Monthly Archives: October 2007

Mircea Cartarescu–Let’s make love, kera-mu

Posted on October 30, 2007 by

I haven’t posted in a while, a pernicious side-effect of having relatives from overseas addicted to computer access and holding on to your laptop for all the twelve days they are here, an evil act they justify with their wet … Continue reading →

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George Bacovia–July

Posted on October 23, 2007 by

It’s a delayed, sticky Indian summer here–otherwise known as global warming–and everything feels unnatural (Halloween is in a few days, and it’s still flip-flop and T-shirt weather–tell me that’s not messed up!). Naturally, my thoughts turned to my favorite morbid … Continue reading →

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Mircea Cartarescu–The Wound

Posted on October 21, 2007 by

I read this, and thought, hey, everything I could ever want to say, Cartarescu has said before, 1000 times better. Honestly, sometimes I think he’s my twin metaphysical soul (we’re both tortured Geminis, after all). God, I love him. RANAde … Continue reading →

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Me, in translation

Posted on October 19, 2007 by

From what I hear, writers are not very fond of translating their own work. I can understand that with large novels (who wants to write in excess of 200 pages all over again? The impulse to re-write rather than translate … Continue reading →

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Mircea Cartarescu–When you need love

Posted on October 18, 2007 by

I like this one because… who hasn’t felt like this every once in a while? There are no linguistic treasons there, the text is deliberately simple, almost primal in its raw emotion, barred of any artifice. CAND AI NEVOIE DE … Continue reading →

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Alexandru Andries–The most beautiful day

Posted on October 16, 2007 by

This is the video for this beautiful, heartbreaking song by Alexandru Andries. My translation does not enhance it one bit, and in fact it might be hard to sing it seamlessly in the English version (one would have to try … Continue reading →

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In the style of Robert Burns–Winter days with pants

Posted on October 15, 2007 by

And now, for something completely different: a change of pace today, as I’m trying my hand at an English>Romanian translation, and as is my wont, I pick a largely untranslatable text. Via the most excellent blog Whoopee, I found this … Continue reading →

Posted in English>Romanian, Funny | 3 Comments

Nichita Stanescu, or the impossibility of translation

Posted on October 15, 2007 by

Every once in a while, I attempt to translate something that just won’t translate. It will stubbornly cling to its Romanianness, or whatever it is, like a leech to the skin; peeling it off inexpertly will possibly infect the skin … Continue reading →

Posted in Life in translation, Nichita Stanescu | 1 Comment

George Toparceanu–Autumn in the park

Posted on October 14, 2007 by

This is a sweet, funny poem, typical of Toparceanu’s lyrical sensibility. It’s also perfectly seasonal, seeing as to how, finally, fall has come around here, after a prolonged, humid, smelly, insufferable summer. I learned this poem from my father (who … Continue reading →

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Mircea Cartarescu–Levantul (1)

Posted on October 11, 2007 by

Oh boy, here goes I’ve been working on this for quite a while, and it’s still so maddeningly frustrating. What is it? Oh, just something that, I think, is of the most brilliant Romanian pieces of writing of the past … Continue reading →

Posted in Mircea Cartarescu-Levantul | 2 Comments