【Preface】

‘Cherish one’s own beauty, respect other’s beauty, and when both beauties are respected and cherished, the world will become one”（各美其美，美人之美，美美与共，天下大同——费孝通）, said Fei Xiaotong, a famous Chinese sociologist at a cerebration party in honor of his eightieth birthday about thirty years ago. In a time of growing interest in intercultural communication today, these words sound especially wise and far sighted. Translation, as one of the most important means for cultural communication, is usually done into one’s mother tongue from other languages by native translators. This largely guarantees the quality of translated text, so far as the linguistic readability is concerned. However, this method implies a one-sidedness in correspondence, as only the translator’s ‘respect for other’s beauty” is concerned, regardless, though not completely, of how the local people look upon and cherish their own beauty. It should be compensated by translations on the other way, that is, works selected, interpreted, and translated by the local people themselves into languages other than their own. This approach may go directly against the prevalent views in modern translation theories but, in my opinion, is worthy of practicing. It is perhaps an even more effective way to bring about successful communication in cultures, and the beauties of the world can really be shared by the world’s people. It is with such understanding that the Shanghai Foreign Languages Education Press is organizing a new series of books, entitled Readings of Chinese Culture, to introduce Chinese culture, past and present, to the world, with works selected and translated by the Chinese scholars and translators. 

The series will cover a wide range of writings including but not restricted to works of different literary genres. For the first batch, we are glad to provide three books of essays and two books of short stories, all written by authors of the 20th century. They will be continued by a batch of serious academic writings on premodern Chinese classics in philosophy, literature, and historiography, written by influential scholars of our time. Later, we will offer more books on classical Chinese drama, classical Chinese poetry, etc. 

Some of the books in the series have been published before, but they have been revised and rearranged for the new purpose to meet the current needs of broader readers. We are looking forward to hear comments and suggestions on the series for future improvement.

【译者简介/About the translator】

孙大雨（1905-1997），祖籍浙江省诸暨市，出生于上海。1925年毕业于北京清华学校高等科。1926年赴美国留学，就读于达德穆斯学院，1928年获高级荣誉毕业。1928-1930年在耶鲁大学研究生院专攻英文文学。1930年回国，历任武汉大学、北京师范大学、北平大学女子文理学院、北京大学、青岛大学、浙江大学、暨南大学、中央政治学院、复旦大学、华东师范大学等校英文文学教授，主要著作有：《中国新诗库·孙大雨卷》 《孙大雨诗文集》 《屈原诗选英译》 《古诗文英译集》 《英诗选译集》，以及翻译莎士比亚作品《罕秣菜德》 《黎琊王》 《奥赛罗》 《麦克白斯》 《暴风雨》 《冬日故事》 《罗密欧与居丽晔》 《威尼斯商人》。 

Sun Dayu (1905-1997), native of Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, was born in Shanghai. Having successfully completed his courses in the senior class at Qinghua College (now Tsinghua University) in Beijing in 1925, he went to U.S. to continue his education at Dartmouth College in 1926, and graduated as AB magna cum laude in 1928. During 1928-1930, he pursued a postgraduate study of English literature at Yale University, and then came back in 1930 as professor of English literature at Wuhan University, Beijing Normal University, Women’s College of Arts and Sciences of Beiping University, Beijing University, Qingdao University, Zhejiang University, Jinan University, Central Politics Institute, Fudan University and East China Normal University respectively. His chief works include The Book of Sun Dayu in A Colletion of Modern Chinese Poetry, Sun Dayu’s Book of Poems and Other Writings, Selected Poems of Chü Yuan, An Anthology of Ancient Chinese Poetry and Prose, Selected English Poems Rendered into Chinese Verse, translations of Shakespeare’s works of Hamlet, King Lear, Othello, Macbeth, The Tempest, The Winter’s Tale, Romeo and Juliet and The Merchant of Venice.

【目录】

 An Anthology of the Tang Dynasty Poetry

 Song on Ascending the Youzhou Terrace

 Random Lines on Home-Coming

 Feelings on My State

 Ascending the Stork Tower

 Liang County Song

 Spring Dawn

 A Song on Listening to An Wanshan Playing the Bi-Li Pipe

 Bidding Adieu to a Friend

 Blue Runne

 Luanjia Rapids

 1t Bamboo Grove Cabin

 Bird-Chirping Hollow

 TELines

 Smallholders Homes by the Wei Stream

 Remembering My Brothers East of the Mountain on the Ninth Day of the Ninth Moon

 Bidding Adieu to Yuan Junior in His Mission to Anxi (Song of the Town of Wei)

 Far Departed

 Difficult Is the Way to Shu-A Pindaric Ode (The Poem in Triple-Syllabic Measures)

 Difficult Is the Way to Shu-A Pindaric Ode (The Prose Version)

 Crows Croaking at Dusk

 A Tune of Crows Roosting fore the Eve

 Carouse, Please

 The Lay of the Sun Arising and Sinking

 Frontier Tunes

 Plaint on Gem Steps 

 For Qing-Ping Tunes

 Thoughts in a Still Night,

 Spring Thoughts

 Ziyes Wu Song

 Long Drawn Yearning

 Chant over the Stream

 River-Crossing Tune

 Humming under the Moon atop the West Tower in Jinling City

 Song of the Emei Mount Peaks Moon

 To Wang Lun

 Question and Answer in the Mounts

 Ballad of Mount Lu, Sent to Lord Attendant Lu Xuzhou

 A Song for Some Friends on a Dream Trip to Mount Tianmu

 Parting Thoughts at a Jinling Tavern

 Seeing Meng Haoran off to guangling on the Yellow Crane Tower

 Bidding Adieu to a Friend

 Bidding Farewell with Feast to Decreed Editor Uncle Yun on Xie Tiao Tower in County Xuan

 Holding Drink to Ask the Moon

 Ascending the Phoenix Terrace of Jinling City

 Sighting the Cataract of Mount Lu

 Ascending Xie Tiaos North Tower at Xuancheng in Autumn

 Embarking from Baidi Town at Early Morn

 Looking Back to Olden Times in Yue

 Drinking Alone under the Moon

 Sitting in Repose Alone on Jingting Hill

 A Visit to the Taoist Priest of Daitian Mount without Meeting Him

 Sad,Sad Arbour

 Moonlight on the Mount of Borderland Pass

 Secluded Gorge Spring

 Goodman,Cross Ye Not the River

 Epistolet Inviting My Cousins to a Spring Night Banquet in the Garden of Peach Blossoms

 Song of Farewell Sung in Jinling for Fan Xuan

 Descending from Mount Zhongnan, Putting up at the Mountaineer Husis Lodging and Being Entertained with Drinking

 Yellow Crane Tower

 Sighting the Great Mount Dai

 Chief of Corps Fang s Steed of the Huns

 A Hawk Portrayed

 The Rime of the War-Chariots

 Song on the Eight Faeries in Drinking

 The Lay of the Belles

 The Lay of Meipi

 A Moonlit Night

 Spring Prospects

 Qiang Village(Three Poems)

 To the Eighth Wei Brother, the Anchorite

 Xinan Officer

 The Shihao Officers

 Tong Pass Officer

 Parting after Nuptials

 Parting during Declining Years

 Parting sans a Home

 The Beauty

 Two Poems on Dreaming of Li Bai

 For Li Bai

 Longing for My Younger Brothers in a Moolight Night

 Riverside village

 The Crazy Man

 Arrival of a Guest

 Glad at Raining in a Spring Night

 Song on My Cottage Being Broken by Autumnal Blasts

 A Quatrain on the Crimes of the Court Brigades

 A Quatrain

 Two Quatrains

 Yus Temple

 Eight Octaves on Autumnal Musings

 Pavilion Night 

 Ascending a Height

 A Song on Watching Lady Gongsuns Disciple in Her "Rapier Thrusting and Fencing" Dance

 Ascending Yueyang Tower

 Chancellor of Shu

 Facing Snowing

 Thoughts During My Night Travel

 Lines Written in the Desert

 Night Mooring at Fengqiao village

 The Mountain Stream in the West of Chuzhou

 Borderland Tunes

 The Wandering Sons Song

 In the Capitals Southern Village

 On the Rear Dhyana Hall of Po Shan Bonzary

 Putting up at Wang Changlings Hermitage

 The Lay of the Stone Drums

 An Eulogium on a Humble Cell

 Autumnal Song

 Bamboo Twig Song

 Black Coat Lane

 Stone-Walled City

 Grasses

 On Sighting the Mounts with the Bonze Haochu,Lines Written to My Kin and Friends in the Capital

 Abiding by the Runlet

 Snowing on the River

 The Angler

 A Call on the Recluse Who Is Just Out

 Jiling Terrace

 Mountain Trip 

 Lines in Bidding Adieu

 The Clear-and-Bright Feast 

 Hearing Tartar Clarinet on the Border

 Plaints from the Gemmed Harp 

 The Gladdening Upland

 Lines Sent to the North Written During Night Rains

 Change

 Villages Deserted after the March of Troops

 Notes and Comments