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Gellu Naum (1915–2001) is undoubtedly the most important Romanian poet of the second half of the twentieth century, and one of the last “greats” of global surrealism. Zenobiα (1985), his only novel, tells the story of a “mad love,” and has rightly been compared to Nadja by André Breton. Formally speaking, the narrative adheres to the scenario of a sui generis “picaresque.” As for the subject, the trials and tribulations of two lovers whose aim is to “keep love in the world” unfold in a back-and-forth between a protective Marsh and a hostile and plague-stricken City, where “those who were still alive thought they were already dead and wandered around dazed,” to paraphrase the book’s epigraph.