolitionist fighters.

It’s a shame that more is not learned about John Brown because he was such a fascinating and principled individual, and in a sense his story isn’t just an embarrassing tale of a sparse few virtuous people against a mainstream that was — at best — indifferent to slavery. But there is a potential for pride in the fact that Brown and those who fought with him were able to see slavery for what it was and to stand strong against that mainstream, to make the fight of the oppressed their fight and — in the case of Brown and others — to pay the ultimate price in the conduct of that fight.

W.E.B. Du Bois’ biography of John Brown came out in 1909 and may not be written in the novel-esque style that a writer today would write it, but it is well-written and readable. Du Bois’ book is a full biography of Brown, if focused on his abolitionist aspect. Du Bois tells a little of Brown’s backstory and of his work life and then explores his experiences fighting in Kansas. However, this book does really shine in its account of the Harpers Ferry Raid and its aftermath.

Readers interested in American History or the biographies of virtuous individuals are urged to read this account of the life of John Brown.

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BOOK: “Trouble in Heaven” [Vol. 2 “Journey to the West” (西游记) Series] ed. by Jeff Pepper / trans. by Xiao Hui Wang

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Trouble in Heaven: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary Level (Journey to the West in Simplified Chinese)Trouble in Heaven: A Story in Simplified Chinese and Pinyin, 600 Word Vocabulary Level by Jeff Pepper
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Imagin8

This is an abridged and linguistically simplified telling of the story of chapters three and four of the Chinese classic novel, Journey to the West. It is written and organized for learners of Chinese who would like to start reading in Chinese.

The events covered in this volume are Monkey King’s (a.k.a. Sun Wukong’s) acquisition of weapons for himself and his companions, his discovery that his name is on the registry of the underworld (and, thus, he’s not as immortal as he’d believed at the end of Vol. 1,) his ascension to heaven where he is given the job of stable manager (a life and job he is happy with until his discovery that it is the lowest level job in heaven,) and his skirmishes with the forces of heaven when he takes on the title “Great Sage Equal to Heaven.”

The story is conveyed in Simplified Chinese script, and has pinyin interspersed at the paragraph level. I like this arrangement because one has access to the pinyin as needed, but it’s not immediately adjacent (as it is with many starter readers,) such that it’s not possible to “cheat” by seeing the pinyin in one’s peripheral vision. It also offers an English language telling of the story, but after the entirety of the Chinese. The book also has three glossaries that collectively define all the terms used in the book. The first contains all the proper nouns, the second is all the basic words, and the last is all the words that are a little outside the most basic reading level. (The latter are also footnoted throughout the text.)

I’m enjoying this series. It’s a gripping story, it’s arranged in a way that encourages one read by the Chinese characters alone, and it is readable by the most beginning level student. That’s a combination that isn’t readily found. I’d highly recommend this series for those learning to read Chinese.


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PROMPT: Cultural Heritage

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What aspects of your cultural heritage are you most proud of or interested in?

I’m not sure whether this prompt is directed toward the culture of my ancestors (Irish) or the culture in which I was raised (American.) If it is the former, then the answer is certainly the great literary and poetic talent that was born of the culture (i.e. Yeats, Wilde, Shaw, Heaney, Beckett, Joyce, etc.) But if it is the latter, then it is certainly the great literary and poetic talent that was born of the culture (i.e. Whitman, Poe, Hemingway, Hughes, Twain, Dickinson, Faulkner, etc.)

BOOK: “Mastering the Art of War” by Zhuge Liang & Liu Ji [Trans. & Ed. by Thomas Cleary

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Mastering the Art of War: Commentaries on Sun Tzu's Classic (Shambhala Dragon Editions)Mastering the Art of War: Commentaries on Sun Tzu’s Classic by Zhuge Liang
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Shambhala

This book combines the writings of two prominent Chinese strategists, Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji. Both men came after Sunzi, author of The Art of War, and Cleary describes these two works as commentaries on the work of Sunzi.

Zhuge Liang’s piece is called The Way of the General and it collects short essays from Records of the Loyal Lord of Warriors. Like many, I first became acquainted with Zhuge Liang from his novelized personage in the Chinese classic, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, in which he is called “Kongming” and is a force to be reckoned with in service to Liu Bei of the Shu Kingdom. Zhuge Liang’s ideas are conveyed as short topical discussions, not unlike Sunzi’s work.

Liu Ji’s manual, Lessons of War, is a bit different in that the explanation of the strategy is briefer than in the works of Sunzi or Zhuge Liang, but Liu Ji always includes an exemplary story from history. This makes Liu Ji’s work a little more narrative. It is interesting to see the varied approach to conveyance of the concepts under consideration.

Because the works of Zhuge Liang and Liu Ji are thin, the book has a fair amount of padding in the form of Translator’s Introductions, both an overall Introduction and one per included work. I was happy with how these were done. They do not drone on but rather give some background that will be useful to the average reader without getting lost in the weeds.

If you’re interested in strategy, be it applicable to war or otherwise, I’d highly recommend this book.

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PROMPT: Topics

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Daily writing prompt
Which topics would you like to be more informed about?
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I’d like to know more about the capabilities and limitations of AI, a rabbit-hole that I have only recently stumbled upon, but which I am tumbling down hard. Particularly, how to best use it for language acquisition as I am currently learning Chinese and would like to increase my literacy so I can open myself up to a whole new world of books.

I’m also curious about pratfalls and physical comedy all of a sudden.

BOOK: Sát Thát by Lê Vân [Illustrated by Nguyễn Bích]

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Sát ThátSát Thát by Lê Vân
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Kim Dong Books

This illustrated book tells the story of the Vietnamese (Tran Dynasty) victories over the invading Yuan Dynasty (Mongolian-controlled China.) It’s a quick read with only a few lines of text per page, while the bulk of each page is a line-drawn monochrome illustration. The illustrations themselves are sufficiently clear and detailed to allow one to follow the general flow of the story.

I used a translator and don’t know how accurate it was or –more particularly — how true to the original it was, except to say that the translator produced a coherent story that seemed to be consistent with other sources.

This book focuses entirely on the military campaigns and takes a bit of a jingoistic tone. As I understand it, it doesn’t tell the whole tale as many consider the Mongol incursions to have been successful because they exacted a tribute from the Vietnamese (which was their ultimate goal,) despite the Mongols’ lack of military success. That said, it was an impressive set of military victories for the Tran Dynasty, and the Vietnamese have every right to take pride in them.

I discovered this book in the publisher’s bookstore in Hanoi and thought it was a small enough text with sufficiently detailed illustration to give me some insight into the story, even without any real grasp of the language. I did find reading the book to be informative and interesting and would recommend it for readers military history.

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“Thou Strainest Through the Mountain Fern” (A Fragment) by William Wordsworth [w/ Audio]

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Thou strainest through the mountain fern,
   A most exiguously thin
      Burn.
 For all thy foam, for all thy din,
   Thee shall the pallid lake inurn,
   With well-a-day for Mr. Swin-
      Burne!
 Take then this quarto in thy fin
   And, O thou stoker huge and stern,
   The whole affair, outside and in,
      Burn!
 But save the true poetic kin,
   The works of Mr. Robert Burn'
   And William Wordsworth upon Tin-
      Tern!

“Upon the Road of My Life” by Stephen Crane [w/ Audio]

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2 
Upon the road of my life,
  Passed me many fair creatures,
  Clothed all in white, and radiant.
 To one, finally, I made speech:
   “Who art thou?”
 But she, like the others,
   Kept cowled her face,
   And answered in haste, anxiously,
   “I am good deed, forsooth;
   You have often seen me.”
 “Not uncowled,” I made reply.
   And with rash and strong hand,
   Though she resisted,
   I drew away the veil
   And gazed at the features of vanity.
 She, shamefaced, went on;
   And after I had mused a time,
 I said of myself,
   “Fool!”