Writer and translator
In response to the demands of a few Londoners, Oxonians, Romanians, and Floridians that asked me to slam the details of the conference, below is a condensation. On the 4th of October 2018, which is National Poetry Day in the United Kingdom, I attended the National Poetry Day Translation Summit at Senate House in London. … Continue reading LITERARY REPORTAGE: National Poetry Day Translation Summit: The Future of Poetry Translation, Pathways and Practices
Lucian Blaga – Pamantul Pe spate ne-am întins în iarbă: tu şi eu. Văzduh topit ca ceara-n arşiţa de soare curgea de-a lungul peste mirişti ca un râu. Tăcere apăsătoare stăpânea pământul şi-o întrebare mi-a căzut în suflet până-n fund. N-avea să-mi spună nimic pământul? Tot pământu-acesta neindurător de larg şi-ucigător de mut, nimic? … Continue reading Translation: Lucian Blaga, ‘The Earth’
Original: George Bacovia – In Fericire Sunt clipe cand toate le am... Tacute, duioase psihoze - Frumoase povesti ca visuri de roze... Momente cand toate le am. Iata, sunt clipe cand toate le am... Viata se duce-n sir de cuvinte - Un cantec de mult... inainte... Momente cand toate le am... George Bacovia … Continue reading Translation: George Bacovia, ‘In Happiness’
When it snows, it's an event. How could it be anything else, when silence settles on rooftops in glimmering powder? Even your steps grow solemn, tiny geisha steps, and you and the stray puppies draw gasps at every slip backwards on the slush, like rocking horses. "It rains all the time in London, doesn't it?", … Continue reading 28.02.2018
Poet Ana Blandiana, since the 1989 Revolution, has represented an elegant ideology in an era when Romanian political debates have been so fraught and so heated. Through her work with her husband, Romulus Rusan, in the creation of the Memorial of the Victims of Communism and of the Resistance, she has become quite a figure … Continue reading REVIEW: ANA BLANDIANA, The Sun of Hereafter and Ebb of the Senses
In a sphere that has long preferred to showcase the post-communist, impoverished Romania, Serge Ioan Celibidachi’s OCTAV is like an open window, breathing a different sort of cool air into a loaded atmosphere. The film follows the story of Octav Petrescu, played by Marcel Iureș, an elderly man that returns to his childhood mansion in … Continue reading FILM REVIEW: OCTAV
Christopher Villiers strikes one's interest. In Sonnets from the Spirits, a young theologian undertakes an ambitious project: I am reminded of a contemporary philosopher who noted that nothing coming after the New Testament has achieved its beauty. A tiny gameshow host appears on my retina asking, 'will this guy live up to the challenge?'. The … Continue reading DOUBLE Book Review: Sonnets from the Spirits and Petals of Vision by Christopher Villiers
