Poetry. Translated from the Romanian by many hands. Firan and Mugur provide generous selections of works in English translation by Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga, Tristan Tzara, Benjamin Fundoianu, Gellu Naum, Paul Celan, Nina Cassian, Andrei Codrescu, Mircea Cortrescu, and nearly sixty other Romanian poets from the late nineteenth century to the present. BORN IN UTOPIA surveys one of the world's great poetries but one that until now has been little known in the United States.

"Romanians, whether in the depths of the Transylvanian provinces or in the better parts of Manhattan, respond to the word 'poetry' with a straightening of the shoulders, a chin-forward movement, and a far-away gaze. 'We may not be sure of many things,' they say with that rearrangement of the body, 'but we are sure of our poetry.'"—from the Introduction by Andrei Codrescu

"The best Romanian literature is its poetry."—from the Afterword by Virgil Nemoianu