The book has a very detailed 100-page introduction, almost amzingly good, that covers a large amount of historical and biographical ground; and introduces some of the formal charatceristics of Chinese poetry.

I can't comment on the fidelity of the translations to the Chinese, but they certainly read well in English. They at least give me the sense that this is poetry of importance. Li Po and Tu Fu are translated in equal amounts, and most poems are followed by a commenary (sometimes extending to two pages in length). I have found these very useful. Chinese poetry seems so different to English that I have felt unable to understand it at all when the words alone are translated (as, for example, in the old Penguin book of Chinese Verse): all that I am able to get out of these is a sense of picturesqueness. The literary background (and biographical, in Tu Fu's case) has added to my understanding and enjoyment of the poems.

I had been introduced to Chinese poetry (perhaps like many English poetry readers) by Ezra Pound's volume 'Cathay' (included in full in his Collected Shorter Poems and his Selected Poems, published by Faber), in which he poemizes translations made by Ernest Fellanosa. Two of the poems of Tu Fu's Pound includes in Cathay (what he titles as 'Jewelled Stairs Grievance' and 'The River Merchant's Wife: a Letter') are included, in Cooper's translation, here.

This book also contains reproducions of the texts of certain of the poems in the Chinese, written in different calligraphic styles.