Reading and Translating Tang and Song Poetry

In this seminar we will study shi poetry of the Tang dynasty and ci lyrics of the Song dynasty. Students will learn to analyze these two important poetic genres in the Chinese literary tradition and will become familiar with major reference works for conducting annotated translation of classical Chinese poetry. Class activities and assignments will include close reading of poetry in Chinese, comparison and analysis of existing translations of Chinese poems in English, background readings and discussion in English, and students' own annotated translation of selected poems.