The poet Arkadii Dragomoshchenko made his debut in underground magazines in the late Soviet period, and developed an elliptic, figural style with affinities to Moscow metarealism, although he lived in what was then Leningrad. Endarkenment brings together revisions of selected translations by Lyn Hejinian and Elena Balashova from his previous American titles, long out of print, with translations of new work carried out by Genya Turovskaya, Bela Shayevich, Jacob Edmond, and Eugene Ostashevsky. This chronological arrangement of Dragomoshchenko’s writing represents the heights of his imaginative poetry and fragmentary lyricism from perestroika to the time of his death. His language—although ‘perpetually incomplete’ and shifting in meaning—remains fresh and transformative, exhibiting its roots in Russian Modernism and its openness to the poet’s Language School contemporaries in the United States. The collection is a crucial English introduction to Dragomoshchenko’s work. It is also bilingual, with Russian texts that are otherwise hard to obtain. It also includes a foreword by Lyn Hejinian, an essay on how the poetry reads in Russian, a biography, and a list of publications. Check for the online reader’s companion at endarkenment.site.wesleyan.edu.
Cuprins
Foreword by Lyn Hejinian
«, … » (. ) / ‘I don’t believe that it ended like that…’ (to Alexey M. Parshchikov) – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
« ?» (. ) / ‘Is the fault really yours?’ (to Trofim K. Dragomoshchenko) – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
« » / FROM ON THE SHORES OF THE EXPELLED RIVER
« » / ‘Let us halt’ – Trans. Bela Shayevich and Eugene Ostashevsky
/ To a Statesman – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
, / Dreams Photographers Appear To – Trans. Bela Shayevich
/ The Weakening of an Indication – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
«, … » / ‘Not dream, but the flowering…’ – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
/ Six Hours to Waking If You Don’t Sleep – Trans. Lyn Hejinian
/ For Many Reasons – Trans. Eugene Ostashevsky
/ Counting – Trans. Eugene Ostashevsky
/ An Evening – Trans. Eugene Ostashevsky
«A… » / ‘And it’s not like I can run off somewhere…’ – Trans. Eugene Ostashevsky
«He… » (Akseli Kajanto) / ‘We shouldn’t especially trust poets…’ (to Akseli Kajanto) – Trans. Eugene Ostashevsky
« » / FROM UNDER SUSPICION
«, … » / ‘Lion-headed, bronze-winged…’ – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
«… » / ‘Fury shadowed their faces…’ – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
/ Paper Dreams – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
«… » / ‘They dreamt of nothing…’ – Trans. Bela Shayevich
«… » / ‘The tree’s wintry empire…’ – Trans. Bela Shayevich
/ Reflections in a Golden Eye – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
«… » / ‘Everything was in decline…’ – Trans. Jacob Edmond
«… » / ‘… there they go, writing poems’ – Trans. Genya Turovskaya
« » / FROM THE CORRESPONDING SKY
«… » / ‘In my declining years I said to the slave…’ – Trans. Elena Balashova and Lyn Hejinian
/ Nasturtium as Reality – Trans. Elena Balashova and Lyn Hejinian
Arkadii Trofimovich Dragomoshchenko: A Brief Biography and Bibliography, by Eugene Ostashevsky
Dragomoshchenko’s Russian, by Eugene Ostashevsky
Notes
Despre autor
Eugene Ostashevsky, a poet and translator, is the author of two books of poetry, including The Life and Opinions of DJ Spinoza. He lives in New York City.