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Poetry in Translation (CCCIII): Christina ROSSETTI (1830 – 1894), England, Poet: “The hope I dreamed of was a dream ”, “Speranţa ce-am visat”

October 26th, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCIII): Christina ROSSETTI (1830 – 1894), England, Poet: “The hope I dreamed of was a dream ”, “Speranţa ce-am visat” · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

The hope I dreamed of was a dream,
Was but a dream; and now I wake,
Exceeding comfortless, and worn, and old,
For a dream’s sake.
I hang my harp upon a tree,
A weeping willow in a lake;
I hang my silent harp there, wrung and snapt
For a dream’s sake.
Lie still, lie still, my breaking heart;
My silent heart, lie still and break:
Life, and the world, and [mine] own self, are changed
For a dream’s sake.

Poetry in Translation, (CCCII): Robert FROST (1894-1963), U.S.A.: “Fire and Ice”, “Foc şi viscol“

October 22nd, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCCII): Robert FROST (1894-1963), U.S.A.: “Fire and Ice”, “Foc şi viscol“ · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Fire and Ice
(Robert FROST)
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Poetry in Translation, (CCC): ANONYMOUS, ROMANIA: “Christmas Carol”

September 15th, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCC): ANONYMOUS, ROMANIA: “Christmas Carol” · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Father Christmas we do beg
Bring us butter, bring us egg.
If you ever come on foot
Bring some cabbage, or beetroot.
If your bag is large enough
Add some maize and garlic cloves.
Christmas Father don’t miss either
The potatoes and the flour.
Should you come, though, in a sleigh,
Don’t forget, for the New Year,
Toilet paper that’s so sparse,
To wipe at least our arse.”

Poetry in Translation, (CCXCIX), Elizabeth Barrett BROWNING, (1806 – 1861), ENGLAND: “The Soul’s Expression”, “Glasul sufletului”

September 14th, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCXCIX), Elizabeth Barrett BROWNING, (1806 – 1861), ENGLAND: “The Soul’s Expression”, “Glasul sufletului” · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

With stammering lips and insufficient sound
I strive and struggle to deliver right
That music of my nature, day and night
With dream and thought and feeling interwound

Cu buze trenurând şi fără glas
Încerc cu greu ca să înalţ, la cer,
Corala mea din sufletu-mi stingher
Fiind năpădit de gânduri de pripas.

Poetry in Translation, (CCXCVI), Flavia TEOC (b. 1971), ROMANIA: “Fata în casă, sau despre trupul poetului”, “Maiden at home, or about the poet’s body”

September 10th, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCXCVI), Flavia TEOC (b. 1971), ROMANIA: “Fata în casă, sau despre trupul poetului”, “Maiden at home, or about the poet’s body” · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

A small flag will hoist itself boldly
From the carefully pleated bun
It’s still young and it will not yield, easily,
Without a brief fight.

(English version by Constantin ROMAN)

Un steag va flutura îndrăzneţ
Din cocul bine împletit
E încă tânăr, şi n-are de gând să se predea
Fără o scurtă încăierare.

Poetry in Translation, (CCXCIII), Mihai CODREANU (1875, Iaşi -1957, Iaşi), ROMANIA: “Corbii”, “The Ravens”

September 2nd, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCXCIII), Mihai CODREANU (1875, Iaşi -1957, Iaşi), ROMANIA: “Corbii”, “The Ravens” · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

The sky is darkened and the stars are blinded
As whirlwinds cause my body to be blighted…
With greater force I’m carried by the storm…

As ravens guessing that I am forlorn,
They dart straight to my heart, which is half-dead,
To quench their beastly thirst, of dragon’s head.

Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN,
© 2014 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London
Nu văd în zări nici urma unei stele;
Doar viscolul din gândurile mele
Tot mai pornit prin gerul lui mă poartă…

… Iar corbii, presimţindu-şi trista pradă,
Spre inima-mi pe jumătate moartă
Îşi năpustesc sălbatica grămadă…

Poetry in Translation, (CCXC), Magda ISANOS (1916 – 1944), ROMANIA/MOLDOVA: “Green Dream”, “Vis vegetal”

May 31st, 2014 · No Comments · International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

“Vreau, suflete, să mă dezbar de tine
şi să trăiesc ca pomii de pe vale,
cu flori în locul gândurilor tale,
o viaţă fără rău şi fără bine.”

“Dear Soul, I’d gladly do without your swings of mood,
To live among the trees, down in the valley
And smell the bloom, rather than hear your parley –
A life unsullied by the Bad, or Good.”

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.

Poetry in Translation, (CCLXXXIX), Michelangelo BUONARROTI (1475-1564), ITALY/TUSCANY: “Sonnet Nr. 47”, “Sonet Nr. 47”

May 24th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Michelangelo BUONARROTI (1475-1564)
XLVII

Când dragostea-i mereu înflăcărată,
Mai mult decât credeam, în tinereţe,
Regret adânc vapaia-ntârziată,
Ce mă încearcă, greu, la bătrâneţe.

Căci cerul este crud, când, sub văpaie,
Îi cere inimii, ce-abea că mai rezistă,
Ca bătrâneţea să îmi poarte crucea,
Iubind o fiinţă, cu-o privire tristă.

Dar poate-atunci când soarele apune,
Iar viaţia-i la sfârşit, putea-voi spune,
Că-n noapte, voi trăi o umbră vie.

Căci, în amurgul vieţii, dorul ştie
Cum focul mă va pune la-ncercare:
Iubite, fă din noapte-o sărbătoare!

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