History

Entries Tagged as 'History'

Poetry in Translation (CCCXLV), James KIRCUP (1918-2009) UK/ENGLAND: “No Men Are Foreign”, “Nimeni nu e străin”

July 11th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXLV), James KIRCUP (1918-2009) UK/ENGLAND: “No Men Are Foreign”, “Nimeni nu e străin” · Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

No Men Are Foreign
James KIRCUP (1918-2009)
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.
Nimeni nu e venetic
James KIRCUP (1918-2009)
Străine, ia aminte, nimeni nu e venetic, iar glia nu-i străină.
Sub orice uniformă acelaşi trup zvâcneşte,
Asemeni cu al nostru; iar câmpul bătăliei, cuprins de fraţii noştri,
E-aidoma cu al nostru, sub care-om zace morţi.
în limba Română de Constantin ROMAN, Londra
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN

“Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist”

March 24th, 2015 · Comments Off on “Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist” · Diaspora, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE

“Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist” Extras din versiunea romana a cartii aparute in limba engleza sub titlul: “Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures” Bristol and Philadelphia, 2000 ISBN 0 7503 0686 6 § VIZA CANADIANA Printre bursele de doctorat afisate la avizierul de la School of Physics, din Newcastle, era si un anunt […]

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Poetry in Translation (CCCXVII): Constantin ROMAN (b. 1941), ROMANIA/ENGLAND – “Abbot Kir”, “Abatele Kir“

February 1st, 2015 · 2 Comments · Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

Epigram

Our good Abbot Kir
Had a dream rather queer,
Even though, he agreed, somewhat vain…
To his flute of Champagne
He would add some cassis
And he found the result utter bliss!

Când Abatele Kir, de acel renume,
S-a trezit din vis,
Turnând şampanie-n casis,
N-a crezut de fel,
Că acest cocktail,
Îi va duce o faimă în lume.

author/autor: Constantin ROMAN

Poetry in Translation (CCCXI): Radu GIR (1905-1975), ROMANIA – Poet of the Romanian Communist Prisons, “Întrebare ”, “Question”

January 2nd, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXI): Radu GIR (1905-1975), ROMANIA – Poet of the Romanian Communist Prisons, “Întrebare ”, “Question” · Communist Prisons, Famous People, History, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations

Radu GYR
Poet of the Romanian Communist Prisons
Mă-ntorc spre ea cu sânge în cuvânt
Şi-n ochii lui Iisus e numai pace.
Întreb: -Tu eşti? Şi umbra spune: -Sânt.
I turn to it, with all my hope, reborn,
As Jesus Christ inspires utter Peace…
I ask: that’s you, Milord? He says: I am, my Son!

Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN, London
© 2014 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

Five Book Reviews: Memoirs of Adrian Marino, Gheorghe Rafael-Stefanescu, Boris Johnson, George Orwell and Joseph Stalin

May 25th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

This is the most meaningful metamorphosis in Orwell’s life, during which time he realizes the underlying workings of Communism. Such ideology he ditches to refute it completely in his future best sellers: “1984” and “The Animal Farm”. We find Orwell, as an intelligent man, flirting with the left-wing dictatorship (and the Civil War) only to reject it without a right of appeal. As an observer, living his life’s experience at first hand, this is a compelling experience
It is precisely the stuff for which George Orwell’s works were completely banned in Eastern Europe, to the last days of Communism.

Four Book Reviews by Constantin ROMAN – Biographies of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Salomé Zourabichvili, George Orwell,

May 14th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews

When in old age he found himself the master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, he reviewed “Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England” by Maurice Cowling, the history don, who had secured him the Mastership of the oldest Cambridge College. Cowling was the guru to such Conservative Party luminaries as Peregrine Worsthorne and Colin Welch of the Telegraph, and to that extent he was a person of influence. “The subject is the intellectual history of our time and the great spiritual crisis in which we have found ourselves,” Trevor-Roper wrote. “I find, on reading it, that this intellectual history has unfolded itself, and this crisis has been observed, and is to be resolved, almost entirely within the walls of Peterhouse.”

“Blouse Roumaine – The Unsung Voices of Romanian Women” – Selected and Introduced by Constantin Roman (Extracts from the Biography of Carmen Sylva – Queen Elisabeth of Romania)

April 28th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Vincent van Gogh about Elisabeth of Romania:
“A childless woman is like a bell without a clapper—the sound of the bronze would perhaps be beautiful, but no one will ever hear it.”
Quoted by Vincent van Gogh In a Letter to Theo Saint-Rémy, 19 September 1889

Poetry in Translation, (CCLXXX) – ROMANIA, Radu GYR (1905-1975): “We say no more”, “Tãcem din gurã “

April 1st, 2014 · 2 Comments · History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

“We say no more”,
by Radu GYR
(poem from the Communist prisons – fragment)
The frost had found its deepest home,
like hunger biting to the bone,
as night and day the wound is sore,
we clench the teeth to say no more.
6.
I’m silent like the doorway lock
And like the inmates in the dock.
At night, in all the prison cells,
I hear the friends’ tormented wails.
7.
But from afar I hear a thunder
as if the walls do fall asunder
and heavy chains break on the floor…
we clench the teeth and say no more.
(Aiud political prison)
Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN
© 2014 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

The Rev. Canon Patrick Comerford on the Centenary of the Anglican Church, Bucharest: 1913 – 2013

December 10th, 2013 · Comments Off on The Rev. Canon Patrick Comerford on the Centenary of the Anglican Church, Bucharest: 1913 – 2013 · Diary, Diaspora, History, OPINION, PEOPLE

In 1900, the British Minister or Ambassador, Sir John Gordon Kennedy (1836-1912), obtained the grant of a piece of land at the junction of Strada Pictor Verona and Strada Xenopol, in the corner of the Gradina Icoanei (The Park of the Icon) from the Commune of Bucharest in a deed of gift dated 2 December 1900.
The cornerstone of the church was laid 100 years ago today on 20 October 1913. The external fabric was completed by 1914, and the interior furnishings had been ordered from England. However, building work was interrupted with the outbreak of World War I.

The first service was held in the new church on Easter Day, 4 April 1920, and it was soon completed, and was dedicated by the Bishop of Gibraltar on 5 November 1922.

Poetry in Translation (CCXXXIII): Hélène VACARESCO (Elena Văcărescu, b. 1866 Bucharest – d. 1947, Paris): “Romania”

December 5th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCXXXIII): Hélène VACARESCO (Elena Văcărescu, b. 1866 Bucharest – d. 1947, Paris): “Romania” · Diaspora, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

You may well recognise in these qualities Romania, land of suffering, land of enlightenment and of valour placed across the promontory against the dredge of Asian invasions and like a beacon being mightily conscious of defending the civilization, which gave it its people and its laws”.

(Hélène Vacaresco, Diplomat, Poet,
addressing the Societe des Nations,
Paris, 27th April 1925)

Centre for Romanian Studies