Translation Tuesday: Introducing Three Young Poets from Romania and Moldova

 

Cristina Discusar

the wall and the window
rooms entering other rooms
and maybe only your grey face
so weak
just like in here
fights the boredom
Saturday
a warm day in January
boats tied to a deck somewhere
and we look perhaps
only at the little white statue
that looks so much like
my mum

Translation: Cristina Discusar

 

Toni Chira

I didn’t even get to rejoice,
When everybody else was already grasping the slope of excess
I come back with consumerist poetry, with an inflatable hedgehog,
Captive between my ribs,
With a chaotic dance: hands-feet-hands,
With the typhoon controlled from caravans
And gas masks.
The image of the girl with short hair.
The pace at which we existed from morning till night
And afterwards.
The insistence that found me greedy,
Well stuck with my cheeks in a pillow.

I’m back with the end-of-year celebrations,
With the imaginary boy and the masses of people
Bursting into the banquet hall,
With Duchamp’s urinal and his passion for nonconformism,
With the perforated vest and the bullet found in his chest pocket.

Translation: Andreea Popescu

 

Simina Popescu

Our children will grow
From the soil on our faces.
I lock the window,
Then the head of a match
Begins to burn like holy water
What about the leaves
That fall from your body?
Shall I glue it like a spoon
On my forehead
And walk on my hands
Only to wipe juices from the pavements?

Sometimes when I look at myself

I can see a dog begging
For a piece of bread.

Translation: Natalie Nera

 

About the Authors:

Cristina Dicusar (1993) is a young poet from Chisinau, The Republic of Moldova. She published her first poems in the „Clipa” magazine and in a poetry collection: „Casa Verde”/„The Green House”. Now she is writing her PhD with a thesis on contemporary Romanian poetry. She read at various literary clubs: The “Vlad Ioviță” Workshop (Chisinau, Republic of Moldova), “Tram 26” (Romania), “Mihail Ursachi” House of Culture (Romania), Bar Behind the Curtains (Czech Republic), Prague Writers’ Club (Czech Republic), Beseda Castle, Švrček Theater, (Slovakia) etc.  She is member of the “Vlad Ioviță” Creative Writing Workshop and of the “Republica” Cenacle.

Toni Chira (2003) is a teenage talent from Bucharest, Romania. He has co-organised the TRILL Cenacle, the Online Poetry Marathon 2020 and SAD Festival. His poems have been published in the magazines Poesis International and Vatra. He is the winner of the Poetry Prize at the 2019 edition of the Young Writers’ Colloquia.

Simina Popescu is a 19- year old poet and translator from Bucharest, Romania. She is a 12th-grade student at the National Bilingual College “George Coșbuc”. Currently, she is preparing for the University of Fine Arts. She took part in various literary activities such as a creative writing workshop lead by Ciprian Chirvasiu, which resulted in the publication of collective anthology (Grădina din mansardă/ “The Garden in the Attic”), that included some of her poems. Her poems have also appeared in “Actualitatea Literară”, e Czech literary periodical  „Husitské Světlo”, the Slovak periodical „Holičské Noviny”. Also, she is also part of the international poetic project “Cadena Magica” coordinated by Olga Walló.