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.
Gary Sherman Snyder (1930) es poeta, traductor, ensayista, conferenciante y activista del medio ambiente estadounidense. Es considerado uno de los fundadores y precursores del movimiento contracultural de la década de 1960. Entre otros galardones, cuenta con el premio Pulitzer de poesía. Ha publicado más de 25 libros y ha sido traducido a más de 20 idiomas.
