OPINION

Entries Tagged as 'OPINION'

Poetry in Translation (CCCXLV), James KIRCUP (1918-2009) UK/ENGLAND: “No Men Are Foreign”, “Nimeni nu e străin”

July 11th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXLV), James KIRCUP (1918-2009) UK/ENGLAND: “No Men Are Foreign”, “Nimeni nu e străin” · Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

No Men Are Foreign
James KIRCUP (1918-2009)
Remember, no men are strange, no countries foreign
Beneath all uniforms, a single body breathes
Like ours: the land our brothers walk upon
Is earth like this, in which we all shall lie.
Nimeni nu e venetic
James KIRCUP (1918-2009)
Străine, ia aminte, nimeni nu e venetic, iar glia nu-i străină.
Sub orice uniformă acelaşi trup zvâcneşte,
Asemeni cu al nostru; iar câmpul bătăliei, cuprins de fraţii noştri,
E-aidoma cu al nostru, sub care-om zace morţi.
în limba Română de Constantin ROMAN, Londra
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN

Poetry in Translation (CCCXLIV), James FENTON (n. 1949, Lincoln), UK/ENGLAND: “The Song of the General”, “Cântecul Generalului”

July 8th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXLIV), James FENTON (n. 1949, Lincoln), UK/ENGLAND: “The Song of the General”, “Cântecul Generalului” · Famous People, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Translations

James FENTON
I serve an unjust lord.
Exile is an early tomb.
The heart bleeds dark.
Death is a journey home.
By the bright dew on the hill,
By the sharp blade of the moon,
I shall wake my grieving men.
I shall make that journey soon

“Cântecul Generalului”
Înrolat în război, de pripas,
Exilul îi pare-un mormânt
Inima-i e sângerândă s-ajungă devreme acas’…
Fiindcă Moartea-i de veghe, mergând.
Luna luceşte pe spadă.
Roua, pe frunza deasă
Voi deştepta soldaţii mei, în grabă;
Curând mă voi întoarce-acasă.
Versiune în limba Română de Constantin ROMAN, Londra
© 2015 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

Poetry in Translation (CCCXXXIX), Herta MULLER (b. 1953), ROMANIA-BANAT/GERMANY: “Colour Grey”, “Gri”

June 15th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXXXIX), Herta MULLER (b. 1953), ROMANIA-BANAT/GERMANY: “Colour Grey”, “Gri” · Communist Prisons, Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews, Translations

I was nice to him
He was nice to me
Only
Our doors, our windows
Kept closed
Lest we smell each other.

Nu mă gândesc la tine
Dar când pământul aprig îmi va cuprinde pieptul
Voi visa tot mai mult la acele zile.

“Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist”

March 24th, 2015 · Comments Off on “Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist” · Diaspora, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE

“Sfidarea idiocratiei sau Breviarul unui neconformist” Extras din versiunea romana a cartii aparute in limba engleza sub titlul: “Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures” Bristol and Philadelphia, 2000 ISBN 0 7503 0686 6 § VIZA CANADIANA Printre bursele de doctorat afisate la avizierul de la School of Physics, din Newcastle, era si un anunt […]

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Poetry in Translation (CCCXXIX), Constantin ROMAN, GREAT BRITAIN/ENGLAND: “Chelsea Bridge” (Romanian version)

March 21st, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXXIX), Constantin ROMAN, GREAT BRITAIN/ENGLAND: “Chelsea Bridge” (Romanian version) · Books, Diaspora, Famous People, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

ne vom înşira amintirile în faţa focului, până seara târziu
ca să înfruntăm viscolul
ţinând piept furtunii
amândoi fiind
pustiiţi de vechile
visuri inimaginabile
de sentimente nemărturisite
în cătuşele trecutului nostru
ca să ne despărţim cu acelaşi zâmbet complice
conform scenariului dinainte stabilit
bine pus la punct
până la urmatoarea întâlnire ilicită
care poate nu va mai avea rost
niciodată.

Constantin ROMAN: “Voices & Shadows of the Carpathians” – Part 2 of 2

February 22nd, 2015 · 3 Comments · Books, Diary, Diaspora, Famous People, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations

“His dutiful, zealous iconoclasm, his personal cultural revolution, his damage to Romania’s cultural heritage were all adequately recompensed by his masters, both overt and covert: Ceausescu’s shadow was cast large, well after his demise, it was functioning very well, according to the same tenets of “cultural demonology.”

Poetry in Translation (CCCXVIII): Marjorie Lowry Christie PICKTHALL (1883-1922), ENGLAND/CANADA – “Marching Men”, “Soldaţi”

February 3rd, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXVIII): Marjorie Lowry Christie PICKTHALL (1883-1922), ENGLAND/CANADA – “Marching Men”, “Soldaţi” · Books, Famous People, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Under the level winter sky
I saw a thousand Christs go by.
They sang an idle song and free
As they went up to calvary.

Careless of eye and coarse of lip,
They marched in holiest fellowship.
That heaven might heal the world, they gave
Their earth-born dreams to deck the grave.

With souls unpurged and steadfast breath
They supped the sacrament of death.
And for each one, far off, apart,
Seven swords have rent a woman’s heart.
În iarna cerului de plumb,
Văzut-am mii de sfinţi trecând.
Cântau un imn să uite-amarul,
Purtând, cu fruntea sus, calvarul.

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

January 13th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXIII): Eric Arthur BLAIR, aka George ORWELL (1903 India – 1950 England), INDIA/ENGLAND – “Prostitution”, “Prostituţie” · Books, Famous People, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations

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.

Five Book Reviews: Memoirs of Adrian Marino, Gheorghe Rafael-Stefanescu, Boris Johnson, George Orwell and Joseph Stalin

May 25th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews

This is the most meaningful metamorphosis in Orwell’s life, during which time he realizes the underlying workings of Communism. Such ideology he ditches to refute it completely in his future best sellers: “1984” and “The Animal Farm”. We find Orwell, as an intelligent man, flirting with the left-wing dictatorship (and the Civil War) only to reject it without a right of appeal. As an observer, living his life’s experience at first hand, this is a compelling experience
It is precisely the stuff for which George Orwell’s works were completely banned in Eastern Europe, to the last days of Communism.

Four Book Reviews by Constantin ROMAN – Biographies of Hugh Trevor-Roper, Salomé Zourabichvili, George Orwell,

May 14th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews

When in old age he found himself the master of Peterhouse, Cambridge, he reviewed “Religion and Public Doctrine in Modern England” by Maurice Cowling, the history don, who had secured him the Mastership of the oldest Cambridge College. Cowling was the guru to such Conservative Party luminaries as Peregrine Worsthorne and Colin Welch of the Telegraph, and to that extent he was a person of influence. “The subject is the intellectual history of our time and the great spiritual crisis in which we have found ourselves,” Trevor-Roper wrote. “I find, on reading it, that this intellectual history has unfolded itself, and this crisis has been observed, and is to be resolved, almost entirely within the walls of Peterhouse.”

Centre for Romanian Studies