"Gyula Illyes, one of Hungary's greatest poets of the twentieth century, died in 1983 a few months after his eightieth birthday. Throughout his life he drew inspiration, as did Bela Bartok in music, from his Hungarian roots. Like Robert Frost in New England and Robert Burns in Scotland, Illyes came from the common people. He gave the land a voice both in his poetry and in his memoir of peasant life, People of the Puszta, the translation of which into many languages brought him world renown."--BOOK JACKET.