POEME ROMÂNESTI ÎN LIMBI STRĂINE
Anghel DUMBRĂVEANU
Something Worth Missing a Ship
We would draw closer and withdraw through the saline air,
In the boreal solitude, disoriented between the sea’s tympans.
Your bent knee was thrilling my lips
With its thawy hoarfrost freshness,
Your herbaceous hair was redolently streaming over me
Leaving me unable to depart, yet the ship
Was still calling from the high seas. There is something
Saddening in this, I pondered. We had been hibernating
In bearskins. – The horses were rubbing their croupes
Against the sky’s edge. There is something saddening in this,
It is your bosom, the secluded oval enmeshed in my breath.
Hitherto, I could have sailed far. The seafarer
Has once more sunk his pipe in the waves. I shall carry
All the darkness to the windmill. Water lilies root in mud
And the evening star rises from the sea equally divine.
The star oarsman promenades among you. Bending for mysteries,
Your knee – the pure idea of a bow. Woman –
A delightful trap. And her mouth is pressed against my shoulder.
The foghorn no longer sounds, foretelling
The Moon’s exit from bolgias luna din bolgii. Hitherto,
I could have sailed far. There is something saddening in the pellucidity
Of this young dolphin, warmly turning to me in her sleep.
There is something saddening that vanquishes me,
Something that immolates my lifespan, my love or my death,
Something worth missing a ship.
(English version: Gabriela PACHIA)