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Entries Tagged as 'Communist'

Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXV): Pablo NERUDA (1904 – 1973) – CHILE “Sonet XVII”, “Soneto XVII”

January 25th, 2016 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXV): Pablo NERUDA (1904 – 1973) – CHILE “Sonet XVII”, “Soneto XVII” · Books, Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, Translations

Te amo sin saber como, ni cuándo, ni de donde,
te amo directamente sin problemas ni orgullo:
así te amo porque no sé amar de otra manera,

sino así de este modo en que no soy ni eres,
tan cerca que tu mano sobre mi pecho es mía,
tan cerca que se cierran tus ojos con mi sueño.

La tine, în genunchi, fără apel,
Mă-ndrept lăsând uitat orgoliul greu…
Te-ador ne mai crezând într-un alt fel.

Căci dorul nu mai pot să-l stăvilesc,
Cuprinsă-aşa de strâns la trupul meu,
Privirile-ţi în vis îmi înfloresc.

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POETRY IN TRANSLATION (CCCLXII), Cristian PAŢURCĂ (1964, Bucharest – 2011, Bucharest), ROMANIA: “Imnul Golanilor”, “Hoodlum’s Song”

November 9th, 2015 · No Comments · Diary, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

Imnul golanilor (refren):
Cristian PAŢURCĂ

Mai bine haimana, decât trădător
Mai bine huligan, decât dictator
Mai bine golan, decât activist
Mai bine mort, decât comunist.

Hoodlum’s Song (refrain)
Cristian PAŢURCĂ

I’d rather be a hoodlum than be a nation’s traitor.
I’d rather be a vandal, than be a scum-dictator.
I’d rather be a punk, than Party activist.
I’d rather be long-dead, than rabid Communist!

© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

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Poetry in Translation (CCCLVIII), Nina CASSIAN (1925-2014), ROMANIA/USA: “Donna Miraculata”, “Donna Miraculata”

September 26th, 2015 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, Famous People, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Since you betrayed me I am more becoming
A body’s carcass glowing in the dark
My fragile self, invisible, yet stark,
With frozen looks and body which is pining.

My wretched fingers can’t feel any more
My useless walk, is pining with desire…
My cruel stare invisible, yet sore –
The halo of my body still on fire.

Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN,
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

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Poetry in Translation (CXXI): Gabriel CELAYA (Guipúzcoa, 1911 – Madrid, 1991), Basque Poet – “TEROAREA SPAŢIULUI” (Terror of the Open, Terror de lo Abierto)

August 29th, 2012 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CXXI): Gabriel CELAYA (Guipúzcoa, 1911 – Madrid, 1991), Basque Poet – “TEROAREA SPAŢIULUI” (Terror of the Open, Terror de lo Abierto) · International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Celaya is an artiste of many facets: born in the Basque country at the time of its heavy Industry boom, he forged for himself a career in Engineering, which allowed him sufficient financial independence to follow the interest closest to his heart: poetry and left-wing politics. He succeeded to carve for himself a reputation of an “engaged” poet and fan of Fidel Castro and his Cuban social experiment.
Celaya’s silence over the plight of his fellow writers in Berlin (1953), Budapest (1956), Prague (1968), or indeed in Stalin’s gulags, is consistent with his putting his name forward as a candidate of the Spanish Communist Party, in the 1977 general elections, in his native Guipuzkoa.. By this time he was idolised as a national literary hero (and survivor), having heaped on him moult Literary prizes: Critics’ Award (1957), Libera Stampa International Award (1963), Etna-Taormina International Award (1967), Atalaya Award (1967) and finally the National Spanish Literature Award (1986).
Given such success, it is reasonable to think that Celaya may have dreaamt of a Nobel Prize, but this, sadly, eluded him, as by then, such accolades went to other “engaged” fellow-writers in the East, such as Pasternak (1958), Solzhenytsyn, (1970) Walesa (1983), or Brodsky (1987), who appraised the world of the stark realities of the ‘communist paradise’ – realities which Celaya, sadly, chose to ignore.
Notwithstanding such reticence, the poet remains one of the greats of Basque (and Spanish) literature, who left behind a prodigal output.

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Ceausescu and Jonathan SWIFT – The Seditious Captain GULLIVER

April 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Books, PEOPLE, quotations

Surely, the Reverend Jonathan Swift never expected, in his wildest dreams to be ‘excommunicated’ by communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu: not that Ceausescu ever read Jonathan Swift! That was not necessary! Ceausescu did not read ANY books at all – he was instead famous for his semi-literacy and for professing a distinctly basic vernacular Romanian…
Yet, amazingly, in spite of such auspicious circumstances, Jonathan Swift managed posthumously to blot his copybook with the Communist dictator… Read on the problems encountered by an editor in Bucharest in the 1980s who tried to publish Swift”s Satyres:
Publishing Swift’s satires in 1985, I myself fought a lot with the censor in order to include “A Modest proposal” concerning eating Irish children, which had become subversive here on account of meat shortage in Romania. Faced with the alternative of not publishing the book at all, or doing it without the famous text, I gave it up. The supreme level of censorship was a department of the (Communist) Party Central Committee.
“Publishing Swift’s satires in 1985, I myself fought a lot with the censor in order to include “A Modest proposal” concerning eating Irish children, which had become subversive here on account of meat shortage in Romania. Faced with the alternative of not publishing the book at all, or doing it without the famous text, I gave it up. The supreme level of censorship was a department of the (Communist) Party Central Committee.”

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