So Much Searching

Written by Ion Deaconescu

Translated from Romanian by Veronica Lungu

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Romania

You told me in the phone call
That the last poem
I’ve sent you,
Is put in a Sèvres bowl,
An expensive one, inherited from your grandparents.
You read it from time to time and also caress it
And it smells like fresh earth,
Like a rose before the falling of hoar-frost,
Of dew and rain,
Sometimes it smells like me,
And a little dizzy
You do not know what to do with the page
From where so many vowels and exclamation marks
Are flying to your heart.
Offer it to the wind
And some day, you’ll find it on the threshold,
Yellowish from so much searching.

Ion Deaconescu was born in Tirgu Logresti in the Gorj County, Romania. He graduated at the Faculty of Letters at the Bucharest University and earned his PhD at the Department for Linguistics and Foreign Literature. He has been teaching literature at the universities of Bucharest, Craiova, Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Skopje. Having made his debut as a poet in 1968, he is the author of many poetry collections, the latest translation into English is entitled The Last Wing (2019) published by Cross-Cultural Communications. He is the President of the International Academy Mihai Eminescu and organizes the week-long World Poetry Festival “Mihai Eminescu” every year in Craiova, Romania.

Veronica Lungu was born in Craiova, Romania. She is studying Journalism at the faculty of Journalism and Communication Studies at the University of Bucharest.