D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930)

Ţigan
D.H. Larence (1885-1930)

Eu, bărbatul ce te-alint
Iţi dau ce-am câştigat pe-o lună
Din bani să- ţi iei inel de-argint
Să facem viaţa împreună.

Şi mai apoi când ne-om iubi, in fine,
Cu fiinţa–ntreagă asudată,
O casă voi pătrunde pentru tine…
Doar tu să nu mă laşi afară-n poartă.

Versiune in limba Română de Constantin ROMAN
Copyright © Constantin ROMAN, 2011

Tiganca (Gipsy)

“Gipsy”

I, THE MAN with the red scarf,
Will give thee what I have, this last week’s earnings.
Take them, and buy thee a silver ring
And wed me, to ease my yearnings.

For the rest, when thou art wedded
I’ll wet my brow for thee
With sweat, I’ll enter a house for thy sake,
Thou shalt shut doors on me.

(D.H. Lawrence (1885–1930). New Poems. 1916)

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930), novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter

D.H. Lawrence este cunoscut in toata lumea pentru romanele sale care la vremea lor au facut scandal in Anglia puritana si pentru care s-a exilat ca sa moara departe de tara. De abea la doua decenii dupa disparitia lui prematura, la varsta de 45 de ani, cartile lui cenzurate au putut fi tiparite in Marea Britanie iar romanele lui transpuse in filme devenite clasice, dintre care doar cateva sunt: “Lady Chatterley”, “Sons and Lovers”,”The Rainbow”, s.a.

D.H. Lawrence: "Sons and Lovers" (Leonard McCombe movie)

D.H. Lawrence: "Lady Chatterley's Lover"

D.H. Lawrence - "Women in Love"

Fiul unui miner din Anglia, deci din punct de vedere Marxist de “origine sociala sanatoasa”, opera lui Lawrence a fost complect ignorata in Romania comunista, ceeace a reprezentat o pierdere pentru cei ce nu au putut sa il citeasca in original. Sub acest aspect este ironica simetria atitudinii sociale din Anglia anilor 1930 cu cea a Romaniei anilor comunisti, care au cenzurat asemenea opere literare dintr-o convergenta pe cat de curioasa pe atat de neasteptata – in Anglia datorita falsului puritanism, iar in republica populara si mai apoi socialista sub obrocul “moralei proletare”, impusa de talibanii semidocti.

Traducerea poemului de mai jos, aparut in vers liber, ilustreaza un stil care ar fi rezultat in asemenea reactii bipolare: iata inca un exemplu de convergenta extremelor – puritanismul burghez si cel asa-zis proletar.

www.romanianstudies.org/content/2011/09/poetry-in-transla…

NU MĂ PRIVIŢI
(DON’T LOOK AT ME)
D. H. LAWRENCE

Nu mă priviţi aşa, că-mi este frică
nu ştiu ce vreţi, dar asta n-o pot da.

Falusul meu modest, nu mai palpită
deloc, stimate Doamne,
deci cereţi altceva.

Cât despre-nnsămânţarea voastră, cum adică?
eu nu vă pot jigni cu fapta mea..

Dar Fiul Cel de Sus n-o să adăste
ca sa trimită-n schimb, pe fiica sa
pe câmp de luptă să culeagă sule.

căci eu tăiat am fost, de ani de zile.

Iar de urziţi, cumva, dragelor-dragi, ca bolta să vă cadă-n cap
ea e proptită doar pe stâlpi de sule
ce-o să vă ţină drepte, in proţap.

Versiune in limba Româna de Constantin ROMAN
Copyright © Constantin ROMAN, 2011

Philip LARKIN (1922-1985), widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century (Photo courtesy Simon K.)

Philip LARKIN (1922-1985)

Philip Arthur Larkin, CH, CBE, FRSL (9 August 1922 – 2 December 1985) is widely regarded as one of the great English poets of the latter half of the twentieth century. After graduating from Oxford in 1943 with a degree in English language and literature, Larkin became a librarian at the  University of Hull. During this seminal period of  over thirty years  he produced the greater part of his published work and edited the Oxford Book of Twentieth-Century English Verse (1973). He was offered, but declined, the position of Poet Laureate in 1984, following the death of John Betjeman. His poems are marked by what Andrew Motion calls:

a very English, glum accuracy about emotions, places, and relationships,

and what Donald Davie described as:

lowered sights and diminished expectations.

Eric Homberger called him:

the saddest heart in the post-war supermarket

Larkin himself said that for him:

deprivation was what daffodils were for Wordsworth.

Influenced by  W.H. Auden, W.B.Yeats and Thomas Hardy,  his poems are highly-structured but flexible verse forms. They were described by Jean Hartley, the ex-wife of Larkin’s publisher George Hartley (The Marvell Press), as a

piquant mixture of lyricism and discontent,

Larkin’s public persona was that of the no-nonsense, solitary Englishman who disliked fame and had no patience for the trappings of the public literary life. (Source: Wikipedia)

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NOTA BIOGRAFICA:

Philip Arthur LARKIN (1922-1985) este considerat drept unul dintre cei mai mari poeti Englezi din a doua jumatate a secolului XX.

Dupa terminarea studiilor facute la Oxford, el a ocupat, timp de peste treizeci de ani, functia de bibliotecar al Universitatii din Hull, perioada in care a publicat majoritatea volumelor sale de poezii.

Dupa moartea lui Betjeman, in 1983, desi i s-a oferit sa fie ales Poet Laureat, Larkin a refuzat aceasta prestigioasa functie.

Influentat de Auden, Yeats si Thomas Hardy, Larkin are reputatia unui poet pessimist, considerat un

“Englez solitar, cu o pronuntata aversiune  fata de onorurile desarte ale cabalei literare”.

AZIL

*

Un cap cu ochii tintuiti

Pe-o perna sade devalmas,

*

Cu parul alb si ravasit

Si vene negre pe grumaz .

*

Un glas vorbeste-n barba alba

Cu oameni care nu mai sunt,

*

Aceiasi ce cu ani in urma

Radeau cu pruncul nou-nascut.

*

Rasul e tanar –  timpul  fugi

Delirul mortii e tot ce stii.

(Versiune in limba Romana de Constantin ROMAN, Londra, Octombire 2010, Copyright, all rights reserved)

Heads in the Women’s Ward (1972)

On pillow after pillow lies
The wild white hair and staring eyes;

Jaws stand open; necks are stretched
With every tendon sharply sketched;

A bearded mouth talks silently
To someone no one else can see.

Sixty years ago they smiled
At lover, husband, first-born child.

Smiles are for youth. For old age come
Death’s terror and delirium.

William Butler YEATS (1865-1939) Anglo-irish poet, Nobel Prize for Literature

William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

CLOTHS OF HEAVEN

HAD I the heavens’ embroidered cloths,
Enwrought with golden and silver light,
The blue and the dim and the dark cloths
Of night and light and the half light,
I would spread the cloths under your feet:
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)

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 diafane 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 mai mi-a ramas!

(Versiune in limba Romana – Constaantin ROMAN, Londra, Copyright 2010, All rights reserved)

Vintila HORIA (1915, Romania-1992, Spain)

Vintila HORIA (1915, Romania – 1992, Spain)

(Poet, Novelist  Diplomat, WWII concentration camp Detainee, Exile, Academic, Winner of the  1960 Goncourt Literary Prize)

Écrivain français d’origine roumaine (Segarcea, Roumanie, 1915 — Madrid, 1992).  Son œuvre en langue roumaine ainsi que ses écrits en français, Journal d’un paysan du Danube (1966) ou Persécutez Boèce (1987), entre autres, sont marqués par le thème de l’exil auquel il a été lui-même confronté durant presque toute sa vie pour son opposition au régime communiste et son anti-soviétisme. Une campagne politique acèrbe menée par les milieux communistes en France, inspirés par les services secrets Roumains le contraignit à refuser en 1960 le prix Goncourt pour son roman Dieu est né en exil.

DEDICATION (Horia Vintila)

Through streets of Babylon I look confused

For Thee my Lord to come in your pursuit

My voice is hoarse and broken like a lute

Which lost its soul for being over used.

For Thee, my Lord, I search in vain the mornings

At crossroads laden with the traffic warnings

My restless body tired without reason

Through hints of winter and of barren season.

You see, my Lord? To cope I do not seem

As you elude me through this tangled maize

Give me a sign to dedicate in praise

My heavy pen, my poem and my dream.

Do steel my voice and make the strings resound

My  forehead with Thy gentle hands surround

To place me on the whiteness of the page

And live again Thy spirit as a sage.

Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN

(all rights reserved, 2009)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gLVe1p94k&feature=related

Inchinare   (Horia VINTILA)

Prin targuri, Doamne, sufletul mi-alunec
Si printre oameni in zadar Te caut.
Mi-e glasul rupt si ragusit: un flaut
Cu sufletul rapus de prea mult cantec.

Te-astept in dimineti intunecate,
Prin zgomotul rascrucilor umblate
Si-am obosit de cand Te caut Doamne,
Prin zvon de ierni si prin uscate toamne.

Nu vezi? Sunt singur si prea greu mi-e scrisul
De-a nu Te fi-ntalnit pe nici o cale.
Da-mi semn sa-nchin Minunatiile Tale,
Condeiul greu, poemele si visul.

Fa-mi glasul drept si coardele sonore,
Cuprinde-mi fruntea-n maini de aurore
Si lasa-ma pe albul unei pagini
Sa ma culeg sfios dintre paragini.

NOTE: The English version of this poem is to be found in the forthcoming  Anthology of Romanian Poetry in Translation:

Traducerea in Engleza face parte din Antologia intitulata “Poeme Razlete – Random Poems”, de Constantin ROMAN, editata de “Centre for Romanian Studies (London)”

“Poeme Razlete” – “Random Poems” by Constantin ROMAN, edited by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7gLVe1p94k&feature=related