poetry

Entries Tagged as 'poetry'

Poetry in Translation (LXXXVII): U2 – “Peace on Earth”

August 31st, 2011 · No Comments · International Media, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Peace
Heaven on Earth
we need it now
I’m sick of all of this
hanging around
Sick of sorrow
I’m sick of the pain
I’m sick of hearing
again and again
that there’s gonna be
peace on Earth

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8PcvmRllis&feature=related

Pace

Tu, rai lumesc,
Te vreau acum
Sunt ostenit
S-astept in veci.
Etern ecou
Si-adanc suspin
Mereu s-aud
Un lung refren
De Rai lumesc
Pe-acest Pamant..

(Romanian version by Constantin ROMAN)
31 August 2011

POETRY IN TRANSLATION (LXXXVI): Patrick McGuinness -”Father and Son” (In Memoria Tatalui si Binevenirea Fiului meu)

July 16th, 2011 · No Comments · International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Patrick McGuinness: Father and Son

(in memory of my father, and in welcome to my son)

In the wings there is one who waits to go on,
and another, his scene run, who waits to go.
I would like to think they met; if not here
then like crossed letters touching in the dark;

the blank page and the turned page,
the first and the last, shadows folding
over and across me, in whom they’re bound.

Published in Metre, Spring 2005

Tata si Fiu

(In Memoria Tatalui si Binevenirea Fiului meu)

In culise un om asteapta sa intre in scena,

iar altul, cu rolul terminat, asteapta sa plece.

asi vrea sa cred ca s-ar fi intalnit, cel putin aici,

daca nu, intocmai cuvintelor, trecand prin ceata;

o pagina alba si una intoarsa,

prima si ultima, umbre impaturite

peste mine si prin mine, o fibra din trupul meu.

(versiune in limba Romana © Constantin ROMAN, 16 Iulie 2011)

Poetry in translation: Mihai Eminescu (LXXXIII) – Ai nostri tineri (The Nation’s Youth)

June 15th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

The Nation’s Youth

(Mihai EMINESCU)

The Nation’s Youth, to Paris go to study

The art of tying round its neck a tie.

And so, to demonstrate at home the mindset,

Of being wiser than a half-baked pie.

In town, the down-and-outs look up astounded

To see them twist their whiskers in their carriage,

Or, gripping with their teeth a long Havana

When traipsing up and down, along the Passage.

Their nasal vowels smirk their clownish faces:

They prop the pillars of cafes and brothels

To show they do not earn a living, they parade it.

Yet all these air-heads vie for the impression

Expressed in their forgotten, native language

That they are our brightest constellation.

***

English Version by Constantin ROMAN

Poetry in Translation (LXXXII) – Miriam Waddington (1917-2004) Canadian Poet

June 7th, 2011 · No Comments · International Media, PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

Miriam Waddington (née Dworkin, 1917 – 2004) was a Canadianpoet, short story writer and translator.
She joined the English department at York University. She retired in 1983.
Waddington was part of a Montreal circle that included F.R. Scott, Irving Layton and Louis Dudek.
Some of her published poems and stories have been translated and published in Russia, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Italy, South America and Romania – the latter `(see above) being translated by Constantin Roman.
An excerpt of her poem figures on the Canadian one-hundred dollar note:
“Do we remember that somewhere above the sky in some child’s dream, perhaps
Jacques Cartier is still sailing, always on his way always about to discover a new Canada?”

Churchill College, Cambridge, Romanian Poetry with George Steiner

April 14th, 2011 · No Comments · Diary, Diaspora, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

NOTE: for those readers who either do not know or do not want to know and especially for those who escaped Romania, this is to say how nearly impossible it was to cross the Iron Curtain during Ceausescu’s hellish dictatorship: many people risked their lives and paid the heavy price of exile – others who had no faith in any change for the better after Ceausescu’s fall, have joined the exodus and millions of uprooted who seek work and settled in other countries – Millions of them!! Romania’s 23 million-population would decrease even faster should it not be for the influx of Chinese workers and the high birthrate of the Roma ethnic minority. Such is the inheritance of five decades of Communism!

extract from:
www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift
(there is a free Romanian translation downloadable in pdf (ask for link – large memory needed ) , because even 17 years after the fall of communism, in 1989, although these memoirs were published in England and in the USA, its translation cannot be published in Bucharest: it was turned down by Liicianu of “Humanitas”, by Patapievici’s “Romanian Institute” (Formerly the Fundatia Culturala Romana) and by Romanian editors with claims of being “aristocrats of the intellect” (boierii mintii) – read “leaders of opinion”.
“

Poetry in Translation (LXXXI): Lucian Blaga (1922-1985) – “To my Readers” (CĂTRE CITITORI)

March 30th, 2011 · No Comments · PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

MOTTO (In Marea Trecere): Opreste trecerea. Ştiu că unde nu e moarte nu e nici iubire – şi totuşi to rog: opreste, Doamne, ceasornicul cu care ne măsuri destrămarea.
Lucian Blaga (1922-1985), Poetry in Translation (XIV), “To my Readers” (CĂTRE CITITORI)
Versiune Engleza de Constantin ROMAN (Londra)

1924
Motto
The Great Passage:
Halt the Great Passge. I know Mylord there is no Love without Death. And yet, Mylord, please stop the clock with which you measure our decay.

“Believe me, believe me one could speak endlessly about anything:

About Fate and the well-wishing Snake

About Archangels ploughing the Garden of Man

About the Sky which we hope to reach,

About Hatred and Fall, Sadness and Crucifixion…

But above all, about the Great Passage.

Yet words are nothing else than the tears

Of those who wished so much to cry, but couldn’t.

Bitter, so bitter are all words

And therefore

Let me walk in silence amongst you

Cross your way

Eyes-closed.

(Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN)

Poetry in Translation ( LXXX) – William Butler YEATS – “The Lake Isle of Innisfree”

March 10th, 2011 · No Comments · Diaspora, Poetry, quotations, Translations

The Lake Isle of Innisfree

W.B. Yates (1865-1939)

” I will arise and go now, and go to Innisfree.
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made;
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee loud glade.”

” But I, being poor, have only my dreams.
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.”

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939)

Insula de pe lacul Innisfree

(Traducere libera de Constantin ROMAN)

Voi invia din morti, sa zbor la Innisfree

Sa-mi fac in vis coliba din paie si chirpici

Pe dealul insorit printre stupi voi tanji

Sa traiesc solitar in zumzetul de-aici.

Dar sarac fiind sa fiu, doar un gand de pribeag

Mai ramane s-astern sub calcaiu-ti de vis

Peste doru-mi ai grije prea greu sa nu calci

Sa apari ca un fulg cand vei trece-al meu prag.

Poetry in Translation (LXXIX): Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942) – “Ego”

November 1st, 2010 · 1 Comment · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

Anna Vivanti Chartres (1868-1942), born in London, the daughter of Anselmo Vivanti an Italian political exile from Mantua and of Anna Landau, coming from a German Jewish family with strong literary traditions, Anna Vivanti married Jack Smith Chartres (1862-1927), an Anglo-Irish barrister of strong Republican leanings, who negotiated together with Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith the Anglo-Irish treaty leading to the Independence of the Republic of Ireland.

Anna Vivanti Chartres was a close friend of Giosue Carducci and her poetry is regarded being part of the ‘decadent’ stream of the late Italian romantic poetry.

Poetry in Translation (LXXVII): W.B. Yeats (1865-1939) – “Cloths of Heaven” (Manta Celesta:

October 1st, 2010 · 1 Comment · PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

W.B. Yeats (1865–1939)

Poet Irlandez, Premiul Nobel pentru Literatura

MANTA CELESTA

Manta celesta de as fi avut

Cu flori de aur si margarint,

Pe-a noptii straie, de-azur cernut,

In umbre cu sclipire de argint,

Sub pasii tai de mult le-as fi tinut.

Dar fiind sarac, doar vise de pripas

Mai pot s-astern pe drum, in calea-ti lunga:

Ai grije, cand pasesti, sa nu se franga,

Caci este totul ce mi-a mai ramas!

Poetry in Translation (LXIV): W.B. YEATS – In Memoria D-relor Eva Gore-Booth si Con Markiewicz

August 30th, 2009 · No Comments · Poetry, Translations

In Memory of Eva Gore-Booth and Con Markiewicz

The light of evening, Lissadell,
Great windows open to the south,
Two girls in silk kimonos,both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.
But a raving Autumn shears
Blossom from the Summer’s wreath;
The older is condemned to death,
Pardoned, drags out lonely years
Conspiring among the ignorant.
I know not what the younger dreams-
Some vague Utopia-and she seems,
When withered old and skeleton-gaunt,
An image of such politics.
Many a time I think to seek
One or the other out and speak
Of that old Georgian mansion, mix
Pictures of the mind, recall
That table and the talk of youth,
Two girls in silk kimonos, both
Beautiful, one a gazelle.

Dear shadows, now you know it all,
All the folly of a fight
With a common wrong or right.
The innocent and the beautiful
Have no enemy but time;
Arise and bid me strike a match
And strike another till time catch;
Should the conflagration climb,
Run till all the sages know.
We the great gazebo built,
They convicted us of guilt;
Bid me strike a match and blow.

Centre for Romanian Studies