ONE WITH THE EARTH  

Written by Cassian Maria Spiridon

Translated from the Romanian by Olimpia Iacob

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Romania

 

 I, too, shall be—

             I have no doubt about that—

one with the earth

             I tread

with certain footsteps

 

I shall listen to others who

              in turn

will go across me

self-assured in their eternity

           

tomorrow is here

when the deaf bells

will no longer resound

for me

their harmonious tongues

will be mute

like a water hole

that swallows the Moon

 

We go forward

with reconciled hearts

we shall listen

to the horn sounding for us

                 some strange cantata

between the counterpoints

 

Cassian Maria Spiridon graduated from the Faculty of Mechanics of the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest. He founded the new series of Timpul Review as well as Timpul Publishing House which he has operated since 1995. He also founded Poezia, a poetic-cultural magazine. Since 1995, he has been the director of Convorbiri Literare. He is a member of the Writers’ Union of Romania, of the Society of Romanian Journalists, and of the Association of Romanian Journalists, and a  member of The European PEN-Club.

He has published over 50 volumes of poetry, criticism, and essays. He has been invited to poetry national and international festivals such as the International Poetry Festival of Medellin, Columbia; The Month of Romanian Culture of Marseille, France; The Meeting of the Poets of the Latin World, Mexico; The International Poetry Festival of Havana, Cuba; the Mediteranian Poetrz Festivale Voix Vivre, Sete, France; and the 3th Edition of Tianshui, China. He has been awarded many prizes and distinctions, and his poetry has been translated into more than 20 languages and published in various anthologies at home and abroad.

 

Olimpia Iacob  graduated from the Faculty of Letters of the “Al. I. Cuza” University from which she earned a Ph.D. in 2000 with a dissertation entitled Translation Theory Applied to the Poetry of Nichita Stanescu.  Her book-length translations include works in poetry by Cassian Maria Spiridon (translated with Jim Kacian), Gabriel Stanescu, Mircea Petean (translated with Bill Wolak) Daniel Corbu (translated with Jim Kacian) Marius Chelaru (translated with Gabriel Rosenstock), George Vulturescu (translated with Adam J. Sorkin). She is a member of the Writers’ Union of Romania.