Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation (CCCXIII): Eric Arthur BLAIR, aka George ORWELL (1903 India – 1950 England), INDIA/ENGLAND – “Prostitution”, “Prostituţie”


George Orwell
(1903-1950)
(Prostitution)

When I was young and had no sense,
In far-off Mandalay,
I lost my heart to a Burmese girl
As lovely as the day.

Her skin was gold, her hair was jet,
Her teeth were ivory;
I said, “for twenty silver pieces,
Maiden, sleep with me”.

She looked at me, so pure, so sad,
The loveliest thing alive,
And in her lisping, virgin voice,
Stood out for twenty-five.
* * * * *

Prostituţie
George Orwell
(1903-1950)

Când m-am amorezat lulea,
De inima-i păgână,
Crezut-am c-am aflat în ea,
O fiinţă ca o zână.

Cu pielea-i gata s-o alinţi,
Cu mângâieri caline,
I-am oferit cin’ş’pe arginţi
Să vină-n pat cu mine.

Dar ea privindu-mă’ntrodoară,
Cu ochii puri si reci,
Atunci, cu glasu-i de fecioară,
A acceptat treizeci.

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

SHORT BIO: Eric Arthur BLAIR (b. 1903 India – d. 1950, England), author, journalist, novelist and poet is best known for his novels “Animal Farm” and “1984”, which brings him to the top ten of the world’s best fiction writers. Born in India of the Raj, the son of a Civil Service official, Eric Blair was brought to England at a tender age, by his mother and was educated at Eton, Given the financial constraints of his father, he did not follow into higher education, but worked instead for the Imperial Police force in Burma, for five years, before he resigned to follow up a career as a writer. To his end he chose the pen name of George Orwell to avoid embarrassing his family. He volunteered to fight in the Spanish Civil War, on the Republican side, was badly injured and returned to England for treatment, before he was indicted by the Phalangists. Orwell recovered to write, in 1945, his best seller, “The Animal Farm” whose main protagonists were two pigs embodying Stalin and Trotzky, respectively. This fiction was a best seller, to be followed, four years later, by the epic novel “1984”, which remains to this day amongst the top ten most popular novels in the world.

FOOT NOTE: Constantin ROMAN, a British-Romanian national had the unlikely opportunity of reading a French translation of “1984”, which was serialized in the French weekly, “Paris Match” in the late 1950s, during the Communist dicttorship of Gheorghiu-Dej. By a circuitous way, this Magazine, which wasnot available behind the iron Curtain, made its way to Constantin’s private French teacher, in Bucharest, who copied it, by hand: Orwell’s fiction struck a note very close home, behind the Iron Curtain, as it reflected the actual oppression under the Communist dictatorship. The manuscript was circulated under cover, at the risk of being found out by the secret police and consequently serving long years in Romania’s extermination Gulag.