罗伯特·戴纳诗3首
罗伯特·戴纳，美国诗人，（Robert Dana，1929~2010）出生在波士顿，二战后期曾参加美国海军在南太平洋上服役，后移居爱荷华州，求学于德雷克大学和爱荷华大学作家工作坊。曾获多种诗歌奖，包括两次美国国家艺术基金会奖、莱纳·玛利亚·里尔克诗歌奖、卡尔·桑德堡奖章和纽约大学施瓦兹纪念奖。戴纳在康奈尔学院任教四十余年，是该校的教授和驻校诗人，也是斯德哥尔摩大学和美国多所高校的特邀访问作家。他从1964-1968年在《北美评论》担任编辑，2004年成为爱荷华州桂冠诗人，2010年辞世。身前著有《向艰难的世界出发》、《红色蝴蝶的早晨》、《他者》、《诗选：1955-2010》等十六部诗集和三部散文集。
孤儿的春天
瞧，又一个春天来临，
尽管它总说时辰未到。
半页蓝，半页
棕褐，我的树
书写其上。树下
去年落叶的潜台词早已腐烂。
一朝为孤儿，永远为孤儿。
你出逃的那座房子
永远是你唯一的住所。
盐
太多应被遗忘。
我从没有你们所说的
好记性。也许
年轻时事物不曾
停留，也许我总是
马不停蹄。当初我孤身一人，正如此刻
我坐在这张桌旁，擦拭
廉价的丹麦不锈钢餐具，
刚才我还在用它们吃饭；
撕扯这块放了两天的
酵母面包；抹净
塑料盘子上最后一口
料汁的气息；盐，
醋和油停滞在我的舌尖。
The writer who revived the North American Review in the 1960s and went on to serve as Iowa’s Poet Laureate from 2004 through 2008, Robert Dana, died on Saturday, Feb. 6, 2010, at Mercy Hospice in Iowa City. The cause was pancreatic cancer. A memorial service will be held at 1:30 p.m. Sunday, March 28, in Cornell College’s King Chapel, followed by a reception in Cole Library. A memorial reading will be held at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, March 27, in the Becker Communications Studies Building, Room 101, on the University of Iowa campus.Robert Dana 1929-2010
Dana founded and served as Editor-in-Chief for the revived North American Review from 1964 through 1968. He helped to negotiate a special arrangement with then-Senator Claiborn Pell of Rhode Island, who claimed rights to the magazine, which had published such important writers as Walt Whitman and Mark Twain for 125 years until it ceased operation in 1940.
At the time, Dana was also teaching English literature at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa. When he retired in 1994 after 40 years of teaching, he was the college’s Poet-in-Residence. He also served as a visiting writer at Stockholm University, Beijing University, and several American colleges and universities, including University of Florida, Wayne State University, University of Idaho, and Wichita State University.
Dana received his M.A. from The University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1954, where he studied with Robert Lowell and John Berryman and was part of a group of writers that included Donald Justice, Henri Coulette, Jane Cooper, and Philip Levine. Dana’s poetry won several awards, among them, two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (1985, 1993) and the Delmore Schwartz Memorial Award from New York University (1989).
On the occasion of the Delmore Schwartz Award – to an “insufficiently recognized mature poet” – the critic M.L. Rosenthal described Dana this way: “A richly lyrical poet. Very hard on himself and on the Karma of our world, whose work this whole country would recognize itself in, if it ever started to open books of poems.”
His works include 10 full-length books of poetry. In addition, he produced two prose books – the recently reissued Against the Grain: Interviews with Maverick American Publishers (University of Iowa, 1986 and 2009) and a collection of essays in tribute to Paul Engle, A Community of Writers: Paul Engle & The Iowa Writers’ Workshop (University of Iowa, 1999). Dana’s last two books will be issued in April of this year—New & Selected Poems 1955 to 2010 (Anhinga), and a book of essays, Paris on the Flats: Versions of a Literary Life (University of Tampa).
Robert Patrick (“RP”) Dana was born June 2, 1929, in Boston. Orphaned at age 7, he was a foster child in the Francis (“Pop”) Kearney home in Haydenville, Mass., through high school. After serving in the South Pacific at the end of World War II, he attended college on the GI Bill, and moved to Iowa after a year at Holyoke Junior (now Community) College. He received his B.A. from Drake University in Des Moines, where he studied with poet E.L. Mayo and worked at the sports desk of the Des Moines Register.
Dana is survived by his wife of 35 years, Peg (Sellen) Dana of Coralville, Iowa; three children from his previous marriage – Lori Dana (Andy Dixon) of Chicago, Ill., Arden Dana (Aniceto Botello) of Austin, Texas, and Richard Dana (Ericka) of Guernsey, Iowa; parents-in-law Albert and Jane Sellen (Lawrence, Kan., formerly of Sioux City, Iowa); sister-in-law Janet (Sellen) McGrane (Michael) of Livingston, N.J.; brothers-in-law John Sellen (Mary Sue Lobenstein) of Minneapolis, Minn., and Eric Sellen (Ron Seidman) of Phoenix, Ariz; and nephews Paul McGrane (Austin, Texas) and Brian McGrane (Venice, Calif.) – and a legion of students, fellow writers, and readers. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister.
推荐阅读：