This book is edited by Professor Xu Yuan-zhong, Professor Loh Bei-yei and Mr. Wu Juntao. Altogether thirty-nine contributors joined forces in translating the 317 poems contained in this volume.
Translation is based on the Chinese anthology edited by Yu Shouzhen and published by Chung Hwa Book Company. Hong Kong Branch( reprinted edition 1982). However, the poems are rearranged in chronological order according to the poet's date of birth and the date of composition. Where this order cannot be determined owing to the lack of historic evidence, the date of birth of the poet is estimated and the chronological order of his work follows the order in Yu Shouzhen's edition.
Tang poetry is a gem of traditional Chinese literature and the three hundred poems translated and collected hearer are gems of Tang poetry. As early as 1898, Herbert A. Giles published his translation of Tang poems, of which Lytton Strachey said, "the poetry in it is the best that this generation has known," and that it holds a unique place in the literature of the wold "through its mastery of the tones and depths of affection".
本書匯集多位資深學者及譯學家之力，以流暢的英文將《唐詩三百首》重新詮釋，依照作者的出生年代及作品創作時間編排，凡典故繁複處均有詳細英文註解，書末更附有唐代詩人小傳及譯者簡介。全書不但充分展現中國詩歌藝術之美，更有助於比較中國詩歌的異同。不論是研究中國文學，比較中英語文，或是訓練翻譯、文字技巧，都可透過本書得到豐碩的成果。