Endarkenment

"Dragomoshchenko's lyric seems to me to have no real American counterparts; its mode recalls Rimbaud and Trakl, Celan and possibly Aimé Cesaire... If the Language poets' refusal of the authoritative lyric self is shared by Dragomoshchenko, his poetry is much more oriented towards imaginative transformation... For Dragomoshchenko, language is not the always already used and appropriated, the pre-formed and pre-fixed that American poets feel they must wrestle with. On the contrary, Dragomoshchenko insists that 'language cannot be appropriated because it is perpetually incomplete'... and, in an aphorism reminiscent of Rimbaud's 'Je est un autre,' 'poetry is always somewhere else'."

~Marjorie Perloff, Sulfur 29

""Even in translation one can make out the fleet, limpid finesse and determination of Dragomoshchenko's sprint from one end of a line to another[...] He celebrates the incantatory traffic of signifiers between speakers and, as in the case of this captivating volume, between languages as well.""

~Andre Furlani, Matrix Magazine

""Mr. Dragomoshchenko began publishing in the waning years of the Soviet regime. Born in East Germany, he grew up in the Ukraine, a place we now know is an intersection of languages, customs, and cultures. Perhaps his post-structuralist wordplay was a natural and fitting result.""

~Iconoclast

""The long-awaited Endarkenment collects poems written over a span of thirty years, most of which haven't been translated into English previously. one can't help but want more. Such a desire seems appropriate for this poet, who is elusive and present at the same time, always able to offer possibility.""

~Samuel Amadon, Boston Review

""Dragomoshchenko's lyric seems to me to have no real American counterparts; its mode recalls Rimbaud and Trakl, Celan and possibly Aimé Cesaire If the Language poets' refusal of the authoritative lyric self is shared by Dragomoshchenko, his poetry is much more oriented towards imaginative transformation For Dragomoshchenko, language is not the always already used and appropriated, the pre-formed and pre-fixed that American poets feel they must wrestle with. On the contrary, Dragomoshchenko insists that 'language cannot be appropriated because it is perpetually incomplete'... and, in an aphorism reminiscent of Rimbaud's 'Je est un autre,' 'poetry is always somewhere else'.""

~Marjorie Perloff, Sulfur 29

""Russian experimental poet Dragomoshchenko (1946–2012) wrote in an elliptical, self-referential style that was generally at odds with the more established formal poetry of his peers. Luckily, he formed lasting relationships with like-minded American poets, such as Lyn Hejinian, who translated and championed his work abroad. Here, Ostashevsky assembles an essential volume of previously un-translated poems—with interpretations by six translators placed alongside their Russian originals—spanning over three decades of innovation. In tackling larger themes of mortality and temporality, Dragomoshchenko wrestles with the capability of language itself. What arises is a poetics that, in the vein of Wallace Stevens, explores ambiguity and does not reveal itself so much as dance at the edges of meaning, residing 'in the location between the glimmering and what lies below.'""

~Publishers Weekly

"Arkadii Dragomoshchenko is one of the great poets of the last fifty years, a poet who has transformed Russian poetics by exploring a meditative and introspective approach to both rhythm and content. The constantly metamorphosing detail is his constant companion through the often harsh times of the Cold War and what came after. This superb selection reads like one long, wild, sublime poem. It is a small opening onto the vast treasure of this poet's imagination."

~Charles Bernstein, author of Recalculating

"Dragomoshchenko's lyric seems to me to have no real American counterparts; its mode recalls Rimbaud and Trakl, Celan and possibly Aimé Cesaire If the Language poets' refusal of the authoritative lyric self is shared by Dragomoshchenko, his poetry is much more oriented towards imaginative transformation For Dragomoshchenko, language is not the always already used and appropriated, the pre-formed and pre-fixed that American poets feel they must wrestle with. On the contrary, Dragomoshchenko insists that 'language cannot be appropriated because it is perpetually incomplete'... and, in an aphorism reminiscent of Rimbaud's 'Je est un autre,' 'poetry is always somewhere else'.""

~Marjorie Perloff, Sulfur 29

"Dragomoshchenko's innovative and deeply metaphoric vision makes him one of Russia's most subtle and experimentally daring authors. To translate his poems is a difficult and adventurous enterprise which has been beautifully accomplished in this quintessential book.""

~Mikhail N. Epstein, Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Cultural Theory and Russian Literature, Emory University