OBERIU: An Anthology of Russian Absurdism
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It was a movement so artfully anarchic, and so quickly suppressed, that readers only began to discover its strange and singular brilliance three decades after it was extinguished-and then only in samizdat and émigré publications. Some called it the last of the Russian avant-garde, and others called it the first (and last) instance of Absurdism in Russia; however difficult to classify, it was OBERIU (from an acronym standing for The Union of Real Art), and the pleasures of its poetry and prose are, with this volume, at long last fully open to English-speaking readers.This anthology includes the work of three writers, Alexander Vvedensky, Daniil Kharms, and Nikolai Zabolotsky, who, between 1927 and 1930, made up the core of OBERIU, and of three others, Nikolai Oleinikov, Leonid Lipavsky, and Yakov Druskin, who, although not members of OBERIU, worked in the same vein. Skillfully translated to preserve the weird charm of the originals, these poems and prose pieces display all the hilarity and tragedy, the illogical action and puppetlike violence and eroticism, and the hallucinatory intensity that brought down the wrath of the Soviet censors. Today they offer an uncanny reflection of the distorted reality they reject.
Kuprianov and Natasha5Rug/hydrangea13Frother17A certain quantity of conversations, or the completely altered nightbook28Elegy52Where. When55The story of Sdygr Appr63The ewe73Thing75The measure of things80The saber84Notnow91To ring - to fly (third cisfinite logic)93The werld95An evening song to she who exists by my name97The daughter of Patruliov100Before coming to see you105The constancy of dirt and joy106An American story108Fenorov in America109Kolpakov, braggart113Anton Antonovich shaved off his beard115The career of Ivan Yakovlevich Antonov117Holiday118The street incident119On the death of Kazimir Malevich120One fat man122Death of a little old man123The new mountain climbers124The blue notebook126One man fell asleep137A magazine article138A man once walked out of his house140How I was visited by messengers141Passacaglia I143Maltonius Olbren145The four-legged crow146The adventure of Katerpillar147The signs of the Zodiac go dark151The temptation154The triumph of agriculture158The battle of elephants172The test of the will175The poem of rain178Time180In service of science187Gluttony : a ballad190To a lady unwilling to renounce consumption of meat from Cherkassy194An epistle to a theatrical actress195For the recovery of Heinrich196Charles Darwin198The fly199Zeros201Water tractatus205Death219Letter to Kharms236The end of the world237
