Nichita Stanescu–Ensitteren

A strange, troubling, haunting poem by Nichita. As far as I can see, I could find absolutely no meaning for "ensitteren." Yes, it does "sound" Nordic and all, but I’ve looked up in a bunch of dictionaries for Nordic languages (granted, I haven’t exhausted them!) and there wasn’t even an approximation of it. Anyone has any idea if this word actually means something? Hint: it means nothing in Romanian. It just sounds…sonorously and very vaguely Germanic.

Honestly, I think Nichita probably had one of those dreams poets have, in which they maybe invent if not a new language, new words, or at least dream up whole pieces of poetry–sort of like Coleridge with his Kubla Khan–and then woke up and wrote this poem, with all its atavistic, Ice-age memories, and its evocative chilly solitude.

The rhyming on this one was a bitch–no, really, it was pure hell, and I still haven’t gotten it right; you’ll see a few odd syllables, or a few extra words thrown in there for the sake of rhyme, such as "flake" in "Nordic frozen flake," which does not appear in the original, but without which I had no chance of getting that rhyme–I tried!–and hey, flake is sort of winterish, right? Despite the sacrifices I made for them, what with inserting whole new words in there, the rhyming Gods deserted me in the third stanza, in which I completely blew it. I simply could not rhyme. Ok, so "ice" and "life" are barely passable as similar end-sounds (barely!), but then the other two would not bend to my will! Confound it!

I also agonized over the "codrul verde" in the last stanza, a phrase that’s as common in Romanian as, say, "apple pie" is in English. It’s a leitmotif of folk songs, and it always means a place of refuge and freedom, and one in which outlaws ("haiduci"–think Eastern-European Robin Hoods, minus the medieval charm and Lady Marion) used to reside. So–is there such a phrase in English? I would very much like to know. "The deep forest"? Something like that? Something that will pick up on some folkloric motif? I simply don’t know!

 

ENSITTEREN de Nichita Stanescu Din nou sunt singur ca o gheata lasîndu-si marginea-n topire, îmbratisat cu o viata a lui " a fi" si a lui "fire" Ensitteren, ensitteren, cuvîntul acesta nordic si-nghetat îmi întareste lacuit, pamîntul cu lacuri în diagonala si brazdat… Ensitteren, sunt singur ca o gheata în care pesti macabri, suspendati la începutul meu de viata, în nemiscare mi-au fost frati sau în tot ceea ce se pierde mai jos, spre Sud, în codrul verde.

ENSITTEREN by Nichita Stanescu Alone I am again like the ice letting its margin go melting, embraced with a life of “to be” and of “being” Ensitteren, ensitteren, this word, this Nordic frozen flake, hardens my earth, all lacquered furrowed with diagonal lakes… Ensitteren,  I am alone like the ice in which macabre fish, suspended at the beginning of my life in their stillness, were my brothers. or in all that will vanish unseen down South, in the woods so green.

Advertisement