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)