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)

contriving a halo

Odă simplisimei flori

Păpădie, ecumenică floare,

după a ta aurie ardoare

– pe nescrisele file –

anul îşi hotăreşte fericitele zile.

De un pean te-nvredniceşti,

tu, neluată în seamă, floare de rând.

Sămânţă să faci pe pământ

e tot ce doreşti. Alt gând nu porţi.

Dar înfloreşti şi asfinţeşti

alcătuind o aureolă de sfânt.

Lucian Blaga

Ode to the Humblest of Flowers

Dandelion, ecumenic flower,

the year obeys

your golden ardor

to assign its happiest days

on unwritten folios.

You are worthy of a hymn,

unregarded roadside bloom,

your one pure wish to sow

the earth with seed --

so you blossom and fade,

contriving the halo around

some unknown saint’s head.

(my translation)

Photographs by Roxana Ghita

poppies (2)

already the petals are falling

the light of a rainy afternoon through the curtains

poppies

il fallait bien parfois
que le soleil monte un peu de rougeur aux vitres
pour que nous nous sentions moins seuls
il y venait alors quelque souvenir factice de la beauté des choses
et puis tout s'installait dans la blancheur crue du réel
qui nous astreignait à baisser les paupières
pourtant nous étions aux aguets sous notre éblouissement
espérant une nuit humble et légère et sans limite
où nous nous enfoncerions dans le rêve éveillé de nos corps


marie uguay

sometimes the sun

had to raise a bit of red on the windows

for us to feel less alone

then came some feigned memory of the beauty of things

before all settled into the raw white of the real
obliging us to lower our eyelids

still we were on the lookout in our dazzle

hoping for a humble night quickened limitless

where we might sink into the awakened dream of our bodies

(my translation)

more ... and then

like old snow just melting