Război
Liniștea unui gând
Echivalentă cu viața noastră
Se prăbuși, sfărâmându-se fără urmă,
Se pierdu printre norii zbuciumați ai vremii.
Ea, răspunsul vechilor strigăte,
Din orașele albe,
Nu mai aduce frumoasa liniște de departe.
Clopotul alarmei rupe noi gânduri.
Vai, cât de scurtă fu liniștea!
Jungla iar fierbe în razele soarelui,
împroșcată din plin cu săgeți de foc.
Fantome trec salutându-ne
Cu zâmbetul morții pe față,
Răpindu-ne mica noastră liniște,
cu ea și pe careva dintre noi.
[Poate veți voi cândva]
Poate veți voi cândva
să vă recăpătați echilibrul
citind versuri serioase
și, râzînd mai zgârcit,
veți spune că nu vă mai poate opri nimeni . . .
Și dacă n-ar fi cineva
mai înțelept,
n-ar exista pisma și ura,
și dacă n-ar exista
cineva mai bun, mai blând,
nu s-ar mai încălca normele
oamenilor
și n-ar mai exista nimeni,
ideal fiind solul
cu oasele strânse grijuliu.
Dacă n-ar mai fi cei
care ne mai strigă încă de departe,
aprinzându-ne sângele în vine,
s-ar lăsa marea tăcere,
din care nu se mai nasc nicicând lucrurile.
Două Poezii
Leonard Tuchilatu
Listen to "[Maybe someday you’d like]" read in the original Romanian by the translator:
Leonard Tuchilatu’s poetry focuses on metaphysical questions of life and death, war, and his identity as a Romanian-speaking Moldovan in the context of the Soviet Union’s policies of cultural repression in its republics. Tuchilatu’s identity is often wrapped in allegorical language that revolves around the landscapes and nature of his homeland. His style is sparse and discreetly ironic. For a translator, his use of metaphors demands creativity and decisiveness. This makes translating his poems challenging and particularly rewarding.
Leonard Tuchilatu (10 November 1951–4 November 1975) was a poet from Moldova, a former Soviet republic. He died of an incurable illness at twenty-four, after being subjected to disciplinary punishments during mandatory army service in the Soviet Union. Despite his short career, the poet has gathered an important following among several generations of Moldovan poets. Many of Tuchilatu’s poems were written in the last few years of his short life, when he was aware of his impending death. His work was published posthumously: Sol (Messenger; Literatura Artistică, Chișinău, 1977), Fata Morgana (Fata Morgana; Literatura Artistică, Chișinău, 1989) the anthology Sol. Fata Morgana (Messenger: Sol. Fata Morgana; Glasul, 1996), Orchestrele dimineții (Morning Orchestra; Prut internațional, 2021) and the bilingual (Romanian/Russian) collection Rapsodie (Rhapsody; Glasul and Crater, 2001).
Irina Hrinoschi is a Romanian-Swiss writer, filmmaker and translator. She writes in English, German and Romanian. She is currently working on a documentary film and a collection of poetry translations by Leonard Tuchilatu with poet and translator Romana Iorga. Her writing has appeared in The Common, Random Sample Review and La Piccioletta Barca. You can find her poetry translations in SAND and The Los Angeles Review. She was recently featured in The Common 2024 Festival of Debut Authors. On Instagram she is @hrinoschi.
