Centre for Romanian Studies

POETRY IN TRANSLATION (CCCXCVII), ENGLAND – Louis H. P. de BERNIERES (b. 1954, Woolwich) – “And now he’s gone”, “ Veşnicie”

Veşnicie

Louis de Bernières

 

De-abea acum, când el s-a dus, ea ştie cât de bun a fost…

Şi-atunci, răbdarea lui s-a rupt, fiind mult prea istovit,

Prea crunt snopit, ne mai având nici carnea de pe os.

 

De-abea acum, când el s-a dus, ea a’nţeles c-a fost iubită,

C-un suflet consecvent, dus de ispită…

Alfel ca foşti iubiţi, cu faţa prefăcută.

 

De-abea acum, când el s-a dus, ea nu-şi mai are nici un rost…

Anii umbriţi, ce-a irosit, rând după rând,

Când nu s-a’nfiripat nimic din visul sfânt ce-a fost.

 

Dar în final piesa s-a consumat, aşa cum altfel am mai spus,

Însăilând o-adevarată dramă, la căpătâiul lui, plângând,

Convinsă că-l adoră-acum, când sufletu-i s-a dus.

 

Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN, London,
© 2016 Copyright Constantin ROMAN

 

* * * * * *

 

And now he’s gone

Louis de Bernières

 

And now he’s gone, she thinks how generous he was,

That possibly his patience failed, from being tried too far,

Was battered, wrenched, eroded to the bone.

 

And now he’s gone, she understands he loved

Her with a steady mind, was not a bird of passage

As so many other, slyly smiling loves.

 

And now he’s gone, she counts them back,

The slow and blighted years she wasted in his wake,

When nothing came of what she hoped would come.

 

This scene was foreordained. My friends,

She staged a wondrous drama, weeping by his bed,

And finds she loves him truly now he’s dead.

 

(From: “Love and Desire”, Harvill Secker, London)

* * * * * *

  SHORT BIO NOTE: Louis H. P. de Bernières-Smart is issued from a Huguenot family; he was born near Woolwich, on the Thames estuary, in 1954 and grew up in Surrey. Trained briefly as an officer at Sandhurst, he obtained a degree in Education from the University of London. Before becoming a full-time writer he held odd jobs, such as mechanic, motorcycle messenger and English teacher in Colombia. He now lives in East Anglia.

De Bernières is an avid amateur musician, playing the flute, mandolin, clarinet and guitar^.. His literary work is replete with references to composers he admires, such as the guitar works of Villa-Lobos and Antonio Lauro in the Latin American trilogy, and the mandolin works of Vivaldi and Hummel in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin.