Robert Hass
Who is Robert Hass?
Robert Hass is one of contemporary poetry’s most celebrated and widely-read voices. In addition to his success as a poet, Hass is also recognized as a leading critic and translator, notably of the Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz and Japanese haiku masters Basho, Buson and Issa.
From Robert Hass interview.. we learned..
The first book that really knocked me out was the “Brothers Karamazov.”
“I Am Your Waiter Tonight, and My Name Is Dimitri”
(Robert Hass reading a poem at the 2008 Dodge Poetry Festival)
Edward Hopper Hotel Room..(Instant Librarian)
O what sadness unaware that it’s sadness! What despair that doesn’t know it’s despair.
A business woman, her unpacked suitcase on the floor, sits on a bed half undressed, in red underwear, her hair impeccable; she has a piece of paper in her hand, probably with numbers.
Who are you? Nobody will ask. She doesn’t know either.
Copyright 2007 by Robert Hass/ Czeslaw Milosz
At Queens College in New York, an audience member asked Hass what it was like spending decades translating Milosz. He answered: “Like being alive twice”.
One more poem
Heroic Smiles
“On Thursday afternoon 
when I returned toward sundown to the steps to see how the students had responded, the air was full of balloons, helium balloons to which tents had been attached, and attached to the tents was kite string. And they hovered over the plaza, large and awkward, almost lyrical, occupying the air. ” Poet Robert Hass wrote on Nov 20 NY times