"When thinking of how to introduce you to a collection of poems by Georgian poet Irakli Kakabadze, I am reminded of Emily Dickinson. An outsider, working on her own, Dickinson wrote radical poems. They were radical in their view of God, but also in the way she used English. Those dymanic dashes – those Germanic capitals! Like Dickinson, Kakabadze is radical in both his ideas and his use of English… Kakabadze is trilingual (fluent in Georgian, Russian and English) and rather than use a translator, he composed these poems simultaneously in Georgian and English. The English poems you read are not literary tranlations of the Georgian poems, but rather, versions addressing the same topics with a similar timbre. .. When he writes “Politically correct/is bulshit of this sect/with lousy dialect/and horrible effect,” you can sense his urgency and the cocky slant of his fedora. “Hi! My name is blunt Irakli,” he says.. letting you know right off how he’s going to be. " - Bridget Meeds (Cornell University)