A comprehensive selection of poems and essays spanning the career of one of China's most celebrated 20th-century poets."You can write poetry and then again you can't. It comes into this world of its own accord, not by the will of the poet."Gu Cheng Gu Cheng (1956-1993) is one of China's most celebrated contemporary poets. His early death ended a literary career that was influenced by the Cultural Revolution and that reawakened the lyricism of Chinese poets during the 1980s. Offering a unique blend of brooding imagism and political innuendo, Gu Cheng's poetry traces complex changes in the poet's lifefamilial, psychological, culturaland also radiates an innocence and a touching melancholy. His poetry began on the farms in Shandong province where his parents were exiled during the Cultural Revolution, and ended on a small island in New Zealand where he took up a Thoreau-like existence before his tragic suicide. His poem "One Generation" became emblematic for the generation coming of age in China in the '60s and '70s. Here for the first time is poetry based on the poet's own personal selections from his work, Sea Basket Blue. There are also prose works, including excerpts of Gu Cheng's novel Ying'er, plus a selection of his essays.

Joseph R. Allen has translated a variety of Chinese texts, including poems by Yang Mu, Lo Ch'ing, Li Po, and selections from the Confucian Book of Songs. Mr. Allen is currently Professor of Chinese Literature and Chair of Asian Languages and Literatures at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.