Prigov’s visual poems in English

I’m very excited that someone is finally having a go at translating Dmitri Prigov’s Stikhogrammy into English. Kristin Reed is a braver soul than me, and it’s wonderful to see her translations of what she terms Prigov’s Versographies published in the summer 2012 issue of Qui Parle. The selection on offer includes a couple of pieces that I discuss in A Common Strangeness. My only question on a quick look through them: why did Reed choose the translation “A shadow wanders Europe . . . the shadow of communism,” when the standard English translation of those famous lines is “A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism”?