YEREVAN/NEW YORK — Aaron Poochigian is an American poet, translator, and classicist born in 1973. He studied at Moorhead State University and later earned a PhD in Classics from the University of Minnesota in 2006. He also received an MFA in poetry from Columbia University, strengthening his dual career in scholarship and creative writing. Poochigian is especially known for his acclaimed translations of ancient Greek authors such as Sappho, Aeschylus, and Apollonius of Rhodes. His original poetry collections include The Cosmic Purr (2012) and Manhattanite (2017), the latter winning the Able Muse Book Award. In addition to poetry, he has written a verse novel titled Mr. Either/Or (2017) and its sequel, blending classical forms with modern themes. His book American Divine won the Richard Wilbur Award, and he continues to live and write in New York City.
Dear Aaron, more than 30 years ago, Diana Der Hovanessian remarked in a conversation that fewer and fewer people in the United States were interested in poetry. I assume that in contemporary American society poetry occupies an even smaller place today.
Yes, poetry is, infamously, the worst-selling section in the bookstore. I don’t blame the reading public; I blame poets themselves for forgetting that poetry, whatever else it might be doing, should always be entertainment as well. Poets should give readers what they need to be delighted. I have devoted my career to pushing poetry beyond academia and getting it in front of interested general readers. One recent event in that effort is the publication of my poem “Choop,” about making moonshine, in Zymurgy, the magazine of the American Home Brewers Association. I have also resolved to read poetry, my own and others, as a busker in Central Park this summer. That’s what I’ve been doing so far to expand the reach of poetry. I’m still trying to think of more I can do.
During my three visits to Iran (may peace come as soon as possible), I was delighted to see how young people honor their classical poets, Hafez and Rumi, reading their works beside their mausoleums. How is respect for the classics expressed in American society?
I wish America had the same reverence for its “classic” poets, say, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. Sure, their poetry is assigned in high school and college, but none of them has come to be a popularly accepted spokesperson for an entire people (say, all Americans). I am envious of the various “poets of the people” that appear in national literatures. We Armenians have Rafael Patkanian and Hovhannes Tumanyan. As far as I can tell, there are no contemporary American poets who have attained national recognition. Still, some students do come to my mythology class with a passion for Classical literature. By and large, though, I’d have to say respect for the classics of our national poetry isn’t expressed in American society.
You are also actively involved in translating and interpreting ancient Greek and Latin, French, and Chinese classical poets into English. I was very pleased to read highly acclaimed reviews of your translation of The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, a book very dear to me, as my father is its Armenian translator, also highly appreciated. I am sure yours was not the first English translation of Baudelaire. What does your version bring that is new, and what challenges did you face in translating it?
