Arthur Waley

Arthur Waley (1889-1966). Courtesy Great Thoughts Treasury.

Arthur David Waley CH CBE (19 August 1889 - 27 June 1966) was an English orientalist and sinologist, who translated Chinese and Japanese poetry.

Life

Youth and education

Waley was born in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England, as Arthur David Schloss, son of economist David Frederick Schloss. Of Jewish heritage, he changed his surname to his paternal grandmother's maiden name, Waley, in 1914, like many English who changed German surnames to more English-sounding names during World War I.

He was educated at Rugby School,

in 1907 he entered King's College, Cambridge, where he studied Classics, and was awarded a bachelor's degree in 1910.

Career

Waley was appointed Assistant Keeper of Oriental Prints and Manuscripts at the British Museum in 1913. During this time he taught himself Chinese and Japanese, partly to help catalogue the paintings in the Museum's collection.

Waley lived in Bloomsbury and had a number of friends among the Bloomsbury Group, many of whom he had met as an undergraduate. He was one of the earliest to recognize Ronald Firbank as an accomplished author, and together with Osbert Sitwell provided an introduction to Firbank's initial collected edition.

Noted American poet Ezra Pound was instrumental in getting Waley's earliest translations into print in The Little Review.

Waley quit the British Museum in 1929 to devote himself fully to his literary and cultural interests, though he continued to lecture in the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.

Despite translating many Chinese and Japanese works into English, including much poetry and several philosophical works, Waley never travelled to the Far East. In his preface to The Secret History of the Mongols, he writes that he was not a master of many languages, but claims to have known Chinese and Japanese fairly well, a good deal of Ainu and Mongolian, and some Hebrew and Syriac.

Private life

In 1918, Waley met Beryl de Zoete, a dance critic and writer; they lived together until her death in 1962.

In 1966, Waley married Alison Robinson, whom he had met in 1929. They lived in Highgate in London, and she became a familiar figure in later years, living beyond the age of 100.

He died in London and is buried in Highgate Cemetery.

Writing

Waley's many translations include A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems (1918), Japanese Poetry: The Uta (1919), The No Plays of Japan (1921), The Tale of Genji (published in 6 volumes from 1921-33), The Pillow Book of Sei Shōnagon (1928), The Kutune Shirka (1951), Monkey (1942, an abridged version of Journey to the West), The Poetry and Career of Li Po (1959) and The Secret History of the Mongols and Other Pieces (1964).

Waley's translations of the classics, the Analects of Confucius and The Way and its Power (Tao Te Ching), are still regarded highly by his peers. Pound's view of Waley's early work was mixed, however. As he wrote to Margaret Anderson, editor of the Little Review, in a letter of 2 July 1917: "Have at last got hold of Waley's translations from Po chu I. Some of the poems are magnificent. Nearly all the translations marred by his bungling English and defective rhythm... I shall try to buy the best ones, and to get him to remove some of the botched places. (He is stubborn as a donkey, or a scholar.)" Waley, in his Introduction in his translation of The Way and its Power, explains that he was careful to put meaning above style in translations where meaning would be reasonably considered of more importance to the modern Western reader.

Dutch poet J. Slauerhoff used poems from A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems and More Translations from the Chinese to write his 1929 adaptation of Chinese poetry, Yoeng Poe Tsjoeng.

Recognition

Waley received the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for his translation of Monkey (1942).

He was elected an honorary fellow of King's College, Cambridge in 1945.

He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1952.

He received the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry in 1953

He was invested into the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1956.

His translations are widely regarded as poems in their own right, and have been included in many anthologies such as the Oxford Book of Modern Verse 1892-1935, Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse and Penguin Book of Contemporary Verse (1918-1960) under Waley's name.

Publications

Non-fiction

• The Poet Li-Po, A.D. 701-762. London: East & West, 1919.
• An index of Chinese artists represented in the Sub-department of Oriental Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London: British Museum, 1922.
• Zen Buddhism, and its relation to art. London: Luzac, 1922.
• An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Painting. London: Ernest Benn, 1923.
• The Way and Its Power: A study of the Tao Tê Ching and its place in Chinese thought. London: Allen & Unwin, 1934; New York: Grove Press, 1934.
• The Originality of Japanese Civilization. Tokyo, Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai, 1941.
• The Life and Times of Po Chü-I, 772-846 A.D. London: Allen & Unwin, 1949.
• The Poetry and Career of Li Po, 701-762 A.D. London: Allen & Unwin, 1950.
• Yuan Mei: Eighteenth Century Chinese Poet. London: Allen & Unwin, 1956; New York: Grove Press, 1956.
• Oriental Art and Culture: A study of Indian Chinese and Japanese art. New Delhi: Cosmo, 1981.

Translated

• Chinese Poems. London: privately published, printed by Lowe Bros., 1916; London: Allen & Unwin, 1948.
• A Hundred and Seventy Chinese Poems. London" Constable, 1918; New York: Knopf, 1919.
• More Translations from the Chinese (translated with Juyi Bai). London: Allen & Unwin, 1919; New York: Knopf, 1919.
• Japanese Poetry: The Uta. Oxford, UK: Clarendon Press, 1919.
• The Nō Plays of Japan. London: Allen & Unwin, 1921.
  • also published as The Noh Plays of Japan. Tokyo & Rutland, VT: Tuttle, 2009.
• The Tale of Genji, by Lady Murasaki, 1921-1933
• The Temple, and other poems. London: Allen & Unwin, 1923; New York: Knopf, 1923.
• Arthur Waley: Poems from the Chinese. London: Ernest Benn, 1926.
• Sei Shōnagon, The Pillow Book. London: Allen & Unwin, 1928.
• Kanesuke Fujiwara, The Lady Who Loved Insects. London: Blackamore Press, 1929.
• Zhichang Li, The Travels of an Alchemist: The journey of the Taoist, Chʼang-chʼun, from China to the Hindukush at the summons of Chingiz Khan. London: Routledge, 1931.
• The Book of Songs = Shih Ching. London: Allen & Unwin, 1937.
• Confucius, The Analects. London: Allen & Unwin, 1938; New York: Random House, 1938.
• Three Ways of Thought in Ancient China. London: Allen & Unwin, 1939; Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1939.
• Translations from the Chinese. New York: Knopf, 1941.
• Cheng'en Wu, Monkey. London: Allen & Unwin, 1942.
• Chin P'ing Mei: The adventurous history of Hsi Men and his six wives. New York: Putnam, 1947.
• The Real Tripitaka, and other pieces. London: Allen & Unwin, 1952; New York: Macmillan, 1952.
• The Nine Songs: A study of shamanism in ancient China. London: Allen & Unwin, 1955; San Francisco: City Lights Books. 1973.
• The Opium War through Chinese Eyes. London: Allen & Unwin, 1958.
• Ballads and Stories from Tun-Huang: An anthology. London: Allen & Unwin, 1960.
• Manyo, and other traditional poems of Japan (with foreword by Doreen King). Chelmsford, UK: Opran, 2009.

Collected editions

• The Secret History of the Mongols, and other pieces. London: Allen & Unwin, 1963; New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963.
• Madly Singing in the Mountains: An appreciation and anthology of Arthur Waley (edited by Ivan I. Morris). London: Allen & Unwin, 1970; New York: Walker, 1970.

Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.

See also

Ame Reads- 170 Chinese Poems Reading -1

• List of British poets

References

• "Arthur Waley, 76, Orientalist, Dead; Translator of Chinese and Japanese Literature," New York Times. June 28, 1966.
• Gruchy, John Walter de. (2003). Orienting Arthur Waley: Japonism, orientalism, and the creation of Japanese literature in English. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. 10-ISBN 0-8248-2567-5
• Morris, Ivan I. (1970). Madly Singing in the Mountains: An appreciation and anthology of Arthur Waley. London: Allen & Unwin.
• Waley, Alison. (1982). A Half of Two Lives. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 1982; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1982.

External links

Poems

• Waley translations in Poetry: A magazine of verse, 1912-1922: "Shang Ya," "On Finding a Hairpin in a Disused Well," "What Should a Man Want," "In a Jade Cup," "On the Birth of a Son," "The Pedlar of Spells," "On Seeing Swallows in His Prison-cell," "The Orphan," "Fighting at Lung-tou," "On Barbarous Modern Instruments," "Early Snow"

Audio

• 170 Chinese Poems translated by Waley on YouTube

Books

• Works by Arthur Waley at Project Gutenberg
• Arthur Waley at Amazon.com

About

• Arthur Waley at Sinological Profiles