CONSTANTIN ACOSMEI

Dizziness: Three Poems

Translated from the Romanian by Gene Tanta

ameţeală

(aşezat pe puntea îngustă spălată de ploaie frecînd una de alta cizmele pline de glod deasupra pîrîului umflat privesc aplecat apa tulbure puturoasă forfotind peste bălăriile de pe mal cărînd la vale vreascuri şi gunoaie – pînă cînd pîrîul se opreşte în loc şi puntea începe să meargă la deal pe deasupra apei cu o iuţeală tot mai mare gata să se izbească într-un pîlc de răchite ivit dintr-o parte azvîrlindu-mă printre crengi în mîl)

dizziness

(sitting on the narrow rain-washed gangplank rubbing my clodded boots against each other above the swollen stream i bend to look at the clouded stinking water rushing over the weeds along the bank carrying tree limbs and garbage downstream - until the stream stops and the gangplank begins to move uphill above the water faster and faster ready to crash into a clump of upturned willow reeds, hurling me through the branches into the mud)

Răstignire

Au sosit odată cu zorii pe lîngă zid şi unul dintre ei a scos din buzunar o bucată de cretă şi a desenat o cruce subţire pe zid. Atunci el s-a apropiat şi ei l-au ajutat să scoată paltonul şi pe urmă l-au răstignit – cu genunchii lipiţi de cruce, cu pieptul lipit de cruce, cu palmele lipite de cruce, cu faţa lipită de cruce. Apoi au plecat unul cîte unul lăsînd zidul în spatele lor şi, după cîteva ceasuri, s-au întors. El respira încet, era viu – şi atunci l-au coborît de pe cruce, i-au scuturat hainele de moloz, l-au ajutat să îmbrace paltonul. Apoi unul dintre ei a şters cu o cîrpă crucea desenată pe zid şi au plecat împreună pe lîngă zid.

Crucifixion

They arrived at dawn at the wall and one of them took a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew a thin cross on the wall. Then he approached and they helped him take off his coat and then they crucified him - with his knees touching the cross, with his chest touching the cross, with his palms touching the cross, with his face touching the cross. Then they left one by one leaving the wall behind them and, after a few hours, they returned. He was breathing slowly, he was alive - and then they took him down from the cross, shook the rubble from his clothes, helped him put on his coat. Then one of them wiped the cross off the wall with a rag and they left together along the wall.

Răstignire

M-a dus în cîrcă pînă pe culmea dealului, gîfîind în timp ce ei îl mînau din urmă. Ajunşi acolo, eu m-am lungit în iarbă – cu braţele desfăcute, cu picioarele întinse. Pe el l-au îmbrîncit peste mine, cu spinarea pe pieptul meu, şi i-au pironit mîinile şi picioarele peste mîinile şi picioarele mele. Apoi m-am ridicat şi am pornit încet la vale. 

Crucifixion

He lugged me to the top of the hill, panting as they drove him from behind. Once there, I spread out in the grass - with my arms wide apart, with my legs stretched out. They pushed him on top of me, with his spinal column on my chest, and nailed his hands and feet over my hands and feet. Then I got up and started slowly heading back down the hill.

Constantin Acosmei was born in Tirgu Neamt, Romania. He holds a BA and a Master's degree in Literature and French from The University of Letters in Iasi, Romania. Mr. Acosmei lives and works as a librarian in Iasi (northeast Romania). All poems are published in Jucaria Mortului, Casa de Pariuri Literare, 2012. Selected poems trans. by Gene Tanta

Gene Tanta, b. 1974 in Timișoara, RO, is a poet/artist/editor/translator whose work attempts to understand memories overwritten by mediation. His practices tend to engage dislocation politics and aesthetics, manifesting in thematic series about historical figures and auto-ethnographic portraits. Tanta earned his MFA in Poetry from The Iowa's Writers' Workshop (2000) and PhD in Creative Writing from UW-Milwaukee (2009). The author, translator, and illustrator of numerous chapbooks, his first poetry book is called Unusual Woods (BlazeVOX Books, 2010). With the support of a Fulbright Grant (2012-13), he edited an anthology titled Romanian Poetry after Communism. His poetry, translations, and visual artwork have been published and exhibited widely: Epoch, Ploughshares, Circumference Magazine, Exquisite Corpse, Present Tense Pamphlet, Ping-pong, The Laurel Review, Columbia Poetry Review, Indiana Review. He is currently teaching in Timisoara on his second Fulbright Grant (2022-23), working to introduce the word/concept of "being patronizing" into the Romanian language.