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)


Tuesday, May 28, 2013

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


Monday, May 27, 2013

poppies (2)






already the petals are falling
the light of a rainy afternoon through the curtains



Sunday, May 26, 2013

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)



Wednesday, May 15, 2013