Nichita Stanescu

[swirling sands]

Field in Spring

Green rings around the eyes, this grass in vibrant motion
arcs tenderly about you, at a distance-
you summon it, then fling it round, broken
by your laugh of youth and innocence.

Stretched under you, this curling dome of grass
would sound its voices in the gravel-
but you are unaware - and now you pass
through foreign stars, a fool.


Sentimental story

Then we met more often.
I stood at one side of the hour,
you at the other,
like two handles of an amphora.
Only the words flew between us,
back and forth.
You could almost see their swirling,
and suddenly,
I would lower a knee,
and touch my elbow to the ground
to look at the grass, bent
by the falling of some word,
as though by the paw of a lion in flight.
The words spun between us,
back and forth,
and the more I loved you, the more
they continued, this whirl almost seen,
the structure of matter, the beginnings of things.


Poem

Tell me, if I grabbed you one day
and kissed the sole of your foot
wouldn’t you limp a bit afterwards,
fearful to tread my kiss?


And his poems sound so much better in romanian ...

[mat james]

Yes,
they must be beautiful in their mother tongue.

and the more I loved you, the more
they continued, this whirl almost seen,
the structure of matter, the beginnings of things.

"In the beginning was the Word"
It is Biblical, Blake, Hawkins and Watson and Crick and Leonard singing of love,and the rest of us too.
I can see why you relate to these lines, "Swirling Sands".

And I thought the Romanians only did bad politics and gymnastics!

[swirling sands]

And he's so much more than that ...
His poems are the first I read , you could say I grew with them , so i can't help being subjective about him , but , still , I think his poems are ... universal . He mastered the language , so he went on creating new meanings , without forgeting the old ones . In his last years , he just stopped sleeping , writing or doing any other activity besides talking and drinking . He decided to keep his door always opened , just in case eminescu ( who is , by the fact , the romanian national poet ) would stop by and all his works , from that moment on , were only translated by friends of his . That's the time when my father moved to his place ( he was , if i remeber well , his daughter's boyfriend ) , and he lived with him untill he died ( a few months later ) . It must have been a fascinating experience , and it surely marked his life , and , later , mine too ... I think I;ve asked him to tell me about that months they spent together a thousand times .
He was nominated for the nobel prize for literature ( the only romanian , from what i know , that managed to do that )
I will post a link with some more poems of his ... it's really a pity that they weren't all translated in english ( at least not on the internet )
http://www.romanianvoice.com/poezii/poe ... cu_eng.php

[mat james]

And I, the sail of my soul
billowed with longing,
look for you everywhere,

( from "The golden age of Love.)

S.S.
The translation alone is fantastic!
I have a feeling that Leonard Cohen would love this guy!!!!!!!
You found the right forum to share Nichita Stanescu's work.

I will read it all. Thanks for the link, Swirling Sands. Matj