Gellu Naum

A full-length novel by a member of the Romanian literary avant-garde, Zenobia is the evocation of the singular quest of a Surrealist knight-errant who strives to be true to the gentle demands of his lady in a landscape of snares, desolation, incipient madness, and material poverty magically interrupted by moments of extreme beauty. Love, in all its intimate, carnal communion, lights the path through the dark forest, the streets of Bucharest, and the desert swamps. The narrator, speaking from the depths of love and despair, invites the reader to share his quest.

Zenobia

Cartea cu Apolodor

Poetry. Translated from the Romanian by MARGENTO (Chris Tanasescu) and Martin Woodside. One of Romania's most important poets and a key figure in the surrealist movement, Gellu Naum remains almost entirely unknown to English speaking audiences. Sampling some of Naum's best work from a unique literary career spanning over more than 60 years, this collection offers a long overdue introduction to one of the greatest figures in 20th century European poetry. "In the history of radical modernism and of Surrealism in particular the time has come for a reading of the second generation of Surrealist poets spread over multiple cultures and continents. It is in this sense that the presentation here of the poetry of Gellu Naum both serves this end and allows us to see a work of poesis remarkable enough in itself to call for our total attention. In ATHANOR & OTHER POHEMS, there is a thrill of discovery in the presence of a mind and voice that brings new complexities and tonalities toward the rebirth of something that we thought we knew and that even now astounds us."—Jerome Rothenberg "In the beginning, there were several prizes in the Cosmic Lottery that were won by poets. Gellu Naum won a telescope-microscope made from angel dew that was invisibly inserted behind his eyes. Over the course of a lifetime he viewed love, friends, fruit, weather, and writing through that angelic instrument. The poetry of Gellu Naum is the script that inscribes Romania, the country lucky to have had him, onto the angelic map of the Cosmic Lottery."—Andrei Codrescu "For those who thought provocatively experimental writing left Romania with the person of Tristan Tzara, in 1915, or Paul Celan, as late as 1947—which is pretty much all of us who read poetry in English—the work of Gellu Naum is a revelation. In these wonderful translations we feel the life of the poetic imagination flowing freely long after Dada, Surrealism, and their discontents had faded into manner or silence elsewhere. Naum is Tzara's truest heir, with the gravity of Apollinaire and the eye of Breton."—GC Waldrep

Athanor & Other Pohems

My Tired Father

Victor Hugo

roman

Notre-Dame de Paris

Samuel Beckett

Irina Mavrodin

Sfârşitul jocului

Aşteptându-l pe Godot

First published in Romania in 1972, My Tired Father is an autobiographical collage, an assisted cut-up. In words and diction lifted from old books and popular magazines, Naum demonstrates that desire is a constructive principle - and that the spirit of Surrealism is not reducible to a period style or rhetoric. Born in Bucharest in 1915, Gellu Naum was a central figure in Romanian Surrealism before the Second World War. Closely linked with the painter Victor Brauner, Naum collaborated with Jacques Herold, Gherasim Luca, Paul Paun, Dolfi Trost, Virgil Teodorescu, and Perahim, among others, in pursuing the Surrealist adventure in Paris and Bucharest. At the beginning of the war, Naum settled in Romania, where he was instrumental in organizing clandestine Surrealist activities in difficult personal circumstances under the fascist regime. At war's end, the Romanian Surrealist group emerged and flourished briefly before its suppression by Stalinist authorities; Naum published several books of poems in this period, including the first book of poetry published in Romania after the war, The Corridor of Power. In 1947 Naum's The White of the Bone was rejected by the censors, and for the next twenty years he was permitted to publish only children's books and translations. In recent years many new books have appeared, including Zenobia in 1985.

Pohem

Apolodor de pinguin trekt samen met zijn vrienden Amedeu de leeuw en Ilie de kangoeroe over de wereld. Prentenboek met illustraties in potlood en aquarel.

A doua carte cu Apolodor

Descrierea turnului

L’Infra-Noir. Préliminaires à une intervention sur-thaumaturgique dans la conquête du désirable

"Poate ca fata si suprafata (binomul din titlul volumului din 1994) ar putea fi o buna metafora textuala pentru ceea ce a scris, o viata intreaga, Gellu Naum. Cuvintul suprafata nu are legatura nici cu suprarealitatea, nici cu obisnuita semnificatie de dictionar. Sensul trebuie cautat in alta parte: ca in cazul gemelor, «suprafata» volumelor lui Gellu Naum este suma «fetelor» poeziilor lui, care creeaza impreuna o structura cristalina cu «adincime» si stralucire, cu mare putere de refractare/reflectare." (Simona Popescu)

Gellu Naum

About

Books

Join the club