Sloate, Daniel 1931–

views updated

Sloate, Daniel 1931–

PERSONAL: Born January 27, 1931, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada; son of Carl and Jean (Normile) Sloate. Education: University of Western Ontario, B.A., 1953; Sorbonne, University of Paris, D.Phil., 1962.

ADDRESSES: Home—7723, rue Drolet, Montreal, Quebec, Canada H2R 2C8. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: Writer, poet, and translator. Institut Superieur d'Interpretariat et de Traduction, Paris, France, lecturer in translation, 1955–69; Faculte libre de Paris, associate professor of English literature, 1955–69; University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, professor of translation, 1969–85; Catholic University of Paris, member of faculty, beginning 1969–; McGill University, Montreal, director of translation program, 1990–95.

MEMBER: Literary Translators of America, Union des Ecrivains Quebecois.

AWARDS, HONORS: F-A Savard Translation Award, Columbia University.

WRITINGS:

Words in Miniature (poems), Editions Maisonneuve, 1972.

A Taste of Earth, a Taste of Flame (poems), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1981.

Dead Shadows (poems), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1983.

Les traquenards de la grammaire anglaise: guide à l'intention des francophones, Guernica (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1985.

Le Cycle des Comtesses (plays), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1990, translated as The Countess Cycle: Five Plays, Guernica (New York, NY), 1995.

Lydia Thrippe!: A Critic's Diary Followed by the Lydiad, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 1999.

(Editor) Falk, John L., Snow and Other Guises (poems), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 2000.

Of Dissonance and Shadows (poetry collection), Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

Contributor to anthologies, including Cross/Cut: Contemporary English Quebec Poetry, edited by Peter Van Toorn and Ken Norris, Vehicule Press, 1982. Contributor of poems to magazines, including North-wood Journal, Moosehead, Antigonish Review, and Matrix. Member of editorial board, Meta.

TRANSLATOR

Jean Nicholas Arthur Rimbaud, Illuminations, Editions Maisonneuve, 1971, revised edition, Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1990.

Eloi de Grandmont, First Secrets (bilingual edition), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1984.

André Roy, Mister Desire (poems), Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1984.

Marie Uguay, Selected Poems, Guernica Editions (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1990.

Jean-Paul Daoust, Black Diva: Selected Poems, 1982–1986, Guernica (Montreal, Quebec, Canada), 1991.

Carole David, Impala (novel), Guernica (New York, NY), 1997.

Fluvio Caccia, Aknos: And Other Poems, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 1998.

Fulvio Caccia, Selected Poems, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2000.

André Roy, Parallel to Life: A Notebook, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2001.

(With Peter Vranckx) Sylvie Chaput, Isabelle's Notebooks, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2002.

Hélène Dorion, No End to the World: Selected Poems, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2004.

Claude Beausoleil, Life in the Singular: Selected Poems, Guernica (Buffalo, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS: Poet and translator Daniel Sloate's send-up was published as Lydia Thrippe!: A Critic's Diary Followed by the Lydiad. Referring to the book as a "throwback" to a time when "everyone understood Classic-inspired double entendres," a Quill and Quirecontributor commented, "No doubt this book is funny for some." In his poetry collection Of Dissonance and Shadows the author presents poems reflecting a "sensual exploration and oceanic, homoerotic landscapes," according to Sonja A. Skarstedt in the Montreal Review of Books. Skarstedt went on to note that the author's "vision … remains in the realm of the dark, allegorical, quasi-imaginary." Sloate has also translated numerous books, including No End to the World: Selected Poems by Hélène Dorion. In a review of the translated works, Canadian Book Review Annual contributor Marguerite Andersen called Sloate "a craftsman in the art of translation."

Sloate once commented: "I am interested in the Italian poets (like Ungaretti, Montale, and Gatto) and the French symbolists. I have attempted to use the prose poem in my writings—the form was, of course, well established in French by Rimbaud, but it has never caught on in English. My own poetry is meant to be read aloud. This aspect is never lost from sight (or ear) when I write. My training as an actor has helped me in the public readings I give. As a translator of poetry, I know that I am marking the translated text with my own stamp. My translations of Rimbaud, for instance, are definitely, in substance, Rimbaud; in style, or form perhaps, the finished text is uniquely mine.

"Most of my experiences, as with any writer, find their way into my writing. Any literary creation is deeply rooted in one's own biography, no matter how transmuted the material may become. [Lydia Thrippe!] is a spoof of the groves of academe. Lydia Thrippe, the 'heroine,' jots down her impressions of friends and colleagues who roam the groves. Excerpts from it have appeared in the magazine Breches."