美國
(
1914年～
1997年)
大卫·伊格内托
二十世紀美國著名詩人，生於
紐約市，1964年以來先後在肯塔基大學、堪薩斯大學、瓦薩爾學院、
紐約市立大學、
紐約大學和哥倫比亞大學教授文學創作，1936-1976年間主編過一些詩刊，其中包括著名的《美國詩歌評論》。他從1948年以來出版了十多捲詩集：《詩》(1948)、《溫和的舉重者》(1955)、《再說一次》(1962)、《人類的形象》(1964)、《大地堅硬：詩選》(1968)、《營救死者》(1968)、《詩集：1934-1969》(1970)、《面對樹木》(1975)、《詩選》(1975)、《踏上黑暗》(1978)、《對地低語》(1981)、《讓門敞開》(1984)、《新詩集》(1986)、《給地面投影》(1991)等多捲，另外還著有散文三捲。他曾經多次獲得過一些中藥的詩歌奬，其中包括古根海姆、波林根、佛洛斯特、雪萊紀念奬、美國文藝學院詩歌奬，同時，他還被推選為美國詩歌協會的終身主席。
伊格內托被公認為當代美國寓言式詩歌大師。他的詩短小、直接、避免使用修飾詞和富於“詩意”的詞語，具有十分鮮明的“反詩歌”特徵。他的詩歌還兼具現代寓言性質，且傾嚮於情節性，把日常生活上升到哲學境界，以超現實主義手法揭示出現代人的生存環境及其壓力。
David Ignatow was born in Brooklyn on February 7, 1914, and spent most of his life in the New York City area. He was the author of numerous books of poetry, including Living Is What I Wanted: Last Poems (BOA Editions, 1999), At My Ease: Uncollected Poems of the Fifties and Sixties (1998), I Have a Name (1996), Against the Evidence: _Select_ed Poems, 1934-1994 (1994), Despite the Plainness of the Day: Love Poems (1991), Shadowing the Ground (1991), New and Collected Poems, 1970-1985 (1986), Leaving the Door Open (1984), Whisper the Earth (1981), Conversations (1980), Sunlight (1979), Tread the Dark (1978), _Select_ed Poems (1975), Facing the Tree (1975), Poems: 1934-1969 (1970), Rescue the Dead (1968), Earth Hard: _Select_ed Poems (1968), Figures of the Human (1964), Say Pardon (1962), The Gentle Weightlifter (1955), and Poems (1948).
During his literary career, Mr. Ignatow worked as an editor of American Poetry Review, Analytic, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Chelsea Magazine, and as poetry editor of The Nation. He taught at the New School for Social Research, the University of Kentucky, the University of Kansas, Vassar College, York College of the City University of New York, New York University, and Columbia University. He was president of the Poetry Society of America from 1980 to 1984 and poet-in-residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace Association in 1987.
Mr. Ignatow's many honors include a Bollingen Prize, two Guggenheim fellowships, the John Steinbeck Award, and a National Institute of Arts and Letters award "for a lifetime of creative effort." He received the Shelley Memorial Award (1966), the Frost Medal (1992), and the William Carlos Williams Award (1997) of the Poetry Society of America. He died on November 17, 1997, at his home in East Hampton, New York.