Vanishing Point That Whistles – An Anthology of Contemporary Romanian Poetry

January 3, 2012 at 5:33 am , by Răzvan Țupa

Book launch organized by RCINY. The anthology represents a joint effort to bring one of the most significant recent Eastern European literary phenomena – Romanian post-communist poetry – to U.S. readers. Published by Talisman House, with funding from RCI’s Translation and Publication Support Program, the anthology coordinated by Doru Paul Mugur gathers more than 40 contemporary Romanian poets. With this new anthology, Talisman House continues in 2012 its line of publishing Romanian authors in translation.

The poetry included in this volume reflects the alienation and the crisis of communication brought by the so-called “transition” period of the last twenty years in Romania from the beginning of the post-communist period in 1990 to the close of the first decade of the twenty-first century. This twenty-year span was defined not only by uncertainty and fears, social inequities and misery, but also by both an enthusiasm and a hope for the future that the recent inclusion of Romania in the European Union made real.

—from the introduction by Paul Doru Mugur

The Poets: Cristian Popescu, Ioan Es. Pop, Mihail Gălăţanu, Daniel Bănulescu, Floarea Ţuţuianu, Radu Andriescu, Simona Popescu, Emilian Galaicu-Păun, Ruxandra Cesereanu, O. Nimigean, Constantin Acosmei, Nicolae Coande, Mihai Ignat, Marius Ianuş, Dumitru Crudu, Adina Dabija, Ştefan Bălan, Teodor Dună, Ruxandra Novac, Mugur Grosu, George Vasilievici, Ioana Nicolaie, Radu Vancu, Andrei Peniuc, Dan Sociu, Adrian Urmanov, Răzvan Ţupa, Claudiu Komartin, Elena Vlădăreanu, Dan Coman, Miruna Vlada, V. Leac, Svetlana Cârstean, T.S. Khasis, Gabi Eftimie, Marius Conkan, Andrei Gamarţ, Michel Martin, Aida Hancer, Anonymous.

Most of the translations were prepared specifically for this edition by Adam J. Sorkin and Claudia Serea, with biographical notes and essays by the authors, Adam J. Sorkin and Mona Momescu.

Collaborative translations are by Adam J. Sorkin and Radu Andriescu, Ştefan Bălan, Cristina Cîrstea, Gabi Eftimie, Mihail Gălăţanu, Irma Giannetti, Mugur Grosu, Petru Iamandi, Ioana Ieronim, Claudiu Komartin, Michel Martin, Alina Miron, David Morley, Paul Doru Mugur, Roxana Muscă, Mihaela Niţă, Alina Savin, Dan Sociu , Saviana Stănescu, Bogdan Ştefănescu, Aura Ţeudan, Răzvan Ţupa, Adrian Urmanov, Radu Vancu, Lidia Vianu, Oana Zamfirache.

February 8, 6.30 pm
RCINY Auditorium
200 East 38th Street, New York, NY 10016

FREE ADMISSION

This Romanian poetry arrives in the 21st century like a much needed remedy for the excessive stylistic inventions that seem to accompany what is soon becoming an almost universal postmodern aesthetic. It’s a book that I’d want my graduate students of poetry and literary translation to read. –Roger Sedarat

Waking up from a familiar nightmare into an unknown reality is not for the faint-hearted. More than two decades after the world and the poetry that buzzed in it shattered, Romanian poets are putting on lab coats, turning on recording devices, scouring the web they broadcast on, photoshopping bits and pieces of shards and routine, and questioning the tragic undertone of the hardwired lament in a culture that questions itself incessantly. Anyone able to hear the sound this poetry makes will be rewarded with a sharpening of their own tools of perception. –Andrei Codrescu

While reading Vanishing Point That Whistles, the Latin word ‘artus’ came to mind: related to anatomy, it indicates a joint; symbolically the word refers to strength or power (and, poetically, to the limbs). My feeling is that this anthology of new Romanian poetry exists as an important ‘artus’ point: a place where one historical/literary tradition bends into another. At the same time it’s a locus of strength, with a natural ability to reach powerfully outward. Even more, though, it’s a source of pure reading pleasure from one of the world’s most poetic places. If you haven’t yet gotten acquainted with the brilliance of contemporary Romanian poetry, enter here. –Sharon Mesmer