Preface Bibliographic Note Introduction. "Speaking in Voices": On Maria Stepanova's Literary Creation, by Irina Shevelenko Part I: The Here-World From On Twins A Gypski, a Polsk I, a Jewski, a Russki The North of sleep. Head's in a pillow cradle From The Here-World Ahoy! Beyond the azure's tempest Adieu, until one branched floor higher For you, but the voice of the straitened Muse From Songs of the Northern Southerners The Bride The Pilot From Happiness The morning sun arises in the morning As Danaë, prone in the incarce-chamber It is certainly time to stop Even bluer than the toilet tiles (a birthday on the train) (half an hour on foot) From Physiology and Private History July 3rd, 2004 1. I'll now make a couple of 2. Doctors, lectors and actors, young widows The Women's Locker Room at "Planet Fitness" Sarah on the Barricades 1. The year nineteen-oh-five 2. Of all those lying in the earth, foreheads tossed back The Desire to Be a Rib 1. Me and myself, we're uneasy, like a lady with her pitbull 2.

Bus Stop: Israelitischer Friedhof From O Zoo, Woman, Monkey Part II: Displaced Person From The Lyric, the Voice And a vo-vo-voice arose In the festive sky, impassivable, tinfurled Saturday and Sunday burn like stars In every little park, in every little square From Kireevsky From the cycle Young Maids Sing Translator's Note by Eugene Ostashevsky Mom-pop didn't know him Mama, what janitor A train rides down entire Russia Ordnance was weeping in the open The A went past, Tram-Traum Well I don't sing Kupitye papirosn From the cycle Kireevsky The light swells and pulses at the garden gate In the village, in the field, in the forest A deer, a deer stood in that place The last songs are assembling From the cycle Underground Pathephone My dear, my little Liberty There he lies in his new bed, a band of paper round his head Don't wait for us, my darling Don't strain your sight Four Operas 1. Carmen 2. Aida 3. Fidelio 4. Iphigenia in Aulis Essays In Unheard-of Simplicity Displaced Person Part III: Spolia Spolia War of the Beasts and the Animals Translator's Note by Sasha Dugdale War of the Beasts and the Animals Essays Today Before Yesterday (excerpt) After the Dead Water Intending to Live At the Door of a Notnew Age Part IV: Over Venerable Graves Essays The Maximum Cost of Living (Marina Tsvetaeva) Conversations in the Realm of the Dead (Lyubov Shaporina) What Alice Found There (Alisa Poret) The Last Hero (Susan Sontag) From That Side: Notes on Sebald Over Venerable Graves Notes.