Book Announcement: Poems of Mao Zedong

UC Press is pleased to announce the publication of:


The Poems of Mao Zedong

By Mao Zedong
Translations, Introduction, and Notes by Willis Barnstone

"In his introduction to The Poems of Mao Zedong, translator Willis Barnstone strikes just the right approach to the poet. Difficult as it may be in reading these works, we must not be blinded by Mao's role in history, nor by his worshippers or detractors, nor by ideological considerations. . . . There is no question of Mao as a poet of sensibility and power."—Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times

"Mao [is] a poet of originality and masterful strength."—Richard Lattimore, New York Times

"Classical poems by the hand of a master. . . . Barnstone's renderings are simply into graceful irregular verse."—Richard Lattimore, Hudson Review

"It is tempting to view the publishing of this selection from Mao Zedong's poems as an event in international politics rather than literature, but that wouldn't do. . . . [The poems] give us glimpses into the character of the man who [led] one quarter of all humanity; and certainly they are political documents in themselves. Nevertheless, it is as literature that they should be considered. . . . 'Prior to the republic in China,' Willis Barnstone points out, 'it had been obligatory for all civil servants to demonstrate, by examination, their ability to produce a poem.'"—J.D. O'Hara, Washington Post

Mao Zedong, leader of the revolution and absolute chairman of the People's Republic of China, was also a calligrapher and a poet of extraordinary grace and eloquent simplicity. The poems in this beautiful edition (from the 1963 Beijing edition), translated and introduced by Willis Barnstone, are expressions of decades of struggle, the painful loss of his first wife, his hope for a new China, and his ultimate victory over the Nationalist forces. Willis Barnstone's introduction, his short biography of Mao and brief history of the revolution, and his notes on Chinese versification all combine to enrich the Western reader's understanding of Mao's poetry.

Mao Zedong was born in Hunan Province in 1893, son of an impoverished peasant. In October 1949, he founded the People's Republic of China, which he led until his death in 1976. Willis Barnstone is Distinguished Professor of Comparative Literature at Indiana University, the author of many books, and a noted translator.


168 pages, 6 x 8", 46 line illustrations
Literature/China/Poetry
cloth   978-0-520-25665-1  $24.95/£14.95