本書譯者高东山, 筆名東山，1965年南开大學外文系英语专业毕业，1965-1966参加高教部主辦的為期一年的英语师资培训班。後留校在南开大學外文系英语专业任教，講授“精讀”和“英美詩歌”課程。任教期間曾公派到新西蘭留學兩年。1987年以“自費公派簽證（IAP66）”來美留學，曾先後在University of Rochester, University of British Columbia 和University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign學習和工作, 先後取得比較文學和圖書館信息學兩個碩士學位。畢業後在紐約公共圖書館工作25年直至退休。

2008年自費建立公益互聯网站《海外南开人网》，自己做維護、編輯及上網等各項工作，至今。

2010年在紐約工作期間應邀加入南開大學在美留學生創辦的《海外南开人》電子郵件期刊編委會，擔任該刊中譯英專欄撰稿人。本書選刊的一百餘首中譯英詩文均曾在2011年至2021年十年間此期刊首發。

2021年退休，從紐約移居德克薩斯州休斯敦市西郊凱蒂區。同時積極參加南開校友會的各項活動，現任南開大學外語學院外語校友會名譽會長。

The translator of this book, Gao Dongshan, pen name Dongshan, graduated from the Department of Foreign Languages at Nankai University in 1965. From 1965 to 1966, he attended a one-year English teacher training program sponsored by the Ministry of Higher Education. Afterwards, he remained at Nankai to teach in the Foreign Languages Department, offering courses in “English Intensive Reading” and “English and American Poetry.” During this teaching period, he was sponsored to study in New Zealand for two years.

In 1987, with a self-funded government-sponsored visa (IAP-66), he came to the United States for further studies, and subsequently studied and worked at the University of Rochester in New York, the University of British Columbia in Canada, and the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, earning two master’s degrees, one in Comparative Literature and the other in Library and Information Science. After graduation, he worked at the New York Public Library for 25 years until his retirement.

In 2008, at his own expense, he founded the nonprofit website 《Nankai Overseas Website》 and has since managed all aspects of its maintenance, editing, and online publication by himself.

In 2010, while still working in New York, he was invited to join the editorial board of the email journal 《Overseas Nankai People》, launched by Nankai students studying in the United States. He served as contributor for the journal’s Chinese-to-English translation section. All of the more than one hundred translated poems and essays selected for this book were first published in the journal between 2011 and 2021.

In 2021, after retiring, he moved from New York to Katy, in the western suburbs of Houston, Texas. He also actively participates in the activities of the Nankai Alumni Association, and currently serves as Honorary President of the Foreign Languages Alumni Association of the College of Foreign Languages, Nankai University.