Zack Rogow is the author, editor or translator of eighteen books and plays, including six collections of poetry, three anthologies, four volumes of translation, and a children's book. His sixth book of poems, The Number Before Infinity, was published by Scarlet Tanager Books in 2008. Twice he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize in Poetry. He is the author of two plays, including La Vie en Noir: The Art and Life of Léopold Sédar Senghor, which was performed in San Francisco by the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. He is the editor of a recent anthology of U.S. poetry, The Face of Poetry, published by University of California Press: and editor of two volumes of TWO LINES: World Writing in Translation, distributed by University of Washington Press. His translations of George Sand, Colette, and André Breton have won numerous awards, including the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Award and the Northern California Book Award in Translation. His children's book, Oranges, was a Junior Library Guild Book-of-the-Month. He currently also teaches in the MFA in Writing Program at the California College of the Arts in San Francisco, and has taught in the writing programs at the University of San Francisco and at San Francisco State University.
A Map of You
You’ve become my map, my geography:
the Black Forest of your hair,
your alpine lake eyes,
fathom after fathom,
your mouth red as turned Carolina earth,
those shoulders like Dover’s
chalk towers, your Sugarloaf breasts,
by your peninsular arms—
Baja,
Malaysian,
and your fingertips
when they touch me—
Polynesian archipelagoes. Serengeti
the temperature of your flesh.
Your Panama waist
flares to Venezuelan thighs
and between them
the Amazon, the delta, rare species
of the Galapagos, coral reefs with ultraviolet fish—
in just a few short months
you’ve become the other planet I inhabit.
And your legs taper
like a continent headed south,
one ending in Tierra del Fuego—
the Land of Fire—
and the other
in the Cape of Good Hope.
Books:
The Number Before Infinity (Scarlet Tanager Books, 2008), Greatest Hits: 1979-2001 (Pudding House Publications, 2002)
Anthologies:
Blue Arc West: An Anthology of California Poets (Tebot Bach, 2006), In A Fine Frenzy: Poets Respond to Shakespeare (University of Iowa Press, 2005), Mercy of Tides: Poems for a Beach House (Salt Marsh Press, 2003), Proposing on the Brooklyn Bridge: Poems about Marriage (Grayson Books, 2003), Left-hand Maps: San Francisco Bay Area Poets (A Small Garlic Press, 1998)
Journals:
American Poetry Review
Prizes:
PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Translation Prize, 1994. Bay Area Book Reviewers Association (BABRA) award for translation, 1996. Lili Fabilli-Eric Hoffer Essay Prize, UC Berkeley; 1999 and 2001. Nominated for Pushcart Prize for poem, 2004 and 2007. Tanka Splendor Award for best tanka sequence written in English, 2006.
Maintenant c’est toi ma carte, ma géographie:
la Forêt Noire de tes cheveux,
tes yeux, deux lacs alpestres,
brasse après brasse,
la bouche aussi rouge que la terre labourée des Carolines,
ces épaules
comme les tours crayeuses de Douvres,
tes seins en Pain de Sucre
près de tes bras péninsulaires—
Baja,
Malaise,
et les bouts de tes doigts
quand ils me touchent—
des archipels polynésiens.
Sérengéti la température
de ta peau.
Ta taille panaméenne s’évase
en hanches vénézuéliennes
et entre elles
l’Amazone, le delta, espèces rares
des Galapagos, récifs de corail aux poissons ultraviolets—
en l’espace de quelques mois
tu es devenue la seule planète où j’habite.
Et tes jambes vont s’amenuisant
comme un continent qui part pour le sud,
l’une se terminant en Tierra del Fuego—
le Pays du Feu—
et l’autre par le Cap de Bonne Espérance.
traduit par Renée Morel et par l’auteur
Une carte de toi & Leçons de patinage
Flight 000
is the queasiness
when you’re about to land
and you realize that this flight
with its snow mountain geodes
and its looking-glass lakes
this flight
which could have taken you anywhere
is actually going to drum down
in one certain city
where cars ghost along the artery
and families with wounded microwaves
and actual names sleep
in those dollhouses beyond the runway
and your life is not all lives
but only the best one
you can reach
in the time you have
Le Vol 000
c’est la nausée légère
juste avant d’atterrir
quand tu te rends compte que ce vol
avec ses géodes de montagnes neigeuses
et ses lacs de glaces antiques
ce vol
qui aurait pu t’emmener n’importe où
se pose sur l’asphalte comme sur un tambour
dans une ville particulière
où des voitures avancent telles des fantômes le long de l’artère
et des familles avec des micro-ondes blessées
et de vrais noms dorment
dans ces maisons de poupée au-delà de la piste d’atterrisage
et que ta vie c’est pas toutes les vies
mais seulement la meilleure
que tu puisses atteindre
pendant les jours qui te restent
traduit par Renée Morel et par l’auteur
© 2008 by Zack Rogow
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INTERVIEW WITH ZACK ROGOW:
http://marissa-bell-toffoli.suite101.com/interview-with-writer-translator--editor-zack-rogow-a234292
Zack Rogow est l’auteur de six recueils de poésie, dont le plus récent est The Number Before Infinity/Le Numéro avant l’infini. Il a traduit du français vers l’anglais des auteurs aussi divers qu’André Breton, George Sand, Colette et Marcel Pagnol. Zack Rogow est aussi dramaturge et professeur au California College of the Arts et à l’Université d’Alaska.
Zack Rogow sur:
www.uaa.alaska.edu/cwla/faculty/associatefaculty/zackrogow.cfm
www.sarabandebooks.org/?page_id=663