Secret Weapon

Poetry. Translated from the Romanian by Matthew Zapruder and Radu Ioanid. Introduction by Andrei Codrescu. Appearing in English for the first time, Eugen Jebeleanu's lyric testimonies to life under the Ceausescu government are profoundly unsentimental, yet deeply moving expressions of collective and personal guilt. Trapped between his clear understanding of the government's corruption and brutality, and his own dilemmas as a public figure and reluctant favorite of Ceausescu, the poet found an outlet for his disillusionment in the spare, allegorical poems of his later life. Both pensive and emotional, Jebeleanu's final collection provides an enlightening, searing, and necessary record of life under totalitarian conditions. "Eugen Jebeleanu remains an important poet, a poet with conscience, a poet whose voice deserves to be heard today and tomorrow" - Nina Cassian.

The first English translation of one of Andrei Codrescu's favorite Romanian poets.

Born in 1911, Romanian poet Eugen Jebeleanu published twelve collections of poems, received numerous European literary awards, and was nominated by the Romanian Academy for the Nobel Prize. By the time of his death in 1991, Jebeleanu had transformed from a young, committed communist to a bitter and unsparing critic of the Ceausescu regime. Secret Weapon was his final collection. Poet Matthew Zapruder is an editor with Wave Books. He also teaches creative writing at the Juniper Summer Writing Institute at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and at the New School in New York. Born in Bucharest, Romania, Radu Ioanid is the author of several books on Romanian history and the Holocaust. He works as Director of International Archival Programs Division at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC. Writer and NPR commentator Andrei Codrescu was working on a film exploring life along the Mississippi, when Katrina slammed into his hometown. After hosting scores of refugees in his Baton Rouge home, Codrescu released his essay collection New Orleans Mon Amour, becoming one of the many important voices celebrating New Orleans culture, recording its devastation, and awakening America's conscience.