"Garcia Roberts's translation represents an original approach to one of the most distinctive and challenging voices of the classical Chinese canon...Li's startling images and aural complexity gain new life in Garcia Roberts's hands." –Theophilus Kwek,
Asymptote "Li Shangyin's poetry embodies passion, commitment, and conflict....He extended the scope of Chinese poetry by exploring spheres of experience previously untouched by poets." –James J. Y. Liu
"His use of allusion is the subtlest in Tang poetry - abrupt transitions in which an allusion provides the unmentioned bridge, delicate variations on commonplace references, oblique glimpses of historical events, direct presentation of a scene before his eyes in which one senses elusive parallels with a scene in history or poetry." –A. C. Graham