About the Book

Ana Blandiana is one of Romania's foremost poets, a leading dissident before the fall of Communism, and now one of her country's strongest candidates for the Nobel Prize. A prominent opponent of the Ceauescu regime, Blandiana became known for her daring, outspoken poems as well as for her courageous defence of ethical values. Over the years, her works have become the symbol of a moral consciousness that refuses to be silenced by a totalitarian government.

The Shadow of Words covers Blandiana's early collections published from 1964 to 1981, as well as including uncollected poems from that period which only appeared in anthologies. It follows My Native Land A4 (2014), The Sun of Hereafter Ebb of the Senses (2017) and Five Books (2021) in completing Bloodaxe's presentation of Blandiana's collected poems to date in English translation. She published these poems during the brief period of political thaw of Romania's communist regime, when aestheticism took on a more subversive role, reaffirming the autonomy of the poetic word and freeing it from the stultifying demands of propagandist proletarian art.

In her early poems, Blandiana's voice articulates a pure and vibrant spiritual language of unmistakable ethical clarity, calling for moral regeneration in the face of indifference. Their ethical idealism and steadfastness override the many masks of degradation. These youthful books announce from the outset the sense of responsibility and faith in the survival of the collective soul that has always characterised Blandiana's poetry.

Table of Contents:
13 Introduction 40 Acknowledgements First Person Plural (1964) 42 Childhood 43 Victors 44 Rain Chant 45 Harvest 46 Pride 47 The Joke 48 Dance in the Rain Achilles’ Heel (1966) 51 The Gift 52 Return 53 I Know That Purity 54 At That Moment… 55 Intolerance 56 Parents 57 Quarantine 58 Hospital Visiting Hours 59 Eclipse 60 The Change on the Table 61 Concert 62 Cruises 63 We Should Be 64 Torquato Tasso 65 Where Is the Pride? 66 To the Stars 67 The Great Silence 68 Drawing in Pastel 69 The Surface of the Water 70 The Wisdom of the Earth 71 Be Wise 72 Flow 73 Self-portrait in Pastel 74 From Time to Time 75 Morning Elegy 76 Volcanoes 77 Have I Grown Up? 78 From a Village 79 Scherzo 80 I Gave You the Leaves 81 Night Is Falling 82 The Day Will Come 83 I Always Put Off Entering 84 Of Austerity and Naïveté The Third Sacrament (1969) 87 No Choice 88 Humility 89 You Know Something 90 Ties 91 The Bird 92 The Borderline 93 Eye-blink 94 Oh, Laughing 95 By Our Own Will 96 North 97 Travel 98 Only Love 99 Requiem 100 Song 101 Love 102 The Docile Animal 103 Ancient Anchorites 104 I Hope 105 Grass 106 Far Away 107 Condition 108 The Eyes of Statues 109 Psalm 110 Fatigue 111 While We Still Have Time 112 Alternative 113 Elegy 114 Everything Simple 115 Indecision 116 Contratemps 117 The Fall 118 Pietá from Fifty Poems (1970) 121 Encounter 122 Let the Words Fall 123 October 124 Frost 125 Up There 126 Psalm (II) 127 Death in the Light 131 The Soul from Poems (1974) 134 Genealogy 135 Every Movement I Make 136 I’m Drowsy 137 The Ballad of the Custom-house 140 My Beauty Hurts Me 141 Ballad 142 Syllables 143 Between Worlds 144 Maybe Someone Is Dreaming Me 145 When I Wake Up 146 Prayer Sleep within Sleep (1977) 148 Hills 149 Poem 150 Eyelids 151 In Winter the Stars 152 Shepherd of Snow 153 Native Land 154 A Stork’s Nest 155 As Though the Moon Had Something to Say 156 Hostile Snow 157 Wings 158 Avram Iancu 159 I Hear 160 Hymn 161 Everyone Living in the Village 162 Song 163 I Only Need to Go to Sleep 164 I Mustn’t End 165 I Do Not Sing the Leaf 166 The One Who Dreams Me 167 Covered with Dew 168 We’ve Learnt How to Laugh 169 In the Village I’m Going Back to 170 A Church Filled with Butterflies 171 This Floating 172 Anchor 173 When I’m Living 174 I Come Back to Autumn 175 Early Gathered Grass 176 Monastery of Wind 177 Sea 178 It’s So Cold 179 Sunday 181 At the Mill Pond 182 City of the Eastern Plain 183 In the Country’s Soul 184 Lascivious Fruit 185 In My Sleep 186 Lovers 187 Why? 188 To Stay Here in the Hay 189 Drawing in Pastel 190 Hamlet 191 Alone with Myself 192 Leaves of Animals 193 I Think Clouds 194 A Vase with Wild Daisies 195 Country of Birds 196 Who Said It Was Gold 197 Poplars and Maples 198 When I Grow Old Enough 199 The Morning after Death The Cricket’s Eye (1981) 203 In Sleep 204 From Over There 204 As If 206 Egg 208 The Land Where Parents Lived 209 Behold 210 I’m Tired 211 Definition 212 Metamorphosis 213 Boat 214 Crossings 215 At Daybreak 216 Hymn 217 Clothing 218 Wonder 219 Inside a Walnut 220 Icons on Glass 221 Hibernation 222 Flight 223 Loneliness 224 Half of the Moon 226 Otherwise 227 Inhabited by a Song 228 In the Water 229 Nighttime on a Bed of Hay 230 The Step 231 One, Two, Three 232 The Line 233 The Name 234 I’m So Cold 235 Armour 236 One More Step 237 A Game 238 The Hunt 239 Shadow 240 Pathway 241 One Day 242 Proof 243 The Shadow of a Blade of Grass 244 Semantics 245 Camouflage 246 In the Deep, Dull Thud 247 Seed 248 Falling 249 Moon Just Touching 250 Brush Pen 251 Earth 252 Question 253 Illumination 254 If 255 Morphology 256 Thank You 257 Mirrors 258 Pity 259 Words 260 Every Trace 261 Nevertheless 262 Postponement 263 Home 264 Wind, Unroll 265 In Memoriam 266 Circle 267 Eleusis 268 Epitaph 269 Over the Tops of Plum Trees 270 I Breathe, I Breathe 271 Vowel 272 How I Would’ve Wished 274 Weave 275 Reflection 276 Instead of 277 Olly Olly Oxen Free 278 Feverish Planet 279 A Sign 280 There Are Some Mornings 281 Portrait with Cherry Earrings 284 Bibliography 286 The translators