Kohav, Alexander

Orange Voice

San Francisco, CA: Beatitude Press, 1976. First Printing. “Orange Voice was written by the Russian poet-painter, Alexander Kohav, in Jerusalem in 1974. I translated it, with the help of the author and the guiding light of Kristen Wetterhahn (Kashtan-vinyah Segodnyah?), in the cafes of North Beach during the summer of 1976. As a media-poem which counterpoints the four elements symphonically and utilizes the page graphically, Orange Voice seems to me expressly related to cadre works of the Beatitude poets and painters and their quest for greater international amity. The 81 copies of this street imprint (designed for the August 11th public reading of the work at the New Coffee gallery in San Francisco) are numbered to commemorate the 1881 death of the Russian revolutionary political prisoner, Sergei Nechayev, and the continuing work of root-sensibilities in the name of political and economic justice–the revolutionary poem itself.”--Jack Hirschman, introduction to Orange Voice. Alexander Kohav was a dissident poet from the Soviet Union who arrived in San Francisco in 1975, and quickly befriended Jack Hirschman (1933–2021) as well as becoming a common presence among the Second San Francisco Renaissance and Baby Beat Generation. As noted by Thomas Rain Crowe in The Thomas Rain Crowe Archive: “He [Kohav] and Jack began working on translations of various Russian Futurist poets, as well as translating Kohav's poems into English and some of Jack's poems into Russian. From the time that he appeared at the Trieste Caffe that year, he was a constant participant in what we were doing with "Beatitude" (Magazine) and otherwise. He and Jack did joint bilingual readings in venues all over town and in Berkeley--and Alexandr [sic] appeared at various Beatitude-sponsored readings, including the 1st Annual San Francisco Poetry Festival. His poems and translations also appeared in the pages of "Beatitude Magazine." Kohav was a bona-fide Futurist poet from Moscow and in the tradition of Khlebnikov, Burlyuk, Kamensky, and even Mayakovsky and Pasternak. He himself was a "Baby Futurist," so to speak, who had immigrated to the U.S. to be liberated from the confines of censorship in the Soviet Union and to find literary freedom in the free media environment of the U.S. He added a true international flavor if not gene pool to the whole Bay Area scene and Kohav helped influence younger poets like myself to pursue the art of translation in whatever additional languages we were proficient in" (pg 53). Offered today is the 1976 poetic work Orange Voice, by Alexander Kohav and translated by Jack Hirschman. Orange Voice, like many of Kohav’s works, is a miasma of surrealism (both in prose and composition), all the familiar trappings of Russian Futurism, and the sort of proletarian optimism that only a true comrade can conjure. Hirschman—New York-born poet and activist who wrote more than 100 volumes of poetry and essays that exemplified the “fuck you” attitude of the Beat Generation; his poetic predecessors—translates Kohav’s work in (as usual) expert form. Capturing the raw, experimental, and unique essence of Kohav’s work while refusing to conform it to the rigidity of English. Orange Voice is a work that is once undeniable in its literary value, as well as obscure and rare. From the archive of Thomas Rain Crowe, the legendary American poet and co-authorial founder of the Second San Francisco Renaissance. For more information on the Thomas Rain Crowe archive (assembled & curated by Third Mind Books), see our book Starting From San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (item #3071) & the catalog for the Crowe archive (see item #1010), which contains several excerpts and quotations from the book as well as a full listing of the archive’s contents, which are now being offered for sale individually on the Third Mind Books site. Stapled sheets. First printing as stated at introductory page, No. 48 of 81 as stated thereon. Sheets are in very fine condition with light wear to fine edges, minor rusting at staple, and a single fold horizontally at the center. Very Fine. [Item #7387]

Price: $70.00