"Quiet Spiders of the Hidden Soul"

Mykola Bazhan (1904–1983), one of the most important representatives of Ukrainian literary renaissance of the 1920s, was born into an educated family of Polish-Lithuanian roots in Kamyanets’-Podil’s’kyi in Ukraine. Bazhan emerged as a futurist; however, in the 1920s and early 1930s he embraced romantic Expressionism, with frequent references to the turbulence of Ukrainian history. During his extensive career spanning some six decades, Bazhan was prolific as a poet, literary critic, translator, editor, art collector, and a political and cultural figure. Despite the fact that Bazhan not only survived the purges but eventually became an influential political figure, his early works continued to be repressed until the early 1990s. Oksana Rosenblum is an art historian and translator residing in New York City. Her projects have included visual research for the newly created museums of Jewish History in Warsaw and Moscow. Oksana’s poetry translations from Ukrainian and book reviews appeared in Kalyna Review, National Translation Month, and Versopolis.Lev Fridman is a Speech-Language Pathologist based in New York City. He has facilitated translation projects and publications, and his own writings and translations have appeared in Ugly Duckling Press, Odessa Review, and The Café Review. His most recent research has focused on the literary legacy of Mykola Bazhan. Anzhelika Khyzhnya is a scholar and journalist. She holds an MA in Slavic Languages and Literature, and is a PhD candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research interests include linguistic aspects of early 19th century Russian and Ukrainian prose, Ukrainian poetry of the 1920s, and the relationship between literature and the visual arts.

Acknowledgments
Preface
Oksana Rosenblum
Introduction: "The Ukrainian Avant-Garde and Its Roots: The Poetics of Mykola (Nik) Bazhan"
Galyna Babak
COLLECTIONS
Сімнадцятий патруль/The Seventeenth Patrol (1926)
Translator's Essay: "Jumping the Corral Fence"
Svetlana Lavochkina
Пісня бійця / Trooper's Song
Імобе з Галаму / Imobe of Galam
Різьблена тінь/The Sculpted Shadow (1927)
Translator's Essay: "Mykola Bazhan's The Sculpted Shadow: Echoes of Acmeism"
Dr. Amelia Glaser
Осіння путь / An Autumn Road
Підкови коней / Horseshoes
Нічний момент / A Moment in the Night
Неясний звук / Indistinct Sound
Папороть / Fern
Кров полонянок / The Blood of the Captive Women
Любисток / Lovage
Розмай-зілля / Love Potion
Дорога несходима / The Infinite Road
Будівлі/Edifices (1929)
Дорога / The Road
Нічний рейс / A Night Cruise
Моєму другові / To My Friend
Фокстрот / Foxtrot
Елегія атракціонів / Elegy for Circus Attractions
Будівлі / Edifices: Собор / Cathedral, Брама / Archway, Будинок / Building
Розмова сердець / Conversation of Hearts
Short Poems (1923-1927)
Translators' Essays
Ostap Kin, Ainsley Morse, Mykyta Tyshchenko
Seán Monagle
Сурма юрм / Trumpet of Swarm
Рура-Марш / Ruhr-March
Аеро-марш / Aero-March
Мене зелених ніг / Hops of Green Legs
Цирк / Circus
Long Poems (1929-1930)
Гофманова ніч / Night of Hoffmann
Гетто в Умані / Ghetto in Uman'
Translator's Essay
Prof. George G. Grabowicz          
Сліпці / Blind Bards
Prose (1927)
Translator's Essay
Dr. Roman Ivashkiv
Зустріч на перехресній станції: розмова трьох / Meeting at the Crossroad Station: A Conversation Among the Three (1927)
Afterward: "From the Whirlpool of Creativity to Living on the Edge of a Psychological Abyss: Mykola Bazhan in the 1920s and 1930s"
Dr. Eleonora Solovey
Information about the editors, translators, and contributing writers
Illustrations
Index