作者曾在北京生活过十年。这十年，如作者自己所说的，是诗的日子，不是日子过得像诗，而是颇有闲暇读诗。因此读了一些诗集，也想方设法读了一些还没有形成集子的当代人的诗。本书《燕山诗话》收录的诗话，就是作者在这段时间写成的。这些文章记的是别人的诗，也提供了一些诗篇写作的时代背景。(The author has lived in Beijing for ten years that comprised of days of poem as the author describes them. These days were not poem-like but vacant time to read poems. He read some collections of poems as well as found means to read some contemporary poems that have not been collected yet. The notes on poetrythat collected in this book were all written during this period.The book content is works of other poetsand historical background of the poems.)