I finished in the last few days reading "Du Fu. A Life in Poetry"(2008), a chronologically organized translation by David Young of the poetry of one of the most famous Chinese poets Du Fu alias Tu Fu(712-770) and "Poems of the Late T'ang"(2009, originally 1965), translated by A. C. Graham(1919-1991), which consists of poetry of Du Fu and six other poets from late 8th century to mid-9th century China.

I'm currently reading "Cloud Gate Song. The Verse of Tang Poet Zhang Ji"(2006), a rare rhyming verse translation of Chinese poetry. The poet is Zhang Ji(766-830 or 776-829) and the translator is Jonathan Chaves. Enjoyable, but not utterly succesful attempt, I think. I'm also reading a collection of poetry and prose from a Buddhist hermit monk Shiwu(1272-1352), "The Zen Works of Stonehouse. Poems and Talks of a 14-th Century Chinese Hermit"(1999), Shiwu being the equivalent of Stonehouse. This is a very modern free translation from a US translator Bill Porter who rather embrassingly in my opinion uses the nickname Red Pine as his name in these translations.

A flick of the hand/and it's rain or storm/wherever I look/change and fickleness/the old ideal of friendship/as loyalty and permanence/has turned into dirt/under our feet. (Friendship, Du Fu page 34.)

Our time is confined to one hundred years/but which of us gets them all/hundred-year olds die too/it's only a matter of sooner or latter. (Stonehouse, page 59.)

What comes to science fiction, I ordered Paul McAuley's novel "The Quiet War"(2009) which has gotten very good reviews, but the post seems to have succeeded in losing it somewhere.