“The editors and translators of this volume—barbarogeniuses every one—bring to life the zany revolutionary spirit and exuberance of Zenithism. The anthology is a feast of energy and creativity.”

– Ellen Elias-Bursać, Literary Translator and Independent Scholar

Aleksandar Bošković teaches at Columbia University. He is the author of The Poetic Humor in Vasko Popa’s Oeuvre (in Serbian, 2008) and co-editor of The Fine Feats of the Five Cockerels Gang (2022).

Steven Teref's translations include Ana Ristović's Directions for Use, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and National Translation Award, and Novica Tadić's Assembly. His translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail, Columbia Journal, and elsewhere. He is a member of the Third Coast Translators Collective.

Acknowledgments

List of Translators
List of Illustrations
Pronunciation Guide

Introduction: You Have to Be a Zenithist

The Barbarians are Coming, or a Savage Rhythm

Introduction
Man and Art (February 1921), Ljubomir Micić
The Manifesto of Zenithism (June 1921), Ljubomir Micić, Yvan Goll, and Boško Tokin
The Spirit of Zenithism (September 1921), Ljubomir Micić

Introduction
Zenith Manifesto 1922 (February 1922), Ljubomir Micić
Zenithism as the Balkan Totalizer of New Life and New Art (February 1923), Ljubomir Micić
Effect on Defect (1923), Marijan Mikac

in the name of zenithism [foreword], Ljubomir Micić
here
360 ÷ 180 = 0
joyous lament
zenith—specter
a riot of atoms
rush up the rope
a poem for the twentieth dog
a prayer of the blessed curse
a fanatic’s nights of love
bachelor tax
against gossips
man’s tango with a flea
the guard on the rhine predicts
effect on defect

from Archipenko: New Plastics (September 1923)

Toward Opticoplastics, Ljubomir Micić

Nemo propheta in patria (February 1924), Various anonymous

Zenithosophy: or the Energetics of Creative Zenithism (October 1924), Ljubomir Micić

Antisocial Art Needs to be Destroyed (December 1924), Ljubomir Micić

The New Art (December 1924), Ljubomir Micić
from The Monkey Phenomenon (1925)

The New Zenithist Art, Marijan Mikac

Airplane without an Engine (1925), Ljubomir Micić
Barbarism as Culture (November–December 1925), Risto Ratković
Anti-Europe (1926), Ljubomir Micić

Beyond-Sense and Anti-Europe
the barbarogenius
barbarian omelet
hey slavs
syphon—soda—blood
radio in the balkans
bim bam boom
made in england
avala, a tomb in the sky
oh, balkan cavavan
slender snakes blossom

Typogram (April 1926), Ljubomir Micić
Zenithism through the Prism of Marxism (December 1926), Dr. M. Rasinov (Ljubomir Micić)

Introduction
Cinema Poems (October 1920), Boško Tokin
Paris Burns (October 1921), Yvan Goll
Film and the Future of Humanity (December 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski
Shimmy at the Latin Quarter Graveyard (March 1922), Ljubomir Micić
Damn Your Hundred Gods (Rescue Car) (October 1922), Ljubomir Micić

Prologue by a Madman Before a Legion of Exceptionally Wise Flies
Categorical Imperative of the Zenithist School of Poetry
Zenithism: Second Attack of the Barbarians
Zenithist Barbarogenics in 30 Acts

from Radio-Film and the Zenithist Vertical of the Spirit (April 1923), Ljubomir Micić

The Second Road of the Barbarogenius: The Hybrid Novel, Prose Poetry, and the Serpentinella

Introduction
Here I Am! (January 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski (as Virgil Poljanski)
Under the Sign of the Circle (February 1921), Branko Ve Poljanski
A Lasso around the Holy Mother’s Neck (March 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
The Beauty of a Horse and the Face of Queen Zita (March 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Dada Causal Dada (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Codes of the Dada-Jok State (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
33 Seconds (May 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
2 ÷ 2 = 1 (July–August 1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
Radiograms (1922), Branko Ve Poljanski
77 Suicides (1923), Branko Ve Poljanski
Panic under the Sun (1924), Branko Ve Poljanski

No!
C’mon, Now! [foreword], Ljubomir Micić
Manifesto
Alarm
On Train Tracks
Longing
At the Hair Salon
Graveyard Express
Poem #13
Trip to Brazil
Tick-Tock like a Crab in a Tailcoat
Blind Man Number 52
Arise
TB
Sing Sing We Ride the Himalayas
You, Belgrade, You
God Beefsteak
Joyous Poem

Topsy-Turvy (1926), Branko Ve Poljanski

S.O.S.

Manifesto
Contraidioticon
Eros
300,000 Punches per Second
The Panopticon Passes through a Mirror
The Laughter of Rifles
A Steamboat in the Appendix
Nihilon
Whistling Face
Mariner’s Bell
You Have Beautiful Eyes, Lucia
Dusk
Poem About Him

The Third Road of the Barbarogenius: Conceptual Writing

Introduction
The Sexual Equilibrium of Money (1925), MID
The Metaphysics of Nothing (1926), MID
Form Devours the Spirit [I] (April 1926), MID
Form Devours the Spirit [II] (May 1926), MID
A Tobacconist in Literature (November 15, 1925), Anonymous
Review of The Sexual Equilibrium of Money (April 1926), Anonymous
Review of The Metaphysics of Nothing (May 1926), Anonymous

The Barbarogenius at the Gates: Zenithist Theater, Soirées, and Public Interventions

Introduction
Zenithist Theater (Zagreb, December 16, 1922), Anonymous
The First Zenithist Soirée (Belgrade, January 3, 1923), Anonymous
The Second Zenithist Soirée (Zagreb, January 31, 1923), Anonymous
A Zenithist Soirée by Marijan Mikac (Petrinja, August 18, 1923), Anonymous
A Zenithist Evening of Sensation (April 1925), Branko Ve Poljanski
The Marinetti and Poljanski Dialogue (November–December 1925), Branko Ve Poljanski
Rabindranath Tagore and the Zenithist Protests (December 1926), Anonymous
Open Letter to Rabindranath Tagore (December 1926), Ljubomir Micić, and Branko Ve Poljanski

Introduction
The Red Rooster (1927), Branko Ve Poljanski

Dogs Bark and Poets Sing
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2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12

Afterword: The Zenithist Legacy

Bibliography
Index