This is an unabridged recording of D. A. Prigov’s entire performance at U.C. Berkeley in February 2001, including introduction, poems, explanatory remarks, and Q&A. For particularly significant individual poems, including printed texts and commentary, please go here, or click the links in their titles in the table of contents below. Prigov was introduced by Prof. Olga Matich, and his remarks between poems were translated by Prof. Harsha Ram, both of the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.
To jump to specific poems or points in the performance, please adjust to the appropriate time, as listed below the video. Prigov’s introductions, or preduvedomleniia, which explain the concepts animating particular pieces, are key to his work, and as much part of his performance as the poems themselves; we have therefore marked them separately.
0:00: Introduction by Olga Matich
5:00: General remarks by Prigov
16:32: Preduvedomlenie (Introduction) to the Azbuki (Alphabet) texts
22:12: “37-я азбука: похоронная” (Alphabet 37: Funeral)
27:27: Preduvedomlenie to the Militsaner (Policeman) and Reagan cycles, strong and weak poems
30:45: “Народ с одной понятен стороны…” (From one side the people are understandable…)
31:17: “Когда здесь на посту стоит Милицанер…” (When the Policeman stands here at his post…)
31:58: “Вот избран новый президент…” (A new President has been elected…)
32:24: “В буфете Дома литераторов…” (In the House of Writers’ bar…)
32:57: “Милицанер гуляет строгий..” (Strict the Policeman walks…)
33:20: “Сегодня утром на брегах Невы…” (This morning on the banks of the Neva…)
33:44: “Вот дождь идёт, мы с тараканом…” (It’s raining. A cockroach and I…)
34:11: “За тортом шёл я как-то утром…” (Somehow I went to get cake in the morning…)
34:40: “Женщина в метро меня лягнула…” (А woman on the metro kicked me…)
35:01: “В Японии я б был Катулл…” (In Japan I’d be a Catullus…)
35:18: “Вот ведь холодно немыслимо…” (Well, it’s so unthinkably cold…)
35:37: “Что-то воздух какой-то кривой…”
35:57: Preduvedomlenie to “Некрологи” (Obituaries)
37:35: “Некрологи” (Obituaries)
40:47: Preduvedomlenie to “16-я азбука: оглашенная” (Alphabet 16: Catechumen)
43:06: “16-я азбука: оглашенная” (Alphabet 16: Catechumen)
45:25: “Выходит слесарь в зимний двор…” (A maintenance man walks out into a wintry courtyard…)
45:49: “Килограмм салата рыбного…” (A kilogram of fish salad…)
46:12: “Когда б мне девушкою быть… (If I were to be a girl…)
46:31: “Ах ты, гадина такая!” (Ah, you dirty rat!)
47:01: “Только вымоешь посуду…” (You’ve just done the dishes…)
47:18: “Письмо из древней Греции древнеяпонскому другу” (Letter from аncient Greece to an аncient Japanese friend)
47:57: Preduvedomlenie to the “Конвертационные тексты” (Texts of Exchange)
49:38: “Конвертационные тексты” (Texts of Exchange)
52:58: Preduvedomlenie to “Равновесие” (Equilibrium)
53:20: “Равновесие” (Equilibrium)
55:26: “Невероятные истории” (Incredible Stories)
58:32: “Куликово поле” (Kulikovo Field)
1:00:38: Preduvedomlenie to the Evgenii Onegin mantras project
1:12:10: Evgenii Onegin, Buddhist mantra
1:15:13: Q&A