Winter Impressions    

At the wall licked clean by the snow's assiduous tongue
the soldier's tall boots stand sentry.
He himself has retreated into the Radio Building to get warm.
An unremarkable winter scene,
not in the least worthy of some modern Breughel's eye.
Nevertheless, here at the boundary between the necessary
and the useless, a cat has had her kittens
in one of the soldier's boots.
The small shapes, their new eyes still blind to winter,
to the absence around them,
turn small pink mouths
toward the hot belly of the present.
The skein of life unwinds. Spatters of milk
flicked from their white whiskers melt the ice
drop by drop.

 

Impresii de iarnă   

L�ngă zidul lins de limba harnică a zăpezii
soldatul şi-a lăsat uriaşii p�slari de veghe.
El a intrat �n Radio să se �ncălzească.
O scenă normală de iarnă
nedemnă de vreun Breugel modern.
Şi totuşi
la graniţa dintre necesar şi inutil
�n uriaşii p�slari a născut o pisică.
Micuţele forme cu ochi orbi la iarna din jur,
la absenţă,
�şi �ndreaptă boturile roz
spre p�ntecele fierbinte al prezentului.
Ghemul de viaţă, stropii de lapte
topesc gheaţa
puţin c�te puţin.

A Parrot Dreaming    

A bright yellow parrot screams
in a black cage.
With each scream, he strikes the bars
as he flies. And keeps flying,
strumming until the bars run red,
staining the sunset. The exhausted bird
can hardly breathe, dreaming
of freedom, an exercise of flight
glimpsed between the bars.
Even the grass shrieks
as his feathers, suddenly gray,
fall to earth. In the same way,
any featherless heart
heaped under snow
may, in the brief freedom
of a prayer, be resurrected
breath by breath.


 

Un papagal visează   

Un papagal galben ţipă
�ntr-o colivie neagră.
Se izbeşte de gratii
şi zboară. Şi zboară.
P�nă ce gratiile se �nroşesc.
O flacară din s�nge
plutind
�n �nserare.
Pasărea ostenită
abia mai răsuflă
vis�nd libertatea,
un exerciţiu de zbor �ntre gratii.
P�nă şi iarbă ţipă
sub penele �ncărunţite brusc.
Inima golaşă tot astfel
se pierde �n zapadă
şi �nvie in libertatea
unei rugăciuni.

Small Fires in the Dusk    

Is it the whisper of wild strawberry leaves
that baptizes the earth with sweet-scented light?
I bow over the moon's contour, white on the page,
this eggless nest woven of words.

The hollow paw-print of a fox in the soft green moss�
a transitory, wild impression,
like their living absence, the departed
brushing my ankle.


 

Mici văpăi �n asfinţit   

Ce foşnet al rugului cu fragi
botează păm�ntul cu o �nmiresmată lumină?
M-aplec peste conturul lunii albind pe pagină,
cuibul cu cuvinte.

Urma vulpii �n muşchiul �ncă verde
e o scurtă, sălbatică apăsare
asemeni atingerii de suflet
a dragilor plecaţi.

Dream in the River�s Mouth    

Surrounded by an island of stones and grass,
I was dreaming in the river's mouth
when a horse, led by an old peasant,
lowered its head
to quench its thirst.

I was dreaming in the river's mouth
here at the foot of a blue mountain
stabbed high into the evening's last word.

Oh, the light of the old man's smile
when he asked me to hold his horse
so he too could drink the crystalline water!
I trembled at the life force
that surged in the young animal's body,
my hand at the bridle,
hardly daring to move next to
such poised beauty.

Bees encircled us with the balm of their buzzing,
small nuggets of gold embroidery glinting into
my solitude in the mountains.

Suddenly this landscape
slips to another:  narrow lanes, houses
peeking from behind other houses
cascading to the sea.
Ah, Lisbon,  city with a thousand lives.
Yellow trolleys climb steep hills.
The town fans out at my feet
and from high above, I see the brown despair
of the old cafe where Pessoa
used to sip espresso, or absinthe.

A wind like a gust of joy
envelops me
the moment I kneel
in the church of Saint Anthony
under the sky of his childhood,
where he dashed through streets rich with spices,
past palaces wreathed by orange groves
toward the Mar de palha, a sparkling bay
bright with spinnakers.

And how strong the Temptation
must have been, almost irresistible�
how great the boy's power
when, with his finger, young Anthony
dug the sign of the cross
into the stone of the church.

Dreaming in the river's mouth,
I return home to my island
of stones and grass, the sweet
spring grass of lambs.

 

Vis �n Gura R�ului   

Eram �n vis, la Gura R�ului
�nconjurată de pietre şi de iarbă,
l�ngă calul adus de batr�nul ţăran
să-şi potolească setea,
l�ngă muntele albastru �nfipt
�n ultimul cuv�nt al verii.

C�tă lumină �n z�mbetul bătr�nului
c�nd m-a rugat să-i ţin calul
p�nă ce bea şi el apă din r�u
iar eu, temătoare de forţa vieţii
din trupul animalului t�năr
abia �ndrăzneam să mă mişc
pierdută �n at�ta calmă frumuseţe.
Albinele ne �nconjurau cu zumzetul lor,
pepite brod�nd cu aur
singurătatea mea din munţi.

Şi deodată
peisajul acesta alunecat �n altul,
cu străzi �nguste
şi case ascunse una �ntr-alta
cobor�nd vijelios spre mare.
Era Lisabona,
oraşul cu o mie de vieţi.
Tramvaie galbene urcau strada abruptă,
de sus aveam oraşul la picioare
şi puteam zări disperarea
din vechea cafenea
unde Pessoa �şi sorbea vinul.

O boare uşoară ca o bucurie
m-a cuprins
c�nd am �ngenuncheat
�n biserica Sf�ntului Anton
sub cerul �n care copilărise
alerg�ind pe străzile cu mirodenii
spre golful Marea de Pai cel cu sute de catarge,
apoi pe l�ngă palatele �nconjurate de portocali.

Şi c�t de puternică
trebuie să fi fost Ispita
şi c�t de mare forţa t�nărului Anton
c�nd degetul său a săpat semnul crucii
�n piatra bisericii pentru noi
cei cu solzi mulţi peste pleoape
pipăind cu m�ini păcătoase Cerul,
marele semn al M�ntuirii.

M-am �ntors
�n iarba mieilor, de acasă
�n Gura R�ului.

Liliana Ursu has published eight books of poetry in Romanian, most recently Lift Up Your Hearts (2002).  Her first book in English, The Sky Behind the Forest (Bloodaxe, 1997), translated by Ursu, Sorkin, and Gallagher, became a British Poetry Book Society Recommended Translation and was shortlisted for Oxford�s Weidenfeld Prize. Ursu has twice been Fulbright Lecturer at Penn State�s University Park campus. In fall 2003, she was Poet-in-Residence at the Bucknell�s Stadler Center.