Red Lace

Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a poem that, like the work in Translucence, reacts both to photography and to words in a language not your own. Begin with a photograph. Now find a poem in a language you don’t know. Now start translating the poem into English, with the idea that the poem is actually “about” your photograph. Use the look and feel of the words in the original to guide you along as you write, while trying to describe your photograph. It will be a bit of a balancing act, but hopefully it will lead to new and beautiful (and possibly very weird) places.

DANTELA ROŞIE

de ce oare aş vrea să spintec pielea ta ca pe o dantelă roşie
de ce oare aş vrea să îţi ating creierul
să-l ţin în mâini şi să-i spun iată-te în sfârşit iubitule
de ce oare aş vrea să înghit singurătatea ta ca pe o carne crudă
de ce oare l-aş căuta pe dumnezeu doar ca să-i smulg unghiile una câte una
de ce oare aş vrea să-ţi pipăi genele
doar ca să mă-ncredinţez că am contact sexual cu un înger
de ce oare vorbesc ca o femeie pierdută şi prăbuşită sub felinare.

Ruxandra Cesereanu

(Romania)

I wait under the streetlights

For my beloved to come home

He has been away for so long

I can no longer remain alone.

I miss his presence day and night

It has ripped a hole in my heart

And the red lace makes patterns

All over me like a primitive folk art.

I wait forlornly for his ship to anchor

As I stand waiting under the streetlight

And if he does not come back

I guess, this will be my last lonely night.

#napowrimo #day5

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