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POETRY IN TRANSLATION (403). Hector MCDONNELL (b. 1947), Co. ANTRIM, IRELAND: “ Patrick”

October 19th, 2016 · Comments Off on POETRY IN TRANSLATION (403). Hector MCDONNELL (b. 1947), Co. ANTRIM, IRELAND: “ Patrick” · Books, Famous People, History, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Aiurea,
L-ai strigat pe Dumnezeu,
Ce-a coborât adânc, în trupul tău,
Să-ti dea curaj să-nvingi la drumuri noi.

Care-a fost împăratul
Ce te-a-njosit? Unde-ai plecat?
Te căutăm, dar încă nu te ştim…
Străjerii tăi se uită-n vârf de munţi şi-aşteaptă
Pasul tău.

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Synopsis of “The Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women” Selected and introduced by Constantin Roman

October 2nd, 2016 · Comments Off on Synopsis of “The Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women” Selected and introduced by Constantin Roman · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews, Science, Translations

These sketches are displayed like a series of miniatures in a virtual National Portrait Gallery: they are all glittering stars from Western galaxies and Eastern nebulae, in all 160 of them…

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NOT WITHOUT MY BOPPA – The Acid Test: an Interview at Horsted Place

February 24th, 2016 · Comments Off on NOT WITHOUT MY BOPPA – The Acid Test: an Interview at Horsted Place · Books, Diary, International Media, Not without my Boppa, PEOPLE, Short Stories & Cameos

on this occasion she insisted that I viewed the young man, not at home, but at a nearby country hotel. The venue was Horsted Place, in Sussex, an elegant historic manor house, where, in its heyday, the young Queen Elizabeth II was entertained by the Neville family. Now this wonderful Victorian Tudor pile is a country hotel, favoured by Glyndebourne opera patrons. This immensely elegant place, with highly-trained chefs and waiters is offering an impeccable service. I agreed to meet the young hopeful at Horsted Place and asked him to tea.

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Poetry in Translation (CCCXXVI), Eric Otto SIEPMANN (1903-1970) ENGLAND: “Epitaph”, “Epitaf”

March 2nd, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXXVI), Eric Otto SIEPMANN (1903-1970) ENGLAND: “Epitaph”, “Epitaf” · Books, Famous People, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Eric Otto SIEPMANN (1903-1970)
„Epitaph”

Here at my desk I mock my fate,
If help comes now, it comes too late,
The valued pictures in my mind,
My sheer neglect, have made me blind.

My dream deserved a steady look,
I failed to put it in a book,
And now, and now I cannot see,
My dream destroyed reality…

No fact consoles me for my flight,
No truth can give me back my sight,
No dream can make me think I see,
No life is left, so bury me.

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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

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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.

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Romanian Dictionary of Quotations, Selected & Translated by Constantin ROMAN: Letter ‘F’

July 20th, 2013 · No Comments · Diaspora, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

Famous:
“When one is famous one does not think any longer at outshining others”.
Elise BRATIANO

Fashion:
“Fashion is what clothes reality and offers dreams.”
Marthe BIBESCO,

Friendship:
“All friendship is a virtual drama, a sequel of subtle wounds.”
Emil CIORAN

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Romanian Dictionary of Quotations, Selected & Translated by Constantin ROMAN: Letter ‘A’

July 16th, 2013 · No Comments · Books, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

“Awake, awake Romanians from your lethargic sleep,
In which your foreign tyrants have sunken you so deep!
It’s either now or never to shape a fate for you,
To whose behest should cower your cruel enemies too!”
(Alexander Muresanu (1) (1816, Bistrita-Brasov, 1863),
Transylvanian poet, author of the national Anthem
(“Desteapta-te Romane”)

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Book Review: “The Romanian” by Bruce Benderson (Prix de Flore)

April 2nd, 2010 · Comments Off on Book Review: “The Romanian” by Bruce Benderson (Prix de Flore) · Books, PEOPLE, Reviews

There are also the occasional hilarious interludes such as the one at the Romanian Cultural Centre in New York. Here, the Institute’s Director, Carmen Firan is a former protege of ex-President Ion Iliescu and Berensn describes her as “an intellectual”(sic) a matter of opinion on which the jury is still out. Benderson also mentions a meeting organized in NY where Firan’s choice guest is a certain Nina Cassian. In romania, Cassian is still remebered as an ex-communist sycophant but in spite of it in New York the subject is repackaged as a “dissident” (and how!).

Cassian was a poet who, during four long decades of communism enjoyed unashamedly, the spoils of the dictatorship. During her extended honeymoon with the Romanian Communist censorship Cassian published several dozen volumes of her grotesque poetry, before she absconded to USA, in the late 1980s. Bruce finds her in NY where she is hailed as a linchpin of Romanian culture…. now we know where are the sympathies of the Romanian Cultural Centre: well – birds of a feather!

A literary critic of “Le Monde” who is quoted on the front cover of this book states that:

“what astonishes and intrigues is Benderson’s way of recounting in the sweetest possible voice, things which are considered shocking… ”

If the French are “shocked”, then the Romanians would certainly be outraged, not by the lack of prudery, as by the fresco of the Romanian society of motley pimps, hustlers, prostitutes, bureaucrats, hangers-on, desperate people and the whole gamut of poor destitute of all ages, social background and ethnic origin, neither of whom come out too well, in the end: TOUGH!

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