Highwater

"The ghazal is one of the major forms of Persian and Urdu poetry. Gerlach has adapted the form, dispensing with its complex meter and refrain, and so putting the emphasis firmly on the poems' imagery, spiritual yearnings, and - what is the most striking feature of the ghazals of Hafiz, Ghalib, and other masters of the form - the beautiful and strange associations the poet makes from couplet to couplet. In the first section of Highwater, Gerlach shows his mastery of the forms of English poetry in writing of his life in California, New Mexico, and his native Wisconsin, and in the third section, translations of Tu Fu and Han Yu, he joins the ranks of the great translators - Pound, Bynner, Rexroth - of Chinese poetry into English."--BOOK JACKET.