Saturday 9 May 2009

the reason to remember the reason to forget












Ne-om aminti cândva târziu
de-această întâmplare simplă,
de-această bancă unde stăm
tâmplă fierbinte lângă tâmplă.


De pe stamine de alun,
din plopii albi, se cerne jarul.
Orice-nceput se vrea fecund,
risipei se dedă Florarul.


Polenul cade peste noi,
în preajmă galbene troiene
alcătuieşte-n aur fin.
Pe umeri cade-ne şi-n gene.


Ne cade-n gură când vorbim,
şi-n ochi, când nu găsim cuvântul.
Şi nu ştim ce păreri de rău
ne tulbură, pieziş, avântul.


Ne-om aminti cândva târziu
de-această întâmplare simplă,
de-această bancă unde stăm
tâmplă fierbinte lângă tâmplă.


Visând, întrezărim prin doruri -
latente-n pulberi aurii –
păduri ce ar putea să fie
şi niciodatã nu vor fi.



Risipei se ded
ã florarul

by Lucian Blaga



We shall remember once, too late,
This simple happening, so fine,
This very bench where we are seated,
Your burning temple next to mine.


From hazel stamens, cinders fall
White as the poplars that they land on,
Beginnings want to be fecund,
May gives itself with sweet abandon.


The pollen falls on both of us,
Small mountains made of golden ashes
It forms around us, and it falls
On our shoulders and our lashes.


It falls into our mouths when speaking,
On eyes, when we are mute with wonder
And there’s regret, but we don’t know
Why it would tear us both asunder.


We shall remember once, too late,
This simple happening, so fine,
This very bench where we are seated
Your burning temple next to mine.


In dreams, through longings, we can see—
All latent in the dust of gold
These forests that perhaps could be—
But that will never, ever, grow.


May Gives Itself with Sweet Abandon

tr. Cristina Hanganu-Bresch
















my favourite folk singer, Tudor Gheorghe, singing the poem


Notes:


1. I thank Bent for reminding me of Blaga's birthday and for celebrating a poet dear to my heart by publishing such excellent translations on his exquisite sites.

2. I have stolen the title of this post from the Black Sun , i am a poor title giver, yes i know this, ffflaneur :-)

3. for those of you interested in translation problems, please go here and read the translator's explanations about this poem.

23 comments:

  1. Vai cat sunt de frumoase ultimele doua!!sunt superbe!

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  2. dear R, i've no complaints at all about your titles! :-)
    But in any case, I note with satisfaction that the proper use of footnotes in posts is spreading on the web.

    and thanks for this subtle colour-sequence, so gently scrolling down to that graceful green. You're a patient colour-teacher:-)

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  3. beautiful top picture, calm and restful.

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  4. Music and poetry, when offered in combination like this, makes me wistful, brings me to tears. And tears, cleanse.

    Thank you.

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  5. The empty bench makes my heart skip, but then the yellow soothes. The poem moves me, and the green shoots belie the poem's sadness. So lovely.

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  6. Formidable je ne connais pas; j'aime beaucoup le ton des images et des paroles ; cela offre des racines d'autre horizon, nous avons tous besoin de cela être dans cette définition intimement lié au sentiment de notre existence. Les oeuvres ; nous sembles donner à l'humanité une sorte de droit qui transcendre la fragilité du corps.

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  7. that one bench reminded me of this ancient picture of mine.

    The poem is gorgeous, thanks for sharing. And the song is haunting - I have been coming back to it.

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  8. sometimes loneliness is a blessing.. somtimes it is not at all.. sometimes as sweet as honey but sometimes fatally bitter..

    the bench just reminds me the thing.. :-)

    chao roxana..

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  9. imi place a treia! deosebita!

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  10. I've now listened to the song which has a nice Jewish sound about it, I like it :)

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  11. Bonsoir Roxana!

    Avent tout, toute mes félisitation pour ce nouveau projet(the beautiful foolishness of things)

    Ravie de te retrouver et de plus avec un nouveau bébé :)))

    Décidément tu es une GRANDE ARTISTE doublé d´une sensibilité rare...merci!!!!!

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  12. ah Edith :-)
    multumesc mult de tot - dar tot nu vine lumina aia si la mine, stii tu, nu vine si pace :-)

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  13. fff, you are teasing me :-) but i am glad that you noticed my efforts to play faded hues of memory against the colourful spring outburst, it was not easy to put this post together, in fact surprisingly difficult.

    (i love footnotes in general but you're my web inspiration for this yes :-)

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  14. Sorlil, thank you! jewish you say? i'd like to understand why, but meanwhile i am sure he would laugh a lot hearing this, because he sings actually many folk songs from this southern Romania county I live in, Oltenia, typical peasant songs with typical accent, so it is Romanian to the marrow - and he is famous for this all around the country.

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  15. S., once again, let me thank you for your sensitivity and generosity. I am so touched...

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  16. oh Manu, i am not sure about this myself - whether the green and the gold are soothing or merely make the sadness of the bank more visible, more unavoidable...

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  17. Allan, je suis heureuse de ce que tu as aime ces images et ce poeme, il m'a accompagnee toujours depuis que j'etais jeune et il m'est tres cher, tres tres cher. je pense que je vais me laisser inspirer par toi et je vais poster d'autres choses liees a la roumanie bientot :-)

    (transcender la fragilite du corps - tu dis tout, la, de toute faceon tout ce qui est important pour moi)

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  18. Szerelem, i love this singer ever since i was little, and when i had to live abroad for a longer time i have always taken him with me - even if i am not often homesick-stricken, but when it happens, i need him :-)

    i like your bench, thank you for sharing... lonely benches have such a magical charm, don't they...

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  19. Peter, now you have finally spoken the truth!

    :-)

    hi :-)

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  20. Marc., tes paroles me comblent... venant de toi qui sais tout ce qu'il y a a savoir sur la photographie contemporaine (et en general :-), je ne peux qu'etre folle de joie :-)

    pour ce qui est du nouveau bebe, j'aime mon travail avec Michael Tweed, mais je ne fais pratiquement rien pour ca, sauf lui envoyer des photos selon mes caprices :-) - et il fait tout le travail lui-meme, d'ailleurs l'idee de cette collaboration est venue de lui - il a aussi deux sites ou il montre ses propres photos, tu devrais aller les voir parce que ca vaut vraiment la peine:

    http://thebeautifulfoolishnessofthings.blogspot.com/
    and
    http://howeverfallible.wordpress.com/

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  21. all those minor notes in the song, typical of Jewish folk music.

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  22. thank you Sorlil for being so patient and explaining - i'm afraid music is not my strength so i can't really have an opinion here - but it seems a very interesting thing to ponder and i wonder if others have had similar thoughts as well...

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