Further Mention

In La Huerta, Vol. 1, No. 2 appear four letters from William Carlos Williams to David R. Wang '55 which show that the older poet valued the younger in that he moved in salutations from Mr. Wang, to Wang, to David. Williams had been struck with Wang translations of Chinese in the Australian magazine Edge whose editor had been Ezra Pound's protégé, Noel Stock, who had also printed some of Williams' poems. During a night-long session Wang attempted to help the older poet understand nuances of the Chinese language making possible adequate translations of Tang and Sun poems, primarily those of Li Po and Tu Fu. He chanted the originals, the music of which enchanted and dismayed his listener, forced to understand that only with almost insurmountable difficulties could it be transcribed into the American idiom. Although Wang was surprised, delighted, and impressed by the old master's sensitivity to language, the elderly neophyte finally gave up attempting to shape such recalcitrant material into English. He turned over his attempted versions to Wang who revised some for publication. The result of their collaboration may be found in The Cassia Tree, which appeared in New Directions in Prose and Poetry #l9, published by New Directions in 1966.