Lament for the makers

de W. S. Merwin

Selected Translations is a life's work from America's greatest poet and translator. Since his undergraduate years at Princeton University, Merwin has always placed translation as a necessary element of his own poetry. Working from a belief that there is "no separation between the human imagination and the res of life," Merwin has nurtured a quintessential body of poetry that consistently goes beyond the individual self in search of a shared voice that speaks for and from all living things. His achievement as a translator is singular, ranging across two dozen languages, and over two millennia, and reinforces his standing as one of the most significant writers of our time. "Were Merwin not one of America's most admired poets, he would still be as famous as translators get: for more than fifty years and for more than fifty volumes, Merwin has rendered, sensitively and carefully, canonical poets such as Mandelstam and Neruda, traditional songs and sayings from Peru to Madagascar, Latin satire, medieval romance, Japanese haiku, and more."--Book jacket.