"When it rains hard on the broad fields
so that mist rises from the broad fields,
they who sleep there become drunk as from wine . . ."
More Perihelion:
Bob Sward's Writer's Friendship Series
A quick list to poets featured in this issue:
translated from the Romanian
by Adam J. Sorkin and the poet
Philo
Robed in your rich robe you stood
the apple blossoms upon your brow
all these the history of the stone and the mind
I was debating whether Philo
beneath the blossoming apple tree I was debating
whether Philo were happy whether
anybody might be eternal whether grief
and humility
illuminated the Universe and I doubted
that it existed but it seems
that doubt is itself existence you had
a diadem of apple blossoms
equally proud and humble the life omnipresent
like the salt of the ocean simply accept
the apple blossoms the sweet slumber
in apple blossoms
were happy
_______________________________________________________________
Chance Disavowed
We, the promised moments,
_______________________________________________________________
Industrial Landscape with Insect
Moment by moment. Millions of tons.
Tick, tick, tick . . .
_______________________________________________________________
Rain on the Fields
When it rains hard on the broad fields
Then, o beloved, shoved up to your neck, sunken
When it rains hard on the broad fields . . .
_______________________________________________________________
translated from the Romanian
by
Adam J. Sorkin and Lidia Vianu
have always existed on other planets
or even distant constellations which
not one of our eyes' rays strikes.
But now, now our eyes' crystal spheres
must decay into dust which diffuses
everywhere throughout the Universe.
Oh, these specks of cosmic dust which once,
just once, had been Me,
will they repudiate forever the chance
by chance disavowed?
translated from the Romanian
by
Adam J. Sorkin
The stone's heart burns--steel
pours out in a stream, like milk
from a milk pail. The thunder of flame.
the ant's heart in the fire-red night.
translated from the Romanian
by
Adam J. Sorkin
so that mist rises from the broad fields,
they who sleep there become drunk as from wine . . .
When it rains hard on the broad fields
and the heart--a solitary quail sheltered
beneath the hill of lead.
into the warm slime of the broad fields, you must come
fumbling as through prenatal night
and offer yourself to those who sleep in the soft clay,
so the mist can catch your scent. A heart is waiting for me
beneath the hill of lead.
Adam Sorkin
Sorkin's translations of contemporary Romanian poetry include eighteen books, recently Medea and Her War Machines by Ioan Flora, published in 2002 in Romania; other recent titles are, from Paralela 45 in Romania, Speaking the Silence: Prose Poets of Contemporary Romania (2001); from BOA Editions, Sea-Level Zero, poems by Daniela Crasnaru (1999); and from Bloodaxe, The Triumph of the Water Witch, prose poems by Ioana Ieronim (2000), which was shortlisted for the Weidenfeld Prize -- the second time his translations have won this honor in the six years of the prize. Bloodaxe will also publish Marin Sorescu's deathbed book of poems, The Bridge, in his collaborative version. His translations have appeared in more than 225 American literary magazines.