The Poem Behind the Poem: Translating Asian Poetry

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The translation of Asian poetry into English has revitalized American poetry over the past 100 years. Yet readers rarely witness the intense engagement behind the translated poem -- how the translator must serve as both artist and alchemist, urging a poem to work and sing in a second language. Success is rare, and the practice of translation, as W.S. Merwin reminds us, is "plainly impossible and nevertheless indispensable." This anthology -- the first of its kind -- gathers essays, poems-in-translation, and worksheets from noted translators who discuss their methods, their muses, and the forces of imagination necessary to bring a poem from one language into another. Languages discussed include Chinese (ancient and modern), Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Khmer, and Sanskrit. The twenty-two contributors include John Balaban, Willis Barnstone, Jane Hirshfield, Sam Hamill, W.S. Merwin, Gary Snyder, and Arthur Sze.