詹姆斯·泰特, ca. 1965. Photograph by Elsa Dorfman

James Vincent Tate was born on December 8, 1943, in Kansas City, Missouri. He was educated at Kansas State College and at the University of Iowa, where he was still a student when his first book,这Lost Pilot(1967),被选为著名的耶鲁大学系列年轻诗人的出版。从那以后，泰特（Tate）出版了二十本诗歌书籍，其中包括这Oblivion Ha-Ha（1970）;Viper Jazz（1976）;Riven Dogeries(1979);Reckoner(1986);精选的诗（1991年），赢得了普利策奖和威廉·卡洛斯·威廉姆斯奖；弗莱彻斯的敬拜陪伴(1994), which won the National Book Award; and most recentlyReturn to the City of White Donkeys(2004). I read each collection of Tate’s poetry as soon as it came out and have reread them often over the years, but not until I read them all again this year did I have such a clear sense of the magnitude of his achievement. Tate has always had a serious purpose. He has not only written many good poems, he has done so in so many different and original ways that I cannot think of anyone of comparable range. Most poets start out thinking they are “experimenting,” and what that amounts to is usually best forgotten. Not so with Tate. Even his early books,用你的头发排(1969),Hints to Pilgrims(1971),andHottentot骨会(1974),不仅富有创造力和有趣，而且充满了美丽的诗歌。批评家通常通过称他为超现实主义者并将其留下来与他打交道。如果他是一个，他将属于Buster Keaton和W. C. Fields也属于的那种本地的超现实主义压力。泰特在一首诗中说：“这是一个悲惨的故事，但这真是太有趣了。”他是我们伟大的漫画大师之一。

除了他的诗歌外，泰特还写了一本小说Lucky Darryl(1977), a collection of stories,梦想机器人跳舞蜜蜂(2001), and a collection of essays, interviews, memoirs, and short fictions,这Route as Briefed（1999）。他的文学奖项包括美国国家艺术与文书学院奖和华莱士·史蒂文斯奖。他曾在加州大学伯克利分校哥伦比亚大学艾默生学院（Emerson College）教授诗歌，自1971年以来，阿默斯特（Amherst）马萨诸塞大学（University of Massachusetts）于去年冬天的两个黑暗下午进行了这次采访，在12月举行了一项。

我从新罕布什尔州沿着蜿蜒的小镇，雪覆盖的田野和冷冻池塘开车去了阿默斯特。泰特和我坐在他昏暗的客厅里，在一堆书籍，唱片和录像带中，周围环绕着挂在墙上的美丽的旧被子。这些年来，我们进行了很多对话，但从来没有那么正式，所以我们一直保持shilling脚，测试录音机，并假装我在那里录制了他的故事，他的故事是著名的密苏里州违法者杰西·詹姆斯（Jesse James）的故事，泰特不仅写了haikus，而且还与19世纪的法国诗人亚瑟·林博（Arthur Rimbaud）相对应。一旦我们开始了实际的采访，我意识到泰特（Tate）告诉我的许多事情 - 就他的早期生活，他的诗歌开始以及他从事诗歌的方式 - 尽管与他成为朋友，但我从未听说过。比三十五年。

INTERVIEWER

您有一首称为“南端”的诗：“挑战总是要在普通马蹄铁中找到终极。”您会详细说明吗？什么是“马匹”，什么是“终极”？

JAMES TATE

我的意思是终极马匹。您可以在任何地方找到它，并且永远不知道要在哪里找到它。您可以发现它站在拐角处，听到两个Winos说话。

INTERVIEWER

这是一个陈述的一种变体，即人们经常在现代诗歌中遇到的声明，必须在普通人中找到非凡的人。

TATE

I was aware of the fact that I was repeating a well-known idea. Adding “horseshit” to it made it a bit more distinctive.

INTERVIEWER

您的诗经常以漫画人物为特色，这些角色试图理解事物并且无法理解。生活使他们感到困惑。他们胡说八道。这些角色是从您听到的一些语言中即兴创作的，还是来自其他地方？

TATE

It’s both. It comes in the act of composition. It comes in the moment of writing, too. Sometimes it’s really poignant just to realize how crazy somebody is and how they view the world, how sad that is. Any variation on that is magic. Conspiracy theorists, for instance—they drive you crazy, but at the same time I want to listen.

INTERVIEWER

So for you tragedy and comedy are not separate?

TATE

No, not at all. They’re in the same theater, on the same stage. That’s true of the best poems. You can’t tell where they are going to go. One can start with tragedy and end with comedy, or the other way around.

INTERVIEWER

这re is such a strong belief that tragedy is a higher form, that comedy is a low, temporary distraction, and that great literature must be solemn. What is the subversive quality in humor that everyone is worried about?

TATE

我不知道。首先，大多数人没有幽默感。因此，如果他们发现自己在经历的结束时笑了，他们几乎不信任自己 - 就像我发生了什么事？今天，例如，在悲剧方面，我们很容易地谈论卡特里娜飓风对新奥尔良和墨西哥湾沿岸的丑陋效果，或者我们可能正在谈论伊拉克战争。但是我们今晚可以出去听一支伟大的爵士乐队。我们可以和朋友共度夜晚，笑，喝酒，敬酒，说生活有多美好。同时，我们都知道我们被悲剧，谎言和各种各样的邪恶所困扰。为了上帝的缘故，酷刑！邪恶之外的邪恶超出了我们的考虑，但是对于那些没有直接影响的人来说，生活是美好的。因此，我们一直在四处走动，平衡两者。 I, for one, am not giving in. I am not going to walk around in tears all day long. I still want to have a good day if I can.

In my poems, I try—God knows, probably unsuccessfully—to bring that home. There’s a poem in my last book, “A Clean Hit,” where suddenly a bomb falls out of the sky and blows up this person’s house. And all of the neighbors come running down and they’re saying, “What the hell happened?” The guy whose house got bombed says, “Well, I voted for this president. They shouldn’t be targeting me.” They’re all trying to figure out what they did and what they didn’t do that could have caused this bomb to drop. Some of them think it’s a mistake. They say, “It happens all the time. Those reports pass through so many hands, by the time they reach the top somebody has gotten the address wrong.” So you can still have fun with the horror.