Cathay

Cathay is a collection of classical Chinese poems translated by the American poet Ezra Pound. Though Pound didn't speak Chinese, he based his translations on notes by Ernest Fenellosa, in the process setting a benchmark for modernist translations. The interpretative nature of Pound's work broke new ground in the treatment of poetry, and his status as an outsider allowed him a creative space not available to more literal translators. Cathay stands today as a seminal work strongly influential both on the poetry of his day and the succeeding generation.