Friday, May 31, 2013

dark patience





Elegie

Tremură aceeaşi apă şi frunză
la bătăile aceluiaşi ceas.
În ce tărîm şi-n ce somn te-ai oprit?
Cerească subt ce iarbă-ai rămas?

Se revarsă în mine drumurile
toate pe cari ai umblat.
Oglinda-ţi mai păstrează chipul
şi după ce-ai plecat.

Fără gînd, fără-ndemn, fără glas,
cu mîneca şterg ochiuri ude.
Un vecin prin zidul meu aude
răbdarea neagră a aceluiaşi pas.

Lucian Blaga



Elegy

The same water and same leaf
tremble at the striking of the same clock.
In what realm, in what dream have you stopped?
Are you still celestial under that grass?

All the roads you traveled
pour into me.
The mirror still holds your face,
even now when you have gone.

Without thought, without prompt, without voice,
I wipe the wet panes with a sleeve.
Through my wall a neighbor hears
the dark patience of the same footfall.

(my translation)


2 comments:

  1. jesus, i can not get past the photograph to read the poem, the title so perfectly matched to your image. where are you, in the shadows or in the light? or both? or neither? and the insidious mark on the wall like a cancer growing! which side of life is interrupting, life or death? all of the solid places, the empty places (the gaps, the voids), the windows and doorways. i grow dizzy in metaphor and being. and you!

    you wrote of women and mirrors and beauty. what are you if not painfully beautiful here, so vulnerable, so human))) and yet how strong you are, how solid in body, how capable, slightly leaning (that longing, that desire, and that determination). it is a very complex photograph that grows inside of me.

    (i will have to come back later for the poem.)

    xo
    erin

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  2. oh another Blaga-poem!!! and you haven't shown it to me before posting, this means that your romanian self-confidence is very strong now! :-) as it should be, as i can't find any objections here, it is wonderful, and you have understood everything, perfectly... i am so happy!!!
    what a gift - echoed by the elegy of your body, suspended between worlds...

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