This volume contains a selection of early works by Yevgeny Alexandrovich Yevtushenko who blazed a trail for a generation of Soviet poets with a confident poetic voice that moves effortlessly between social and personal themes. ?Zima Junction? vividly describes his idyllic childhood in Siberia and his impressions of home after a long absence in Moscow. Private moments are captured in ?Waking?, on the joys of discovering the unexpected in a lover, and ?Birthday?, on a mother?s concern for her son, while ?Encounter? depicts an unexpected meeting with Hemingway in Copenhagen. ?The Companion? and ?Party Card? show war from a child?s eye, whether playing while oblivious to German bombs falling nearby or discovering a fatally wounded soldier in the forest, while Yevtushenko?s famous poem, ?Babiy Yar?, is an angry exposé of the Nazi massacre of the Jews of Kiev.