Two Poems, translated from Rumanian into English by Carmen Firan and Alexandra Carides

Space

West of the present time in the far west
Where the bone’s heart bloomed sometime
Over there, where the scars of time still define
                                           the sentimental space

At the edge of memory
At the crossroads we threw food out into the Cosmos
Towards a bitter suicide
Where the force lines of history gather on your arm

Where a part is larger than the whole
the paradox of flight – called vol-arriere –
Over there
Where the stars as flocks of storks make a tragic angle
Where the compass is a seal and the statues - a triangle-
Where the body is filled with political reminiscences
And the soul oozes of poetical luminescence
Where the hell is there room for love?

Always two

I am a lively guy, you are a death girl
You are a palimpsest text, I am the cover of a book

I rained endlessly, swam with no wave
You descended from Palmir, lighted the rugged beam

I am squished by hammers, you are the accent, circumflex,
I hear the call of the bones, you are absent in the reflex

You are the real time, I am the last yesterday,
You are my sign, I am significant.

translation copyright©Carmen Firan and Alexandra Carides