This site contains chronologically-ordered English translations of 250+ Chinese poems from the period 200-1200, most by major poets of the period.  Translations are by Matthew Flannery and Chang Leon Long-yien (1909-2009).  A 120-page Introduction provides an abbreviated history of poetic forms used during this period and outlines their formal structures even as it focuses primarily on issues that arise in translating Chinese poems.

Dr. Leon Chang (1909-2009), Fellow of the Institute of Arts and Letters, Geneva, was a friend and virtual coauthor of these translations.  Having spent a Saturday morning every month since 1979 studying Chinese calligraphy together, in 1988 we began to translate Chinese poems, a process we continued into 1993.  During our meetings, Dr. Chang developed a literal translation, a literate explanatory version, and filled in what historical, literary, linguistic, and cultural information was necessary to understand each poem.  Dr. Chang, a polymath of Chinese and much western culture, was eminently suited for this role.  Among the adventures of his long life, he was a disciple of Hu Xiao-shi (1888-1962), a great scholar of ancient scripts and the history of literature, a stylist in Chinese poetry, and one of the greatest calligraphers of his generation.   Subsequently, Dr. Chang was a member of the Chinese diplomatic delegation to the Third Reich, Berlin, 1937-1941 and section chief to the United Nations Secretariat at its opening in 1946.  He earned a BA degree at the University of Nanjing in 1932 in political science, received a Docteur en Droit from the University of Nancy in 1936, and was at various times research fellow at Oxford, Berlin, and Harvard universities during 1939-1943, including work on Mathews Chinese-English Dictionary (at Harvard).  After many years in the United Nations, he held a number of diplomatic, cultural, and goodwill posts in the 1960s, including member of the Board of Directors, Joint Administration of Chinese National Museums (including the National Palace Museum), 1963-1965, and alternate permanent representative for the Republic of China to UNESCO, Paris, 1966-1971.  Long a resident of Flushing, Queens, he has been distinguished visiting professor at St. John’s University, Queens.  Besides his public career, he always has had a private one which, like any good literatus, he seems to value more.  As well as calligrapher and poet, his knowledge of the history and connoisseurship of many of the arts of China was extensive and led to his authorship of numerous articles in Chinese on calligraphy, poetry, and other subjects, of La calligraphie chinoise, Paris, 1971, and of Four Thousand Years of Chinese Calligraphy, Chicago University Press, 1991 (with Peter Miller).  It has been an honor and unusual privilege to have associated with him for so many years.

Matthew Flannery, Highland Park NJ, was educated at Reed College, the University of Chicago, and Rutgers University in philosophy and urban and regional planning.  He refines English translations of Chinese poems from 200-1200; collects recordings of western classical chamber and solo music in historical depth; edits scholarly papers, chiefly on Chinese calligraphy and painting; has written on the chronological order of Domenico Scarlatti’s keyboard sonatas; collects Chinese calligraphies and seal stones.