Chinese Poems (1912) -

Franklin, NH: The Hillside Press, 1971 48 pages. A miniature book. Number 90 of 250 copies. Bound in hardcover.. Illus. by With five illustrations from ancient ink paintings. Book. Limited Edition.. Hardcover. Near Fine/No Jacket.

In overall good condition, no pages missing. Shipping can take between 2-6weeks for international deliveries. Hardback copies may or may not have dust jackets, please get in contact for more information.

Printed by Lowe Bros, 1916. First edition. Original printed self-wrappers, stitched within a slate-grey paper wrapper (made from a Colnaghi catalogue cover), on which Waley has written in red the three Chinese characters "Ku Shih Chi". With some pencilled corrections of misprints in the author's hand. A fine copy, signed much later by Waley on the title page. Waley's rare first book, privately printed in an edition of about fifty copies, the existence of which was unknown to bibliography until 1962. There are, as far as we can tell, eleven extant copies, of which we can brag of having owned six. Johns A1.Waley's authentic and musical translations infused the stress-rhythms of Chinese poetic forms into English. His influence on later English poetry and scholarship was immense. But one must read this collection also as a product of its time and place,and the immediacy of the war and its effects. Rupert Brooke (who had died the previous year) had been a close friend of Waley's at Rugby and King's… Read More