This groundbreaking volume may well be the poetry anthology for the global village. As selected by J.D. McClatchy, this collection includes masterpieces from four continents and more than two dozen languages in translations by such distinguished poets as Elizabeth Bishop, W.S. Merwin, Ted Hughes, and Seamus Heaney. Among the countries and writers represented are:

Bangladesh--Taslima Nasrin

Chile--Pablo Neruda

China--Bei Dao, Shu Ting

El Salvador--Claribel Alegria

France--Yves Bonnefoy

Greece--Odysseus Elytis, Yannis Ritsos

India--A.K. Ramanujan

Israel--Yehuda Amichai

Japan--Shuntaro Tanikawa

Mexico--Octavio Paz

Nicaragua--Ernesto Cardenal

Nigeria--Wole Soyinka

Norway--Tomas Transtromer

Palestine--Mahmoud Darwish

Poland--Zbigniew Herbert, Czeslaw Milosz

Russia--Joseph Brodsky, Yevgeny Yevtushenko

Senegal--Leopold Sedar Senghor

South Africa--Breyten Breytenbach

St. Lucia, West Indies--Derek Walcott