Contents // Introduction 1 // 1. Across the Iron Curtain 10 // 1.1 Handover in the car park 10 // 1.2 The limits of World Literature 13 // 1.3 Transnational travel 21 // 1.4 The edge of English 26 // 1.5 Ways through the curtain 31 // 1.6 Beyond the mirrors 55 // 1.7 Two poems 57 // 2. Translations of the Other World: Zhdanov, Zábrana, // McGrath, Rolfe, Ginsberg 62 // 2.1 In a meadow 62 // 2.2 The radicals’ journey 66 // 2.3 A question of motives 69 // 2.4 A compromise? 70 // 2.5 A criticism? 77 // 2.6 A proxy? 85 // 2.7 Lyric subterfuge 88 // 2.8 The space between 96 // 3. Arrival in English: Lowell, Ferlinghetti, Ginsberg, Holub 98 // 3.1 Total and unfooled realism 98 // 3.2 A trip to Prague 107 // 3.3 Halfway to translation 111 // 3.4 At Idlewild 122 // 3.5 Spy craft 131 // 3.6 A coffee with Ferlinghetti 139 // 4. Poetry in a Cold World: Brodsky, Walcott, Ginsberg, // Said, Heaney 143 // 4.1 Three worlds, all cold 143 // 4.2 A cod at the door 146 // 4.3 Brodsky’s eyes 152 // 4.4 Ginsberg finds himself in Prague 162 // 4.5 A theory for Walcott 170 // x // Contents // 4.6 Seamus Heaney’s roots... 178 // 4.7 ... and his routes 182 // 4.8 Poetiy of proxy 187 // 4.9 Lyric afterlife 193 // Conclusion 195 // Bibliography 197 // Index 211