Translation Tuesday: Poems by Felix Nicolau

"had no idea literature is about what you drink / with whom and where when I found that out I was already too old"

rhumba

the tapping july hail

puts me in mind

of how this salsa dancer used

to break my windows twice a month

with the stiletto flipped off her lil left foot

Translation Tuesday: Poems by Andra Rotaru

Searing poems by Romanian poet Andra Rotaru, translated by Florin Bican

36 days

less than 36 days since we haven’t talked to each other.

by less

than 360 degrees can the body rotate still.

and, there –

when we no longer know.

I had before my eyes the heavy skin.

it had uncovered itself thoroughly,

like some sort of shock-proof wood.

it had developed a sheen and enamel.

it had sunk deep into the earth

since the earth patch I’m standing on

has the hue of a man’s flesh

since my skin’s ever whiter

do not wake up. a man’s body is attaining perfection.

green wood turns to black wood,

the texture gets rougher.

I’d stir my hands and they’d uncover themselves

I’d press them till neither the blood nor the lymph.

then, after a lengthy detour from my own body,

they’d fill up my tissues, they’d pile up,

no induration, nor rubber wood,

but soft wood we can keep banging on.

you tell me take care what you dream.

since the earth patch I am standing on

has the hue of a man’s flesh

since my skin’s ever whiter.

"Translators should pay better attention than any other reader, and the translator should be at least as creative as the original author."

What is your favorite word in any language? Which word do you find most difficult to translate?

mda.

I don’t translate words, but works, authors, “the whole surround.”