Secret Weapon: Selected Late Poems of Eugen Jebeleanu
Translated 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. Pensive and emotional, Jebeleanu’s final collection provides an enlightening, searing, and necessary record of life under totalitarian conditions. Both Andrei Codrescu’s introduction and the translator’s preface provide context for this politically and artistically significant book.