by Gary Snyder (Author)
This collection is made up of four sections: Far West--poems of the Western mountain country where, as a young man. Gary Snyder worked as a logger and forest ranger; Far East--poems written between 1956 and 1964 in Japan where he studied Zen at the monastery in Kyoto; Kali--poems inspired by a visit to India and his reading of Indian religious texts, particularly those of Shivaism and Tibetan Buddhism; and Back--poems done on his return to this country in 1964 which look again at our West with the eyes of India and Japan. The book concludes with a group of translations of the Japanese poet Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933), with whose work Snyder feels a close affinity. The title, The Back Country, has three major associations; wilderness. the backward countries, and the "back country of the mind with its levels of being in the unconscious.
Back Jacket
'A reaffirmation of a back country of the spirit', this collection is made up of four sections: 'Far West', 'Far East', 'Kali', and 'Back'. The book concludes with a group of translations of the Japanese poet Miyazawa Kenji, with whose work Synder feels a close affinity.