Leaves of Grass

Leaves of Grass is a wonderful book. It consciously overturns the creation mode of European poetry that American poets followed before it from content to form. Although it has been controversial since being published, it is admired as the mark of the birth of American poetry. It is one of the most important collections of poems in the world's literary history in the Nineteenth Century. The content of the book is so voluminous that historians see American history of the Nineteenth Century, thinkers see American expression of the concept of democracy, freedom and equality therefrom; philosophers see that all things on earth have souls and the belief of immortal souls therefrom; travelers see the wild natural scenery and urban scene of America therefrom; young people read the praise of human body and sex therefrom; the aged see the boldness for death therefrom... Whitman's importance in the history of American and world's literature cannot be too much described. This translation is translated by translator Zou Zhongzhi according to The Complete Poems of Walt Whitman published by Wordsworth Poetry Library Publishing House in 2006. This book also adds Old Age Echoes additionally edited after the death of the author, including more than 10 poems and more than 10 works that haven't been collected. Therefore, this new edition of Leaves of Grass is the most complete and comprehensive domestic collection of Whitman's poems so far. In addition, the translator referred to Leaves of Grass jointly translated by Mr. Chu Tunan and Mr. Li Yeguang (People's Literature Publishing House, 1987) and Leaves of Grass translated by Mr. Zhao Luorui (Shanghai Translation Publishing House, 1991). It not only retains the achievements of the predecessors, but also redefines Whitman, a civilian poet, with a rough and plain locution at the height of the predecessors. Therefore, it is affirmed by Mr. Tu An, a predecessor in the field of translation.