Selected Translations

Selected Translations is a life's work from one of America's greatest poets and translators. Since his undergraduate years at Princeton University, W.S. 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 rest 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.