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Title: Good poems, great translation
Review: This translation is very readable. The notes are always very interesting and help the text come alive. Red Pine has really provided a lot of value through them - without them, some of the poems could be very obscure. It is rare to find a translation of the complete works of a Chinese poet: most books only present a selection. If one takes the time to read the complete oevre, however, the author comes alive in a different way - you begin to recognize certain recurring moods and themes; in the end, you feel you have learnt something about the things that concerned him, and come closer as a result.The only criticism is that Red Pine uses a personal transliteration that is neither pinyin nor Wade-Giles; as a result, it is often hard to be sure of the identity of people and places he mentions.
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