The placid and ferocious lion as it tears a fawn to pieces!
And whenever I close my eyes or switch off the telly,
I feel that I participate less in the crime,
Even though the candle of life
Will always need blood to go on burning –
The blood of another.
Less guilty, though not innocent,
I sat at table with the hunters,
Nevertheless, I loved to caress the long and silky
Ears of hares
Lying in stacks, like a tumulus
On top of an embroidered tablecloth.
Guilty, even though I didn’t
Pull the trigger,
And I covered my ears
Horrified by the sound of death
And by the smell of the shameless sweat of the hunters who fired the shots.
Less guilty, though not innocent,
In any case more innocent than you,
The author of this pitiless perfection,
Who set up this design
And afterwards, taught me to turn the other cheek.
*
Carnival
He covers himself in motley
And passes from leaf to leaf
In his brilliant disguise, gently
To convince them that flying does no harm,
That the freedom will make them thrive.
And then he lets them go.
Set loose for the very first time in their lives,
They find the experience charms,
As though they were never going to die.
But then, they do.
And he, who dressed them up
To take their lives away,
Is left there alone, covered all in motley,
Like a clown
In a world that’s suddenly grown
Too big,
Between the cathedral and the square,
Alone, unable to die
Even though he knows how to fly.
*
On Roller Skates
They trundle by on roller skates
With earphones droning in their ears
And their eyes glued to monitors,
Unaware that the leaves are falling now
And the birds are flying away.
They trundle by on roller skates
While the seasons roll over in the whispering air above them.
Lives,
Years, centuries,
And they never understand.
They trundle by on roller skates,
Darting among the shadows of reality –
Shadows they believe to be real
And characters they think are men,
Mechanical devices
Created by other mechanical devices
In their image and likeness
While God
Comes down
And learns to roller skate
In order to save them.
*
Prayer
God of the dragonflies, of nocturnal moths,
Of larks and owls,
God of earthworms and scorpions,
Of kitchen cockroaches,
God that has taught each one something different
And who knows beforehand what will happen to them all,
I’d like to know what you felt
When you settled
On the sizes
Of their poisons, colours and perfumes,
When you placed a song in one beak
And a cackle in another,
Murder in one soul and ecstasy in another,
I’d give anything to know
If you felt remorse
For making some of them victims and
Others hangmen,
Equally guilty before them all
Because all of them were born with a fait accompli.
God of guilt, for having decided on your own
The ratio of evil and good,
The scales trembling always in a delicate balance
Above the wounded body
Of your son, who
Does not resemble you at all.
*
Country of Unease
This is the country of unease,
Always about to change its mind
Any second now
Without, however, giving up hope of
Some indefinite possibility.
This is my native land,
Between these walls
The handful of metres between
And not even all of them –
Alone at the desk with paper and pencils
Ready to move on their own and begin to write,
Skeletons brought suddenly to life by ancient feathers
Unused for ages, the glue dried out –
They scribble in a frenzy on the paper
And leave no trace…
This is the country of unease:
Will I manage some day
To decipher these traces that no one can see
But that I know are there, and waiting
For me to write them out
In my native land: A4?
Contents List
Print edition only includes the English translations. E-book with audio is a bilingual Romanian-English edition with most of the poems read in Romanian by Ana Blandiana.
11 Ana Blandiana: The Country Beyond the Country (translators' introduction)
Patria Mia A4 / My Native Land A4
28 În frescă *
29 In the Frescoes
30 Ce greu e să mângâi *
31 How Hard It Is to Caress
32 Animal Planet *
33 Animal Planet
34 Clepsidră
35 Hourglass
36 Carnaval *
37 Carnival
38 Stăpânul morii
39 The Owner of the Mill
40 Povestea din calendar *
41 The Tale of the Calendar
42 Vânătoare în timp *
43 Hunt in Time
44 Aglomeraţie *
45 Agglomeration
46 Biserici închise *
47 Closed Churches
48 Afară, pe coline *
49 Out in the Hills
50 Ca într-o oglindă
51 As Though in a Mirror
52 Exorcizare *
53 Exorcism
54 Atmosferă *
55 Atmosphere
56 Pe role *
57 On Roller Skates
58 Cap sau pajură *
59 Heads or Tails
60 Faguri *
61 Honeycombs
62 Ca un elastic *
63 Like a Rubber Band
64 Sfârşit de sezon *
65 Season’s End
66 Cureaua rucsacului *
67 The Strap of the Rucksack
68 Chihlimbar *
69 Amber
70 Biografie *
71 Biography
72 Tiptil *
73 On Tiptoe
74 Dincolo de mine *
75 Beyond This Self
76 Timpan *
77 Eardrum
78 Stelă *
79 Stele
80 Uimirea *
81 Wonder
82 Recunoaşteri *
83 Recognitions
84 Seminţe de piatră *
85 Seeds of Stone
86 Aşteptare *
87 This Wait
88 Portret de grup *
89 Group Portrait
90 Joc *
91 Game
92 Lumina ascunsă *
93 The Hidden Light
94 Trepte *
95 Stair Steps
96 Deflorare *
97 Deflowering
98 Porumbei *
99 Pigeons
100 Pe suprafţa universului *
101 On the Surface of the Universe
102 Deasupra râului *
103 Above the River
104 Rugăciune *
105 Prayer
106 Serafim *
107 Seraphim
108 Numărătoare *
109 Multiplication Table
110 Singuri *
111 Loneliness
112 Pantă *
113 The Slope
114 Scară *
116 Stairway
118 Dulce confuzie *
119 Sweet Confusion
120 El *
121 He
122 La violoncel *
123 At the Cello
124 Între mine şi el *
125 Between Him and Me
126 Un personaj transparent *
127 A Transparent Being
128 Din 7 în 7 *
129 Every 7 Years
130 Paiantă *
131 Hollow Walls
132 Rană *
133 The Wound
134 Sâmburele de întuneric
135 Seed of Darkness
136 Recviem *
142 Requiem
148 Cireşi amari *
149 Black Cherries
150 Mistere *
151 Mysteries
152 Insulă *
153 Island
154 O continuă pierdere *
155 Continual Loss
156 Paralele *
157 Parallels
158 Reconstituiri *
159 Restorations
160 Un bocet *
161 Lament
162 Patria neliniştii *
163 Country of Unease
165 Poetry Between Silence and Sin (essay by Ana Blandiana)
