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Hosted by Zarina Zabrisky

In 1924, the surrealist Paul Eluard published his last poetry collection Dying from not dying (Mourir de ne pas mourir). He then vanished without a trace, embarking on a world journey from which he never would return – only to come back to Paris and his circle of friends a few months later, as if nothing had happened. He then went on to write the remaining ninety-five percent of his work, joined the resistance during World War II and became a staunch advocate for communism following the war. He never lived to witness the revelation of the grim truth behind stalinism, which his wife believed would have killed him. In spite of any of this, Paul Eluard will always be the poet of love and language. L'Amour la poésie, the title of one of his most famous collections, conveys the verbal ease with which Eluard never fails to surprise us: "The earth is blue as an orange."
Simon Rogghe was born in Philadelphia and grew up in Belgium. After traveling in the US and Europe competing at horse shows as a professional rider, he found a home in the Bay Area. When not working on his PhD in French literature, he also translates French surrealists as well as contemporary fiction. He is the author of Green Lions, a collection of poetry and artwork in collaboration with Zarina Zabrisky (Numina Press 2014). His interest in translation has its roots in spiritism, hauntings and poets rising from the dead – or, as Paul Eluard put it: if you like a piece of art, sign it. Translation is a way of making a poem your own, of imbuing your poetic voice with the voices of those you admire, until your language becomes haunted with the ghosts off all the poets who have gone before you, and when you look in the mirror your trace begins to fade.

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