I should apply the term amateur to Arthur Waley only in a statement such as, "And to think that one of the finest scholars and translators of Chinese literature was only an amateur".
Waley is simply amazing. His translation of the Laozi - The Way and It's Power - remains one of the best, not only for the text itself, but for his profoundly insightful essays placing the original within its proper cultural, philosophical, literary, and historical contexts. Writen in 1934 and updated in 1958, I am, if anything, impressed just that much more each time I read it. Some insights that he found obvious decades ago are only now gaining traction among the "professionals".
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Waley is simply amazing. His translation of the Laozi - The Way and It's Power - remains one of the best, not only for the text itself, but for his profoundly insightful essays placing the original within its proper cultural, philosophical, literary, and historical contexts. Writen in 1934 and updated in 1958, I am, if anything, impressed just that much more each time I read it. Some insights that he found obvious decades ago are only now gaining traction among the "professionals".