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Entries Tagged as 'writer'

Poetry in Translation (CCCLVI), Hugo WILLIAMS (b. 1942, England) : “The Audition”, “Oralul”

September 8th, 2015 · No Comments · Famous People, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Am vrut
chiar să mă bag în closet şi să trag lanţul ca să mă evacuez.
Mi-am băgat pumnul în gură şi am încercat să-mi smulg
esofagul. Mi-am închipuit, dacă îmi voi fi dat suflarea,
cugetul va fi acolo. Taraful a promis că vine
la şapte. Este chiar ora şapte.
I wanted to
push myself down the toilet and flush myself away.
I stuck my hand down my throat and tried to rip my
insides out. I thought if I let out all my breath
the mind would be over there. The band promised to call
by seven o’clock. It’s seven o’clock now.

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.

Poetry in Translation (CCCXXXII), T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965), U.S.A./ENGLAND: “Aunt Helen”, “Mătuşa Ana”

April 4th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXXXII), T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965), U.S.A./ENGLAND: “Aunt Helen”, “Mătuşa Ana” · Famous People, International Media, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Miss Helen Slingsby was my maiden aunt,
And lived in a small house near a fashionable square
Cared for by servants to the number of four.
Now when she died there was silence in heaven
And silence at her end of the street.
The shutters were drawn and the undertaker wiped his feet —
He was aware that this sort of thing had occurred before.
The dogs were handsomely provided for,
But shortly afterwards the parrot died too.
The Dresden clock continued ticking on the mantelpiece,
And the footman sat upon the dining-table
Holding the second housemaid on his knees —
Who had always been so careful while her mistress lived.

Poetry in Translation (CCCXX): George TOPÂRCEANU (1886-1937), ROMANIA – “L’âne philosophe”, “Măgarul filosof”, “The Philosopher Ass”

February 8th, 2015 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCCXX): George TOPÂRCEANU (1886-1937), ROMANIA – “L’âne philosophe”, “Măgarul filosof”, “The Philosopher Ass” · Diaspora, Famous People, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Un jeune âne amoureux d’une noble cavale,
Lui demanda la main (le sabot de devant).
— Mais… vous êtes du peuple, et moi — je suis pur sang,
Je vous ferai cocu! lui promit-elle.
— J’avale
Tout ce que vous voudrez! dit l’âne sans émoi,
Car…
Moralité:
Promettre c’est noble, tenir serait bourgeois…

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.

“Blouse Roumaine – The Unsung Voices of Romanian Women” – Selected and Introduced by Constantin Roman (Extracts from the Biography of Carmen Sylva – Queen Elisabeth of Romania)

April 28th, 2014 · No Comments · Books, Diaspora, History, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Reviews, Translations

Vincent van Gogh about Elisabeth of Romania:
“A childless woman is like a bell without a clapper—the sound of the bronze would perhaps be beautiful, but no one will ever hear it.”
Quoted by Vincent van Gogh In a Letter to Theo Saint-Rémy, 19 September 1889

Poetry in Translation (CCX): Jorge Luis BORGES, (24 August 1899, Buenos Aires – 14 June 1986, Geneva), ARGENTINA, “Simplicity ”, “Simplitate”

August 24th, 2013 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (CCX): Jorge Luis BORGES, (24 August 1899, Buenos Aires – 14 June 1986, Geneva), ARGENTINA, “Simplicity ”, “Simplitate” · Diaspora, International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations, Uncategorized

Simplitate
Jorge Luis Borges
(1899, Buenos Aires –1986, Geneva)

Îmi deschide poarta dinspre grădină
cu îngăduinţa unui servitor
al cărui devotament este nesigur
dar odată înăuntru privirea mea
nu are nevoie să fixeze obiectele
care au rămas, precis, în memorie.
Recunosc obiceiurile și spiritul –
acel dialect al aluziilor,
acea pânză ţesută de fiecare grup.
Eu nu am nevoie să vorbesc
nici să–mi asum vre-un fals privilegiu;
cei care mă înconjoară aici, mă știu prea bine,
știu bine suferințele și slăbiciunea mea.
Aceasta este poate treapta cea mai înaltă
care Cerul poate ne va acorda:
nu să fim admirați în victorie
ci pur și simplu să fim îngăduiţi
ca parte a unei realități inconturnabile,
ca și pietrele și arborii.
Versiune în limba Română
Constantin ROMAN, Londra,
© 2013, Copyright Constantin ROMAN

Romanian Literature in Exile (I): Rodica Iulian (France), b. Romania 1931

October 19th, 2011 · Comments Off on Romanian Literature in Exile (I): Rodica Iulian (France), b. Romania 1931 · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Uncategorized

Rodica Iulian’s novels, written in French, reflect the dilemma of the exile torn between her perceived ‘duty’ towards her native culture and the desire to establish new roots in its adoptive country. In the process of establishing herself as a writer in the West, she would reposition Romanian literature as part of the canon of European literature. In this context, Rodica Iulian’s novels reveal the misunderstandings between the Romanian perceptions and expectations of the newly experienced contacts with the French culture. (One of the above quotations is such an example, when, as late as 2001, one detects a whiff of the nightmares experienced some two decades earlier, by Iulian witnessing Ceausescu’s bulldozers, flattening the historical centre of Bucharest.)

Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women

William Blacker: “Along the Enchanted Way – a Romanian Story”

September 2nd, 2010 · No Comments · Books, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews

It takes an Irishman to write the best book on Romania since the WWII – the one before the war was yet another Irish – Patrick Leigh-Fermor.
William Blacker lived in Romania for over eight years in the early 1990s and went native, not just skin deep, but truly and convincingly: he learned the language, the customs, dressed as the other villagers of Maramures, learned their skills and traditions and listened to their stories steeped in ancient history: he was accepted as one of them surrounded with great affection and respect. He further went to one of the fortified Saxon villages, in Central Transylvania where he was “bewitched” by a beautiful gypsy girl with whom he lived for three years and by whom he had a natural son – Constantin.

Nobel prize Winner – Exorting Romania to be honest about its Communist Past

October 8th, 2009 · Comments Off on Nobel prize Winner – Exorting Romania to be honest about its Communist Past · Diaspora, PEOPLE

Herta MUELLER 2009 Nobel Prize for Literature (Romanian-born German from the Banat of Timisoara, living in Berlin) ——————————————————————————————— Herta Müller has a sharp sense of realities, as demonstrated in her article published in Tagesspeil of 17 July 2008, which is echoed by the Frankfurter Rundschau: “It is a scandal that Romania put forward as its […]

Centre for Romanian Studies