Rudé Právo was the official Communist Party newspaper of Czechoslo-vakia.

Svetko refers to Svetozár Daniel Simko, the Czechoslovak-born American poet who left Czechoslovakia in 1969, following the Warsaw Pact invasion of his country.

náměstí: “square.”

Nuit blanche (Fr.), “white night,” refers to insomnia.

“a wind from Byelorussia” refers to the fallout-contaminated wind from the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

The world in its worlding is from Martin Heidegger.

“THE RECORDING ANGEL”

yukata is a Japanese robe, a shorter version of the kimono.

Don’t say I was there. Always say I was never there is from Elias Canetti.

“At night I found myself in a pasture of refuse” is a misprision of Georg Trakl’s Nachts fand ich mich auf einer Heide, / Starrend von Unrat und Staub der Sterne, from the poem “De Profundis.” Daniel Simko’s translation reads: “At night I found myself in a pasture, / Rigid with refuse and the dust of stars.”

Simone refers to Simone de Beauvoir.

Comment vivre sans inconnu devant soi? is from René Char’s poem “Argument,” included in Poems of René Char, translated and annotated by Mary Ann Caws and Jonathan Griffin. Tr.: “How can we live without the unknown before us?”

Grève (Fr.): “strike.”

chämeur (Fr.): “unemployed.”

Where an angry God … is from Georg Trakl’s poem “Grodek,” included in “Autumn Sonata” by Georg Trakl, translated by Daniel Simko. Original: “Rotes Gewölk, darin ein zürnender Gott wohnt.”

This is my cap … is from Günter Eich’s poem “Inventory,” translated by Stuart Freibert, David Walker, and David Young, in Valuable Nail. Günter Eich: Selected Poems.

I am grateful to James Tate for helping this poem into the world.

“ELEGY”

“If God were the uncertain, would you cling to him?” is from Paul Valéry’s “The Art of Poetry.”

“When things were ready … wind” is from Motke Zaidl and Itzhak Dugin’s description of Sobibor in Claude Lanzmann’s film Shoah.

“It was very fine … Narew River” is an adaptation of Simon Srebnik’s testimony on Chelmno in Lanzmann’s film.

“To make charcoal … irons” was the answer given by an SS man to Simon Srebnik when he asked the purpose of the ovens at Chelmno, as stated in Lanzmann’s film.

This poem is dedicated to the memory of Terrence Des Pres.

“THE GARDEN SHUKKEI-EN”

Shukkei-en is an ornamental garden in Hiroshima. It has been restored.

The Ota is one of the rivers of Hiroshima.

“THE TESTIMONY OF LIGHT”

Muga-muchu … is from Robert Jay Lifton’s Death in Life: Survivors of Hiroshima.

For if Hiroshima … is the question asked by Peter Schwenger in Letter Bomb.

Nuclear Holocaust and the Exploding Word.

“Book Codes: I” is a fragmented citational text from Ludwig Wittgenstein.

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