Wai-lim Yip staat bekend om zijn invloedrijke poëtische theorie die modernistische poëzie verbindt met taoïstische esthetiek, wat met name in Taiwan weerklank vond. Zijn werk duikt in de diepe verbanden tussen literaire tradities en filosofische stromingen, en biedt lezers een uniek perspectief op interculturele literaire dialoog. Yips oeuvre wordt geprezen om zijn intellectuele diepgang en zijn vermogen om schijnbaar uiteenlopende literaire en filosofische systemen te synthetiseren.
In this collection of essays, poet and literary critic Wai-Lim Yip calls Western scholarship to account for its misrepresentation of non-Western literature. Using various examples, he exposes the types of distortions that have occurred in the process of translating from one language to another.
Focusing on Ezra Pound's translation of the challenging Cathay poems, Wai-lim Yip explores the broader issues of translating from Chinese. The study connects Pound's translation principles to his late pre-Raphaelite influences, providing an in-depth analysis of his techniques. Yip's examination highlights the complexities and nuances involved in capturing the essence of the original texts, offering valuable insights into both Pound's work and the art of translation itself.