POEME ROMÂNESTI ÎN LIMBI STRĂINE
Tudor ARGHEZI
These Reverberations
I’ve harvested these reverberations,
For you, from mild rumbling dulcifications.
See, barely have the strings lain mute and bereft
Since your lace garments passed by the harp’s weft.
They slid by like a gentle breath of wind.
Forebodings call, arouse and spur my shield.
You have entangled in the strings, like thin ivy,
Rounding their tunes with passion, charming and lively.
I no longer know if my harp plays from the night’s kiss
Or from your rustling thrill in the sighing, quivering bliss,
Like a full-armored tree hollow,
With all your leaves and fine ribbons in glow,
Since there it sneaks, alongside the skylight moon,
Without my will, your lustful stalking loom.
Late Love
No doubt, I’d love you and you’d do so.
My heart says yes, my mind says no.
You assumed the whirl would sweep me readily,
You taught your blaze to comsume me endlessly.
Where have you come from to besiege my being
With stars and thrills replenishing on strings?
You hardly realised and I myself
Minded too late you could be an elf
As old as my daughter’s self.
Love’s excitement, most often foolishly riding,
Would wed the strangest disparaged hidings,
And it would pair the straying ages.
Slender woman, you are passionate, no sages,
You are young, haughty and beauteous.
You want me for your own, oblivious
Of my folks, of your folks, no equal share,
Sacrificed for a woman’s joy and flare.
You deeply wished to unlace your beauty vines,
To conquer me like you enlaced my lines.
Suddenly the frenzy gripped you, there you stood,
Desiring to be wholly mine, now and for good,
Breaking a law, stamping a rule,
Jutting out, ignoring fortune’s tool.
Therefore, suffering was your pay
For all your throbs and lively way.
So I lengthily pretended not to grasp,
Allowing you to stay unsharded, myself unclasped,
I also hurt you advisedly, I entreat for forgiveness,
Though you may wish to curse and scold my crudeness,
From the remoteness that conceals,
With weeping eyes, your thighs rounded with dreams.
English version by Gabriela PACHIA