Ioan FLORA
Mornings, Before Sunrise You’re being sentimental again and tread on poetics although you know that it’s not proper, that more often than not we don’t go forward grit and backbone, that novelty, that the century, that the sensibility of the contemporary intellectual, of the angry young man, of the calculating machines, you certainly know that […]
Marius ROBESCU
The Density of the Being We sit close together on the bedside carpet the piano reaps pearls from the sea shell grit my love your sparkling body leans against my armpit like a ponderous sword now it’s dormant as if it were dead − gentle, forever unmapped since many long hours must elapse until […]
Ana BLANDIANA
I Can Hear I can hear someone following my footprints into the moon And planting flower seeds into my footmarks, A wise step − forget-me-nots larks, A wrong step − a belladonna festoon. I can hear someone following my footprints into the sun And ensconcing bird eggs into my footmarks, A wise step − […]
Cezar BALTAG
Night Both myself and the cricket In the murky ivy At the window of my room Possess a split consciousness : Both of us fail to sleep, Both of us seek the ecstasy to empower The moment and draw resurrection nearer Both of us fear the words Yet we are not afraid of death […]
Marin SORESCU
Layers I am digging into my stratum, The surface one, the latest, On the underlying layer A shadow is digging into the substratum. And so on and so forth, All the departed are digging, Feverishly seeking Deeper and deeper. The clacks and clanks of shovels Resound against their cheeks, From the other side Lively shovel […]
Grigore VIERU
The White-haired Child To Spiridon Vangheli Life has bestowed on him the most strenuous duty : staying a child forever. The man stuffed some motherfieds into his shoulder bag and embarked on his world journey to tell the children fairytales. He’d tell them the tale of the poplar tree, until the children can behold the […]
Nichita STÃNESCU
The Defamation of the Evil I forge the mystery more than I worship it. I make bricks for the house walls the word I utter is set on the table and served as food When my burial time comes they will notice a child in a deep slumber unwilling to rouse from his sleep. Only […]
Mircea IVĂNESCU
Evenfall Much too late did I start to look with my eyes at all beings, beings dwelling by my side, in front of me − much too late, (and I still have distinct remembrance of a friend of his recounting long ago how he burst out one night exclaiming, “Hey, look at you ! You’ve […]
Petre STOICA
eviscerate the chest of drawers It’s the hour of the grave decisions therefore my sweetheart throw off the small-eyed nacre buttons from the chest of drawers drop the dozen of lead soldiers into the mass grave they haven’t been running on my battlefields for quite a while drop them into the mass grave it’s the […]
Aurel RĂU
Next to the Great Empires We’ve been praying and toiling. We’ve been praying and toiling and battling. So we had no time for scheming. Our words, shot at our childhood, have been like punitive arrows. And our spears like miraculous birds. We’ve been battling and living on. Everlastingly next to the great empires. […]