Two Poems by Ion Monoran

translated from the Romanian by Marius Surleac and Marc Vincenz

Leave the birds
hidden among the cracks
in the brick wall
when day retreats
under the gaslight of first stars
and cannot return;
through its lies,
requests
dangling on regrets,
with sudden collapses
and impulses of deceit,
the wind leafs chlorophyll pages
in arrows and flashes
along disheveled streets,
making those moments on the sidewalk poignant,
though they (the moments) are soon flushed away,
above or below anyway,
through hot water pipes
beneath the pavement.

from Locus Periucundus (1993)

Lasă păsările
ascunse în zidul de cărămidă
printre crăpături
când ziua se retrage
sub lumina de gaz a primelor stele
dar nici nu s-ar mai putea întoarce;
printre minciunile ei
– ca rugăminţi
ce se agaţă de regrete –
cu prăbuşiri bruşte
şi elanuri ce mint
vântul întoarce pagini de clorofilă
burzuluind străzile
cu săgeţi şi fulgere
pe trotuare dând sensuri clipei
dar ele (clipele) dispar
oricum pe sus sau pe jos
prin ţevile cu apă fierbinte
de sub pavaj.

 §

Early morning in blue overalls.

With the roar of steam through pipes
and counter-flow devices, it resembles a boiler room in a tavern. Until now
………..surely the entire Mediterranean Ocean has passed through these ducts.

Twelve hours alone in the basement
of this four-story block. I almost start screaming
when I think of how others made out with their Stefan the Great,^[1]
that proletkultist^[2] hero.

from Like a Vagrant in a Red Sweater (1996)

^[1] Stephen III, Prince of Moldavia, known as Stephen the Great (1435?-1504)
^[2] An organization of cultural societies and avant-garde artists active during the Russian Revolution (1917)

Dimineaţa devreme într-o salopetă albastră.

Parc-ar fi o cârciumă sala cazanelor
cu galopul aburilor prin serpentine şi aparate de contracurent. Până acum
cred că a trecut o Mediterană prin conducte.

Douăsprezece ore singur la subsolul
unui bloc cu patru etaje aproape că-mi vine să urlu
când mă gândesc cum fac alţii din Ştefan cel Mare
un erou proletcultist.

Ion Monoran (1953 – 1993), born in Petroman Village, Timis, Romania, was a poet and publisher. His first poems were published in 1976 in Forum studenţesc magazine. He lectured at the Pavel Dan literary circle of the Student Culture House in Timisoara and collaborated and published with Orizont, Amfiteatru, Echinox, Luceafărul literary journals. None of his books were published during his lifetime. Monoran was an icon of Timişoara’s bohemian artists and became a cultural hero after the revolution. His prizes include the Orizont magazine Poetry prize (1987), ‘Nichita Stănescu’ prize for Contemporary Poetry (1987), the prize for Literary Creation (Satu Mare, 1987) and the Literary Union Debut Prize. For his work, Locus periucundus, he was honored by the municipality of Timișoara. His published collections are: Locus periucundus (Ed. Marineasa, 1994), Ca un vagabond într-o flanelă roşie (Ed. Marineasa, 1996), Eu însumi (Ed. Cartea Românească, 2009) and Dragă poezie (Ed. Brumar, 2014). Translations of his poetry have been published in Asymptote Journal, Solstice, and The Romanian Riveter. In December 2019, the first edition of the Ion Monoran International Poetry Festival took place in Timișoara, Romania.

Marius Surleac is a Romanian scientist, poet & photographer. His translations from English into Romanian, include the poetry of Marc Vincenz, Valzhyna Mort, Peycho Kanev, and in collaboration with Chris Tanasescu he translates works of G. C. Waldrep, Fady Joudah, Cornelius Eady and several others. He has published an original collection of poetry in Romanian: Zeppelin Jack (Herg Benet, 2011) and a bi-lingual collection of translations, The Propaganda Factory, or Speaking of Trees / Fabrica de Propaganda, sau Apropo de Copaci by Marc Vincenz, (Tracus Arte, 2015). His poetry & translations have been published in various journals worldwide amongst which: Pif Magazine, MadHat Lit, The Ilanot Review, Literary Orphans, Asymptote, and Solstice.

Marc Vincenz has published fourteen books of poetry, including more recently, Becoming the Sound of Bees, Leaning into the Infinite, The Syndicate of Water & Light, and Here Comes the Nightdust. Vincenz is also a prolific translator and has translated from German, Romanian and French. He has published ten books of translations, most recently Unexpected Development by award-winning Swiss poet and novelist Klaus Merz (White Pine, 2018) and which was a finalist for the 2016 Cliff Becker Book Prize in Translation. His work has received fellowships and grants from the Swiss Arts Council, the Literary Colloquium Berlin, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Witter Bynner Foundation for Poetry.