Poems by Dorin Cozan
translation in English by Corina Gina Papouis
♣
I
have no strength when I see this woman
I have no strength
when I see this woman
The way her finger
brushes her lips,
The way she lowers
it among the pages
Scattering their words
within the grass
Like a swan its wings
in the red and soft sun.
Don’t rush talking
to her in birds’ tongue, I order myself
Nor sing to her a child’s
prayer from the chestnut leave
Thus, in a gallop,
over sheets of paper, the knight stretches his arm rigidly,
A snare to the innocent
sparrow
With a frail finger
she oppresses the lips of this poem,
And they are enjoying
the whipping of the purple hair
Which she threw, like
the fisherman his trawl, ahead of the gallop.
I have no strength
since she raised her eyes,
And their spear was
released through my ribs
Towards the thicket
of the lake,
Where the mud swallows
the lines of a patched up boat.
(on the shore, the
fish are throwing themselves, burned by this light and there they lay)
oh happy ones, for
you found your pursuit in her path!
Alas myself, for there’s
no strength in me to eat and to drink
When I see this woman
and words are falling out of my mouth
Like some crumbs for
the stray dogs
Like some flowers thrown
on the water
♣
In vain I cry and despair
In vain I cry and despair
In vain I tore myself
into pieces and offered myself to you
While my blood carries
you like an ark
I am the lunatic who
tied himself to the lighthouse
The one who stares
into you and forgets about things and their names
I’ve been left
hanging here from one of your hair locks, pray to the living
With my mouth covered
when you appear
With wisps of hair
in my hands when you approach me
Your eyes burn like
the cigarette lit in my palm
And the body twists
like a lamb’s under the knife
What’s the matter,
you lunatic? I say to myself
What do you see? Who’s
frightening you to slobber and blubber
In a foreign tongue?
Then I pour ash over
my head
dress up in clothes
of shame
And tell the stones:
“ – feed
me!”
then the rocks:
“-sooth my thirst!”
and they take pity
on me
and I eat it all up
and go to sleep happy
♣
Lied for black orchid with open window
Today, when I don’t
belong to myself,
And I curse the making
of the world
I think of you as a
fire
And stretch my hands.
But my hands are not
mine anymore
They belong to the
sword, to the shield
To the earth they belong
The earth I’m
dragging myself from towards you
Inch by inch
Like rocking arms
Like roots of an olive
tree
Towards the ribs of
a baby whimpering in his sleep
But this flesh doesn’t
know any more
Gathered before you,
unfolded,
A bones’ prayer
jerking in its sleep.
My mouth opens in vain
And spiders are stretching
their obedient wire
You burn like a flame
in front of the mirror
And my shadow is steaming
Is sizzling, is cracking
the mirror.
Nothing to be done
I raise the sword and
the shield above my head
And cows and haystacks
are flying
Cars, roofs, covers
Metal beaks are hitting
my arm
The arm you once glued
yourself to with your heart
In fact, you were properly
glued, like scabies
Like a funky sticker
with wind-roses and crosses
It was, I remember
it well, the great discoveries era
I was gathering wood
for the fire under the inquisiting nose of Torquemada
One hand only I had
One mouth only I had
And one eye only grinning
towards itself
Today, when there’s
nothing I have
Like a lunatic tied
by his hands I watch your breasts
I would make love with
this body
And then, breaking
the chain, I’d strangle it
And under this ember
Eyes, popping out of
the sockets, would burst
Like a black orchid
in the middle of winter
I would then lay down
by your side
I would comb your hair
Singing softly
By the open window.
♣
