A selection of the best of three decades of writing about poetry, a celebration of the "tenacious curiosity" (Los Angeles Times) of the Nobel laureate Whether autobiographical, topical, or specifically literary, these writings circle the central preoccupying questions of Seamus Heaney's career: "How should a poet properly live and write? What is his relationship to his own voice, his own place, his literary heritage, and the contemporary world?" Along with a selection from Heaney's three previous collections of prose ("Preoccupations, The Government of the Tongue, "and "The Redress of Poetry"), the present volume includes a rich variety of pieces not previously collected in books, ranging from formal lectures to radio commentaries about the rural Ireland of his childhood to illuminating reviews of his contemporaries. In its soundings of a wide range of poets--Irish and British, American and Eastern European, predecessors, fellows, and successors--"Finders Keepers" becomes, as its title heralds, "an announcement of both excitement and possession."

谢默斯·希尼（Seamus Heaney），1939—2013，爱尔兰著名诗人、评论家、翻译家，1995年诺贝尔文学奖得主。希尼出身于北爱尔兰伦敦德里郡一个天主教务农家庭，童年和少年时代都在乡村度过。1957年，他考入贝尔法斯特女王大学，主修英语语言文学。1762年，希尼的诗作首次公开发表。四年后，他的第壹部诗集《一个自然主义者之死》出版，得到评论界的广泛好评，并获得许多文学奖项；同年，他被母校聘为讲师，主讲现代英语文学。1772年，迫于北爱尔兰紧张局势，希尼辞去教职，移居爱尔兰共和国威克洛，成为职业作家。之后，曾任美国哈佛大学修辞学教授，英国牛津大学诗歌教授。1778年，希尼出版大型诗选《开垦地：诗选1966—1996》，是他一生主要诗歌成就的总结；2002年，三十年文选出版，是他一生主要诗学探求的总结。2013年，希尼在都柏林病逝，享年74岁，遗体被送回北爱尔兰的家乡安葬。希尼不仅是继叶芝之后最伟大的爱尔兰诗人，而且是继艾略特和奥登之后，20世纪后半叶英语世界最重要的诗人批评家，与约瑟夫·布罗茨基并驾齐驱。《希尼三十年文选》如同布罗茨基的《小于一》，是中国读者期待已久的随笔集。《希尼三十年文选》原名《发现者，保管者》，意思是“谁先找到（发现）就归谁保管”。这是希尼亲自编辑和精选的文集，不仅是了解希尼诗歌的一把钥匙，而且是了解英语诗歌和世界诗歌的一把钥匙。更重要的是，希尼的文章论述之严谨和细腻，视野之开阔和深邃，乃当世罕见，让读者一窥当代文论可以达到何等精妙的境地。