For the forthcoming publication of a newly translated Russian version of Leningrad: American Writers in the Soviet Union (here), I was asked to write an introduction, reflecting on the occasion, the time in between, and the present global situation. The original work comprised four sections of four entries each by the four authors, depicted above: Watten, Hejinian, Silliman, and Davidson. The project itself, based on a 1989 conference of avant-garde Russian and American poets (and others) as an event, has to a degree passed into lore—or better, was a self-conscious exploration of making lore, joining with a project of the ages where poetry (a poem, a body of work, a specific poet, a movement) creates a parallel text that circulates, perhaps anonymously and unwritten, to define the interpretive space (or “zone” in my sense) in which it may be situated and understood. I need only mention the Beat poets (especially the trinity Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Burroughs) to find an example of poetry creating its own lore along with its works (see my entry on “Language/Beats,” here). A new translation might take up this lore and possibly change it; with Leningrad, it seeks a new occasion, at the present moment of total disruption utterly unlike its initial time stamp. … More
