About the Author

Tian Yuan (China/Japan) was born in 1965 in Henan Province, China, Tian Yuan first came to Japan as a government-financed student early in the 1990's. In 2003, he received a Doctorate in Literature for his study of the poetry of Shuntarô Tanikawa. He now teaches in Tôhoku University in Japan, and is chiefly engaged in the translation of contemporary Japanese poetry. His books of translation into Chinese so far include Selected Poems of Shuntarô Tanikawa (2 volumes) and An Alien: Selected Poems of Takashi Tsujii. He has also translated some poems of Ryûichi Tamura and Katsuei Kitazono. He has published six volumes of his own poetry in Chinese and English. He has been awarded literary prizes for poetry in China, America and Taiwan, and in 2001, he was awarded the first Japanese Literary Award for Foreign Students. His book of poetry in Japanese And So the Shore Was Born (Sôshite Kishi ga Tanjôshita) was published in 2004. He is the editor of the 3 volumes of The Selected Poems of Shuntarô Tanikawa (Shûeisha, 2005). The second poetry anthology of The Memory of Stone was awarded the 60th session of H-shi Prize (2010). He also edited the Japanese version of The Anthology of Chinese New Generation Poets translated by Shin Takeuchi. Last year, Selected Poems of Tian Yuan (Renmin Wenxue, 2007) was published in Chinese.