“Party 1-8” from Sexual Equilibrium of Money by MID [Mita Dimitrijević]

Translated from the Serbo-Croatian by Steven Teref and Maja Teref

About the author and translators:

MID was the pseudonym of a Mita Dimitrijević, of whom little is known. He was a major yet elusive figure affiliated with Zenithism, a 1920s Yugoslav avant-garde movement that embraced cross-genre writing as a central tenet of its poetics. He published two books, Seksualni ekilibr novca (The Sexual Equilibrium of Money, 1925) and Metafizika ničega (The Metaphysics of Nothing, 1926), and two short prose pieces, both titled “Form Devours Spirit,” and then he seemingly disappeared. He did exist because several witnesses, including Risto Ratković (a contributor to the 1920s Yugoslav avant-garde magazine Zenit) and Djordje Kostić (a member of the Belgrade surrealists), confirmed they met MID and read his two books. In addition, the Serbian poet Dragutin Kostić dedicated his poem, “Umesto ludila” (“Instead of Lunacy”) to “Jack the Ripper of all lies and a universal Zarathustra, my dear friend MID–Mita Dimitrijević, a poet and philosopher.” MID’s work is in the public domain.

Steven Teref’s translations include Ana Ristović’s Directions for Use, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and the National Translation Award, and Novica Tadić’s Assembly. His translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Asymptote, Vestiges, and elsewhere. Steven is a co-editor with Aleksandar Bošković of Zenithism (1921–1927): A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology, forthcoming from Academic Studies Press in 2022.

Maja Teref’s translations include Ana Ristović’s Directions for Use, shortlisted for the National Book Critics Circle Award, Best Translated Book Award, and the National Translation Award and Novica Tadić’s Assembly. Her translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Brooklyn Rail, Asymptote, and elsewhere. Her translations of the Yugoslav avant-garde writers Branko Ve Poljanski and MID are forthcoming in Zenithism (1921–1927): A Yugoslav Avant-Garde Anthology (Academic Studies Press, 2022). Maja is a past president of Illinois Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (IL TESOL BE). She teaches English at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools.