Few American readers seem to be aware that Hermann Hesse, author of the epic novels Steppenwolf and Siddhartha, among many others, also wrote poetry, the best of which the poet James Wright has translated and included in this book. This is a special volume8212;filled with short, direct poems about love, death, loneliness, the seasons8212;that is imbued with some of the imagery and feeling of Hesse8217;s novels but that has a clarity and resonance all its own, a sense of longing for love and for home that is both deceptively simple and deeply moving.