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Furry spearsOn its ears The sharpest clawsInside its paws Greedy cat's eyesFlames in disguise Not a rustle, not a breezeAs a herd of deer freeze Hungry,Stretched bow lies in waitThe beastTakes out its clawsWith clenched jawsToo late! Poor deer!Falls without a soundDeath

excerpt I blindfolded the birdsWith a veil of cloudsAnd I told them to catch meAnd the birds caught meWith a song.  . . .  Translated by Adrian Solomon by Marin Sorescu (1931-1996)

My insects have devoured all the peopleAnd on the deserted streets of the city They are parading the spiders and the locusts Are the most constantine They've got perfect serums in wiresAnd are pricking the statue of the magical brother In their hands they carry the

I had entered the forest With other forests on my shoulders My knees were shiningAnd maybe their love was everything Then I told the birds You birdsLet us play phoenixes for whomIn our grey cutaways Above us the sun shook its maneThen night fell in my mouth Translated

In August when the sky fills with bullsAn eagle comes down in the neighborhood And lets me know from the first phone call that he's coming to see me An admirable pyromaniac haunted by firesAnd black serenity covering his feathersHe comes upset by the foreboding of

Animals have well-defined pigeonholes assigned by the traditional Romanian mindset. From wee to huge, all creatures are cast in distinct roles that any inhabitant of temperate geographical areas will recognize: hardworking as an ant (or bee), stupid as a goose, haughty as

see image A widely-spread carnivorous mammal, the fox has been drawn to the attention of the people ever since early Antiquity, remaining throughout the ages the most steadfast symbol of slyness, cunningness, cruelty and cynicism. Totemic animals from one region in the

See Gallery One would wonder why the ox is so preferred by most of the Romanian landscape painters at the turn of the century. One reason is a name, Barbizon. Both Nicolae Grigorescu and Ion Andreescu, the leaders of the generation, were configuring their artistic project

Tomis (the former name of the city of Constantza, Romania, situated on the shore of the Black Sea) is a 2550 year-old Greek city that has a historical past overlain with the constructions of the modern city. The name of the city comes from Constanta, an old quarter of the

Marble statue, slightly purplish. The statue is a true masterpiece, a unique piece, a sort of Venus of Milo of the sculptures representing animals, especially that to this day, there has not been found anything like it anywhere else. The statue represents a fantastic animal

When I was little, during Ceausescu's time, I was lucky to have a godmother in Germany whose mother, Oca, not only was an ideal nanny but she also used to send me wonderful things, which went far beyond a socialist child's imagination. That is how, for my sixth

Cuckoo. . . cu-ckoo!. . . in the garden,Cuckoo. . . cu-ckoo!. . . in the grove,All along the springtime seasonThe world of trees we always rove.  Tiny birds, with gray down feathers,And with our fearless flight,All the trees in our forestKnow and love and see us right.