miercuri, 18 ianuarie 2012

Gellu Naum, The Voyage with Stelică



The lips of the lamb were bleeding in the evening chill
when I saw the sun glowing above the sun
I was stepping gingerly on the fur by the foot of the bed
I had a buddy Stelică with an aura of beauty
all around him lizards slithered
dressed in lucent gold

this was called friendship and in it adolescence was rotting away
strands of wire glowed on our fingers and wire words whimpered
                                                                                 in our mouths

we were talking calmly as crickets
when wrapped in his own space Stelică died

I was stunned as I thought of his unavoidable voyage
toward the delta where the great river piles up human ruins
it was raining beneath our supper table
the sun was hiding all alone and Stelică’s brothers were approaching
                                                             pushed on by a surge of love
through the thick fog of the end
shrouded in untanned skins they were singing into their fists
they came to free Stelică from the zinc ship and to wash his bones
but he was whole  unrotten  gone to metal
they kissed his breastbone at dew time
but he had the pallor of death  white horses were coming
                                                      and covered him with leaves
better had they pulled a small curtain over his eyelids

sufficient his death for his mother’s tears and from his cradle
                                                  he’d been reading a book of prayer
an old man washed plums and gave them to him
                                                           and he stopped reading
he said to his mother “suckle me for the last time
since I was a child I loved to be suckled

now we were both walking in the birth lands and ravens were circling
pitiful adolescents we were wandering about
and all around us souls were bemoaning who are you
from your childhood who are you
if you don’t even have the words to tell us who you are
who from your childhood are you”

I taught him to say
“ladies and gentlemen let me introduce myself, Stelică

we were two wretched adolescents he dead from childhood on
we were living in the backwoods  trees were growing on us
their branches gave us shade
we were walking together through the fog of a prenatal swamp
we were asking after a certain Bacuta but no-one knew of him
Stelică was lain out well in a church on a table he was near on floating
                       in his zinc ship edifying our aggressive brotherliness
at dawn some 2000 roosters were singing out their Psalm
each of us took his lover by the hand  we were celebrating
                                                            our golden weddings
we felt a delicate anxiety  a fecund defness
and here we were carrying our brides on our backs to the altar
they sensed a slight shudder they sensed their wombs wetting
they sensed the moon crumbling into a thousand threads
                                                                 and hiding in the grass
we were chewing dirt together with them  the amazon brides
                                                          architects of our shadows
invented by the wind
with necklaces of lead
the gaze of each of them substantiated each of us
star reconciled with silence
through signs of darkness

the ends of the nights was slowly coming
the passing wind wrote on the waves and pushed us ashore
we slithered the best we could toward the fires that had been lit
                                                                 in the courtyards
many years have passed since then  I had evidence of bitter agony

and I stayed there shattered
my hat fallen in the dust

o how long it has been since I saw the sun glowing above the sun


Translated from the Romanian by
Stephen Watts & Claudiu Komartin

2 comentarii:

  1. Acum doua zile , Cum ii ziceam lui Stephen "God bless you" Cum raspundea el " God bless him" Cum zic eu acum "God bless YOU" ...

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