by Ana Blandiana (b. 1942)
"I set out on my exile into myself,you are my countrywhich I can no longer approach,you are the country where I was bornand learnt to speak,I know only you in the world.I swam in your eyes so oftenreturning to shore with my body all blue,I navigated you so many timeswatching out for the swell that predicts a stormof blood able to drown me at any time,you are my terra firma,only through you can I ascend.You, my master, covered in forestsand dotted with lakes,land that I used to possessand to which I can never returnfrom myself, from my foreignness,dream of me at night sometimes,so that I may enter your cradling sleep,let me live in you at night,as thoughts of dead geniuses live on."(EXILE) Translated by Eveline L. KANES and Mihai ZAHARIA
by Ana Blandiana (b. 1942)
by Ana Blandiana (b. 1942)