300 Poems, an anthology of poetry written in many languages over the last 4000 years. has been compiled and edited by the poet G.Mend-Ooyo. In this way, for the first time, around three hundred years of poetic translation will reveal the unparalleled genius of world literature to Mongolian readers.

"Transcending the characteristic standards and desires of each successive age," explains Mend-Ooyo, "these poems which I have chosen will never grow old, and their inestimable qualities of lyricism, beauty, fate, wisdom, apprehension, feeling, mental depth, mental strength and culture penetrate beyond what we fail to understand."

Genuine poetry, which expresses the ways in which these desires change from age to age, preserves valuable qualities which do not depend upon these changing fashions.

Thereis an ancient tradition of Mongolian translations of foreign texts. However, it does not appear that the nomadic people had a tradition of books when they were moving around. Texts have been translated from Sanskrit, Persoan, Chinese and Tibetan from the thirteenth century, and in 1305 the great scholar and poet Choiji-Odser completed his translations of the Indian philosopher Śāntideva's Bodhcaryavatara (Bodhisattva's Way of Life). And now, it is now about a hundred years since the first translations of European poetry into Mongolia. We are all keenly aware of the fine translations of Pushkin's verse so beautifully executed by D.Natsagdorj during the 1920s.. Looking at how the histories and texts already translated at the court of Kuvilai Haan were retranslated and edited, we can see how, amongst the Mongols, there developed a treasury of translations which grew from a very old tradition.

Everyone involved in literature has assembled his or her own particular collection of

what is meaningful. For sure, my own collection is poetry, and I have assembled here an anthology which has enriched us for a long time. Up until the present day, we have translated quite a lot of poetry from around the world into Mongolian. Some of these are exceptional, some of reasonable quality, and some of poor quality. And so, with help from other readers, I have edited the cache accordingly, cutting what needed to be cut and including what needed to be included. But it has been hard to choose exactly which of these fine works of poetry from around the world should be translated into Mongolian.