Adversaria Sinica (Classic Reprint) - Softcover

Excerpt from Adversaria Sinica

Half despairing, half repining not a single word of which is discoverable in Chia 1's poem. In 1912, Dr. Martin published the second edition of a little volume entitled Chinese Legends and Lyrics, in the preface to which he says, My harp, long silent, was suddenly awakened on June 21, 1905.

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Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Adversaria Sinica

Chia I, born in the year 200 B.C., rose when no more than a boy to high office. Like many other notable Chinese statesmen, he suffered banishment, and died from chagrin at the early age of thirty-three. He wrote a great deal of poetry, and among his works is a piece entitled "The Owl," the opening words of which are extraordinarily suggestive of Poe's famous poem. It is to the credit of Dr. W. A. P. Martin that the similarity was first pointed out by him (North American Review for 1901, p. 857); but with this discovery I am constrained to say that Dr. Martin's credit begins and ends. For his attempt at translation cannot be regarded as a serious contribution. It is not even a liberal paraphrase, with a few ancillary touches of the paraphrast to help out the sense, or the metre. Whole sentences of several lines, not to be found in the Chinese original, are freely inserted, and a ring of Poe's craftsmanship, faintly heard, except in a few of the opening lines, is imparted to the translation, to a quite unjustifiable extent. Thus, Dr. Martin begins his version with -

Betwixt moss-covered reeking walls,
An exiled poet lay -
On his bed of straw reclining,
Half despairing, half repining -

not a single word of which is discoverable in Chia l's poem.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.