“Political prisoner”

Entries Tagged as '“Political prisoner”'

BLOUSE ROUMAINE: Daughters of BESSARABIA – Milita PATRASCU (b. 1883, Nisporeni, MOLDOVA – d. 1976, Bucharest, ROMANIA)

June 26th, 2016 · Comments Off on BLOUSE ROUMAINE: Daughters of BESSARABIA – Milita PATRASCU (b. 1883, Nisporeni, MOLDOVA – d. 1976, Bucharest, ROMANIA) · Art Collections, Art Exhibitions, Books, Communist Prisons, Famous People, History, International Media, PEOPLE, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations

Milita Pàtrascu (b. 31 December 1883, Nisporeni, Bessarabia – d. 1 February 1976, Bucharest): Sculptor, pupil of Constantin Brâncusi, graphic artist/illustrator, member of the 1930s-1940s Avant-Garde Group Arta Nouà Movement
Arrested in 1959 by Romania’s Communist regime but saved by writer and politician Mihail Sadoveanu and kept instead under house arrest.

Poetry in Translation (CCCXXVII), Grażyna CHROSTOWSKA (1921-1942), POLAND: “I would wander”, “Mă-ntreb…”, (Wędrowałabym…)

March 13th, 2015 · 1 Comment · International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

Then, we will go out into the winter storm
To walk against the wind,
As we always do, as we did before,
Then we part – happily, just with a smile,
Till the next rendezvous – after quite a while.

Poetry in Translation (CCCXV): Alexandru Osvald (A. O.) TEODOREANU, aka “Pastorel” (1894-1964), ROMANIA – “CALIGULA ”, “CALIGULA ”

January 24th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXV): Alexandru Osvald (A. O.) TEODOREANU, aka “Pastorel” (1894-1964), ROMANIA – “CALIGULA ”, “CALIGULA ” · Communist Prisons, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

CALIGULA
Pastorel TEODOREANU
(1894-1964)

Caligula, omnipotent
Rode his horse to Parliament.
Ceausescu more sinister
Made his ass a Minister.

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

Poetry in Translation (CCCX): Attila ILHAN (1925-2005), TURKEY: “Illicit love”, “Iubire ilicită”

January 2nd, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCX): Attila ILHAN (1925-2005), TURKEY: “Illicit love”, “Iubire ilicită” · Famous People, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

come through my other door you cannot open this
come with your former eyes come at the time to kill
and be vigilant lest someone should follow you

vino prin uşa cealaltă, nu vei putea deschide uşa asta
vino cu ceilalţi ochi vino când vei avea timp destul
şi fii atent ca nu cumva să te urmărească cineva

Poetry in Translation, (CCLXXX) – ROMANIA, Radu GYR (1905-1975): “We say no more”, “Tãcem din gurã “

April 1st, 2014 · 2 Comments · History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

“We say no more”,
by Radu GYR
(poem from the Communist prisons – fragment)
The frost had found its deepest home,
like hunger biting to the bone,
as night and day the wound is sore,
we clench the teeth to say no more.
6.
I’m silent like the doorway lock
And like the inmates in the dock.
At night, in all the prison cells,
I hear the friends’ tormented wails.
7.
But from afar I hear a thunder
as if the walls do fall asunder
and heavy chains break on the floor…
we clench the teeth and say no more.
(Aiud political prison)
Rendered in Romanian by Constantin ROMAN
© 2014 Copyright Constantin ROMAN, London

Poetry in Translation (CLXIV): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “Notre légende”, “Legenda noastră”, “Our Legend”

January 30th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CLXIV): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “Notre légende”, “Legenda noastră”, “Our Legend” · Poetry, quotations, Translations

Ce soir-là, sur un fond de graves tumultes
quelque chose ineffablement changea
ici, dans la terrestre époque de brumes et d’argile
et dans les contrées lunaires voisines de là-haut.
Le pays acquit des carat
qu’aucune balance n’a pesés.

D’argent se firent, ô, les marches, les fronts,
des purs témoins aux créations de l’univers.
Et nous deux, nous nous devinions, delivrés des pénombres,
comme deux êtres de soie en marche.

À cette heure exaltée, d’alchimie célèste,
nous obligeames la lune – et quelques autres astrres
à tourner
autours de nos coeurs.

En Français par Constantin ROMAN
Bucarest 1967, Londres, 2013
© 2013, Copyright Constantin ROMAN

Poetry in Translation (CLXIII): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “To my Readers”, “Aux lecteurs”, Către cititori”

January 30th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CLXIII): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “To my Readers”, “Aux lecteurs”, Către cititori” · International Media, Poetry, Translations

Here is my house. There is the Sun and the garden with beehives.
You are passing along the road, peering through the slats of my gate
Expecting me to speak. Where shall I start?
Believe me, please, believe me,
one could talk as long as one wants, about anything:
of Destiny and the snake of goodwill,
of archangels tilling
the land of man,
of heavens towards which we aspire,
of hatred and fall, of sadness and Calvary,
but, above all, about the great passage.
Yet our words are only the tears of those who wished
so much to cry and could not.
Bitter are all those words
and that is why, please, allow me
to pass in silence amongst you,
crossing your road, eyes closed.

Poetry in Translation (CLXI): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “Lettre” (Scrisoare)

January 26th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CLXI): Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961), “Lettre” (Scrisoare) · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

LETTRE (Scrisoare)
Lucian BLAGA (1895 – 1961)
Je suis plus vieux que toi, ma mère,
mais toujours celui que tu connais:
les épaules un peu voutés
et penché sur les questions des hommes.
Je ne sais toujours pas pourquoi tu m’as fait voir le jour.
© 2013, Copyright Constantin ROMAN

Poetry in Translation (CLX): Lucian BLAGA (1922 – 1985), “Dernier mot” (Ultimul cuvânt)

January 26th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CLX): Lucian BLAGA (1922 – 1985), “Dernier mot” (Ultimul cuvânt) · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations, Uncategorized

If Cioran is considered the contemporary extension of Nietsche, and his thoughts written in French are translated in many languages, Lucian’s Blaga’s works remain highly mystical, close to the primeval myth and to his village roots and, sadly, very little translated in foreign languages.
Like Cioran, Blaga was born the son of an Orthodox priest in a small village of Transylvania at the time when this province was still part of the Habsburg empire. By the time of his maturity his contribution to Phylosophy and poetry was recognised by being elected a Fellow of the Romanian Academy, just before the Second World War. With the advent of Communism in Romania the last two decades of his life were spent in obscurity, interspersed with time in the Communist prisons, reduced to silence and physical incapacity.

Poetry in Translation (CXXIII): Reinaldo ARENAS (1943, Cuba – 1990 New York), Poet Cubanez – “My Lover the Sea” – “Iubita mea Marea” – “NIÑO VIEJO”

September 20th, 2012 · 4 Comments · International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Reinaldo Arenas (1943-1990)
Cuban revolutionary poet & author,
exiled in NYC under Castro

My Lover the Sea

I am that child with the round, dirty face
who on every corner bothers you with his
“can you spare a quarter?”

Sunt copilul acela cu faţa rotundă si murdară.
Care la orice colţ de stradă te plictiseşte cerşind:
“dă-mi un leu, domnule!”
Versiune în limba Română
de Constantin Roman
Londra, 20 September 2011,
© 2012, Copyright Constantin Roman

Yo soy ese niño de siempre
ante el panorama del inminente espanto.
Ese niño, ese niño,
ese niño que corrompe el poema con su nota naturalista.
Ese niño, ese niño,
ese niño que impone arduos y aburridos ensayos
y hasta novelas, aún más aburridas, sobre “los bajos fondos”.
Ese niño, ese niño,
ese niño de cara airada y sucia que impone arduas
y siniestras revoluciones
para luego seguir con su cara aún más airada y sucia.
Ese niño, ese niño
ese niño ante el panorama siempre inminente
(sólo inminente)
del inminente espanto, de la inminente lepra, del inminente
piojo,
del delito o del crimen inminentes.
Yo soy ese niño repulsivo que improvisa una cama
con cartones viejos y espera, seguro, que venga usted a
hacerle compañía.

Centre for Romanian Studies