POEME ROMÂNESTI ÎN LIMBI STRĂINE

Leonid DIMOV

 

Destiny with Beads

 

The old steamboat rolling two giant paddle wheels

Floats under bridges, through the city weals,

Young ladies sip blue, yellow and green nectars

Sweetly embrangled on the deck washed above pars

And gentlemen in tailcoats and mauve top hats

Keep ebony beads well in hand and wield the chats :

Be they round, red, most slender in their design,

Oval, green, embraced by black strings, they align

Small chiming bells, colourful tassels, knots, lights,

Painted roses, queenly lily flowers, delights

With astounding waltzes, flirty lilac perfumes,

Be they Chinese, with dragons and grim werewolves,

Perhaps French, in pairs dancing rustling gavottes,

Or barbarians, flaunting visions of the Visigoths,

Listen ! What peals of laughter would the ladies loom

On deck ! Look how they untie their ribbons and bloom

When wafted along barren quays and palaces

With monsters in brightly lit windows and aces.

At times like this, at nightfall , when they come off guard,

The strings of beads enkindle phantasies – flambard –

While gentlemen in top hats, blazing in tailcoats,

Furtively smile, all-knowingly, and silently gloat,

And the young ladies would laugh ever louder and sip

Their spiced coffee from fincans with blind ivory tip.

 

(English version: Gabriela PACHIA)

 

 

(English version: Gabriela PACHIA)