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Entries Tagged as 'Russia'

Dictionary of Romanian Quotations – Letter “N”

November 12th, 2016 · Comments Off on Dictionary of Romanian Quotations – Letter “N” · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

It is true, that when I arrived at the prison sorting centre, at Ghencea, I was made to scrub the floors, something I had never done in my life, which prompted my self-analysis: ‘what was the point to have been presented to the King of England, when I could not even scrub the floors?’

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Constantin ROMAN – Love at the time of the Swine Flue (Part 2 of 2)

October 31st, 2016 · Comments Off on Constantin ROMAN – Love at the time of the Swine Flue (Part 2 of 2) · Books, Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Short Stories & Cameos

Dreams of the Vicar’s wife’s oven lit my face, as I warmed up to the offer, thinking at the advice given by the village quack, only the day before: “Make love more often, my dear Sir!”

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Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXXIII): Sophia PARNOK (1885-1933) RUSSIA: “Today I do not want you”, “Astăzi nu vă vreau”

February 12th, 2016 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXXIII): Sophia PARNOK (1885-1933) RUSSIA: “Today I do not want you”, “Astăzi nu vă vreau” · Books, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Don’t seduce me down dark alleys,
To the places left behind –
To the bold or to the timid
Lips I’ve kissed so many times.
Nu mă-mbia să merg pe căi de noapte,
Spre locuri ce-am lăsat demult departe.
Celui mult prea timid, sau prea adept
De sânuri, ce demult am strâns la piept.

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Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXI), RUSSIA, Alexander PUSHKIN (1799, Moscow – 1837 St. Petersburg): “Friendship”, “Prietenie”

January 5th, 2016 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCLXXI), RUSSIA, Alexander PUSHKIN (1799, Moscow – 1837 St. Petersburg): “Friendship”, “Prietenie” · Communist Prisons, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, Translations

What’s friendship? The hangover’s faction,
The gratis talk of outrage,
Exchange by vanity, inaction,
Or bitter shame of patronage.

Prietenia, ce e? Ecou de facţiune,
O vorbă ieftină, cu spirit de ultraj,
Cocktail de vanitate şi inacţiune,
Păcatul unui mare patronaj.

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Poetry in Translation (CCCXXIV), “Păstorel” TEODOREANU (1894-1964), ROMANIA: “Sadoveanu”, in Romanian, English & French verse

February 19th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXXIV), “Păstorel” TEODOREANU (1894-1964), ROMANIA: “Sadoveanu”, in Romanian, English & French verse · Diaspora, Famous People, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Sadoveanu filo-Rus,
Stă cu curul spre Apus:
Ca s-arate-Apusului
Care-i fața Rusului”.

Sadoveanu’s Russian farse,
To the West it turned its arse,
To show to the Allied Press
What’s the Russians real face.

Sadoveanu, filo-Russe,
A devoilé son anus:
Pour montrer à l’Occident
Le visage d’un Russe brillant.

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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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Collection of Antique Prints and Engravings (16thc – 19th c), (Part I)

October 29th, 2013 · 1 Comment · Diaspora, International Media, PEOPLE, Reviews

Constantin ROMAN bought his first prints whilst a postgraduate student in Cambridge, in the early 1970s, when very few people were interested in the subject and prices were accessible. Over the following thirty years, as a Geophysicist, he had the opportunity to travel extensively and added substantially to his collection, mostly from dealers in England, France and Holland. His particular interest concentrated on images from the Ottoman Empire in Europe, with emphasis on Wallachia and Moldavia (the Lower Danube and the Carpathians) as well as the Eastern part of the Habsburg Empire, (the Principality of Transylvania). Auxiliary themes of a wider regional interest (Polish, Russian, Balkan, Hungarian, Austrian, Turkish) are also present.

Subject Matter:

The subject of the collection has a strong topographical interest. It consists of maps (including plans of battles and strategic fortifications), views (landscapes and townscapes), costumes, portraits of historical characters, scenes of social and political interest, architectural / natural monuments, political cartoons of the 19th century, etc.

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Love at the time of Swine Flu

June 21st, 2013 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews, Uncategorized

Hysteria has gripped the city: I wonder what might have been like living in London, centuries ago, at the time of the Black Death?
As always, the blame was left on the doorstep of hapless immigrants, foreign sailors, or refugees fleeing the horrors of repression on the Continent: Flemish Huguenots, Jewish Estonians coming from Russia, Spaniards who brought the decease with them, decimating good Christians, like us, living in fear of God… Yes the ‘Spanish Flu’ most certainly came from the Peninsula. What the Spaniards of Armada memory did not succeed, they certainly managed rather well with this pandemic. We were very lucky indeed to avoid it during the Peninsular War, but what, with the rock of Gibraltar still being British, the border acted more like a sieve than a proper filter. We may have won the battle but surely not the ongoing war: in 1918 one million of our people died of Spanish flu, caused by this mysterious virus called H1N1. After such massive population cull, do you think, Britain might have become a better place? I doubt it: the flu unleashed the beginning of the end, the very decline of our great British Empire, as both WWI and the Spanish flu had a propensity of killing sturdy young men. It caused our genetic pool to be frustrated of the best input: look at the result of these insipid pen pushers in our Civil Service not to mention greedy MPs, or incompetent financiers!

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Love at the time of Swine Flu (fragment): by Constantin ROMAN

March 11th, 2013 · Comments Off on Love at the time of Swine Flu (fragment): by Constantin ROMAN · Books, OPINION, PEOPLE

‘You know, my dear boy, Catholicism is a very good religion to die in’.
She left all her millions to the Vatican, to consecrate her in a gigantic statue in the guise of Virgin Mary, no less, opposite a copy of a gigantic ‘Christ the Redeemer’, of Rio de Janeiro, only, this time, perched on an African mountain peak. In her lifetime she was no saint, to put it mildly, but she compensated by her good looks. You know? She was not unattractive and many a hopeful bachelor passed between her bed sheets, hoping for a share of the spoils. When they did not succeed to woe her, she offered them an honourable exit, which they could hardly refuse: she made suicide respectable. After she became a reformed rake, only weeks before she died, she was persuaded that she was a reincarnation of Mother Theresa, as she retired to a Convent of Dominican nuns. Her less charitable friends and relations, being frustrated of the spoils of any material windfall, spread the rumour that ‘she now tried to seduce God’….

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A Russian Childhood (Yalta, St. Petersburg, Moscow, London) Memoirs of Tatiana Nancy GAUBERT

June 21st, 2005 · Comments Off on A Russian Childhood (Yalta, St. Petersburg, Moscow, London) Memoirs of Tatiana Nancy GAUBERT · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

Synopsis An Imperial Foundling A Russian Childhood (Yalta, St. Petersburg, Moscow, Yalta, and early Womanhood (London, Paris, Dublin) by Tatiana Nancy (“Romanovna”) GAUBERT What would a crocodile on a silver chain, taken for a walk on the streets of St. Petersburg, have in common with a kneeling British ambassador, vowing eternal love to a Russian […]

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