'To hope for [immortality],' said the Patriarch, 'would be … - Arthur Waley

'To hope for [immortality],' said the Patriarch, 'would be like trying to fish the moon out of the water.'
'There you go again!' said Monkey. 'What pray do you mean by fishing the moon out of the water?'
'When the moon is in the sky,' said the Patriarch, 'it is reflected in the water. It looks just like a real thing, but if you try to catch hold of it, you find it is only an illusion.'

Arthur Waley

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About Arthur Waley

Arthur David Waley (born Arthur David Schloss, 19 August 1889 – 27 June 1966) was an English Orientalist and sinologist who achieved both popular and scholarly acclaim for his translations of Chinese and Japanese poetry.

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Birth Name: Arthur David Schloss

Alternative Names: Sir Arthur Waley • Arthur David Waley • Sir Arthur David Waley

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J. M. Coetzee W. H. Auden Roger Zelazny Czesław Miłosz E. M. Forster

Additional quotes by Arthur Waley

When translating prose dialogue one ought to make the characters say things that people talking English could conceivably say. One ought to hear them talking, just as a novelist hears his characters talk.

A team of horses cannot overtake a word that has left the mouth.

I have not used rhyme, because what is really, in the long run, of most interest to American readers is what the poems say; and if one uses rhyme, it is impossible not to sacrifice sense to sound.

'To hope for [immortality],' said the Patriarch, 'would be like trying to fish the moon out of the water.' 'There you go again!' said Monkey. 'What p… - Arthur Waley

About Arthur Waley

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