IOANA IERONIM

Translating The Tempest


wading across these golden waters of life

measuring the innocence and poetry,
the earth and color of my Romanian mother tongue
against Great Will

discovering that not all the energy of my language
has been used and wasted in silence, in cruelty,
in vain endeavours, in the exercise of survival
through ages of wars
of a death-in-life mode
and timeless shepherds
with their flutes

not all of it forgotten in wooden coffins of totalitarianism
not all of it burned on pyres
not all of it destroyed in the self-hatred of the abused
not all of it worn out while people have just rolled their sleeves
and built
and lost
and built
hope
again
 

Olimpia Malai

Ioana Ieronim
 

A traduce Furtuna

a traduce Furtuna
a trece aceasta apa vie

a masura inocenta si poezia
pamantul si culoarea popriei mele limbi
in fata marelui Will

- a descoperi ca nu toata puterea cuvintelor mele
s-a consumat si s-a risipit in tacere, in cruzime,
in sperante desarte, in exercitiul supravietuirii
in vremuri de razboi
ale unui mod de functionare moarte-in-viata
- si eternii ciobani
cu fluierele lor

n-a fost uitata in sicriele de lemn ale totalitarismului
n-a fost arsa pe rug
n-a fost distrusa de ura celor oprimati
n-a fost roasa de cei cu manecile suflecate
si construita
si pierduta
si construita
speranta
din nou