FOREWORD
Miss Lin, daughter of Lin Yutang, spent almost 5 years translating these poems while she was also busy occupied with her other works in New York. These are favorite poems of her as well as of
many other Chinese. She learned T’ang poetry from her father as a young girl, together with Chinese classics. And though she has spent the major part of her life abroad she vividly remembers
the countrysides and the seasons of China from childhood trips and her two years’ stay at Kunming. It is this combination of personal experience plus hard work that has made these translations
worthwhile.
Translation is an art, a work of love as well as a necessity for better understanding of Chinese culture. I find these translations refreshing and enduring. They are a good guide to
appreciation of the Chinese original. Students and scholars would both find these poems useful. The moods and subtleties of T’ang poems are well conveyed, and the perfection of the original
works in Chinse stands out even more illuminatingly through an understanding of both languages.
I am proud to be Miss Lin’s superior at the National Palace Museum, where she has done many translations for the Quarterly, the Newsletter and other publications. I find her a sincere person,
and write these few words in appreciation of her talent in rendering these short and famous poems of the T’ang dynasty into English.
Chiang Fu-tsung December 1969
