****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Owen is a great explainer. He gives you the context in which the poems were written, and you know the translations are accurate. At times, he is completely caught up in a poem, and takes you with him, into an immersion experience that I have never found with another writer in this genre. There is not a lot of music in him, and there are times when the beauty of a poem is not readily apparent in his translation, but you can go other places for music. The book is superb, and, for an English-speaking lover of classical Chinese poetry, indispensable. I am so grateful for this paperback version -- I had given up on ever owning this book before. A lifetime "must-have."