Centre for Romanian Studies

Poetry in Translation (CCCXXV), Constantin ROMAN (b. 1941), ENGLAND / ROMANIA: “Chelsea Bridge”

Chelsea Bridge

In Memory of and in the Manner of Grażyna CHROSTOWSKA, born in 1921, Prisoner of concentration camps, Executed in 1942

Now I shall seek endlessly
the streets where we walked together
I will drag along my fading dreams
starting at Chelsea Bridge
past dilapidated Victorian terraced houses
which had seen better days
the Dickensian shops of a century and a half ago,
the faded pubs with
rough-looking faces from a dystopian era
I will finish my glass of Montepulciano
in a hurry without doing it justice
with vacant eyes
not expecting anymore anything
but next winter by the same open hearth
we shall meet again
for a glass of untold expectations
trying in vain
putting together
the shattered pieces
of our forlorn unreachable dreams
of castles in the air
of faraway golden beaches

Reminiscing at the wooden table
stained by cheap ale
we shall talk by the fireplace until closing time
only to brave the winter storm
swimming against the tide
each one of us
consumed by his own old
unrealistic dreams
against untold feelings
shackled by our own Past
we shall part with the same complicit smile
as per a well-rehearsed scenario
until the next illicit rendez-vous
which may never materialize.