Posts tagged Claudia Serea

Here are the poems from the series My father’s quiet friends in prison, part of the chapbook The System published recently. You can listen to the first poem here: http://www.bluestemmagazine.com/?p=2206

My father’s quiet friends 1958-1962

Craiova, Gherla, Giurgiu, Salcia, Periprava

1. The gruel

 I’m lumpy, lukewarm, and gray,

and you could use me for glue,

mortar, or clay.

Inside your cupped hands,

I breathe my steam,

soft as a prayer.

Dip your tin spoon

inside me.

Lift me

to your hungry lips.

You don’t have to like me.

2. The blanket

I can’t protect you from nightmares,

or from the hands that grab you in the dark

and push you back

into the beating room.

Forgive me.

I’m so thin,

worn to threads by the bodies

I covered before you,

I can’t even protect you

from the cold.

But I can offer you my checkered field

where you can move the armies

made of bread,

molded with saliva

and hardened

into soldiers,

horses, bishops, towers,

and queens.

At last, this battle is yours to win.

3. The piece of glass

You guard me with your life.

You spit on me

and smear me

with shavings of soap,

and sprinkle lime dust

from the walls

until I have a new,

smooth skin.

Now I’ve become a surface

for poems

and equations

with multiple unknowns.

Today’s lesson is French,

taught in whispers.

Write down the words

with a sharp twig

and repeat them.

No one can wipe them

off your mind:

Je suis,

tu es,

il est.

I am.

You are.

He is.

We are.

4. The small stone

All you need

is a stumble

even if earns

you a boot

in the ribs.

And you pick me up,

hide me

under your tongue,

and carry me inside.

I’m your phone,

your postcard,

your smoke signal,

the only one who can talk

through ceilings and walls

and send a coded message

to the man released today:

Ring the bell

to my mother’s house

and tell her

I’m alive.

5. The moon

I come to look at you at night

to see if you’re still

curled on your cot.

Thousands of years,

I witnessed

the butchering of men

called history.

I can’t help anyone.

I rise,

stir the howls in wolfs,

and swell the tides,

but I can’t pull you out

from your brother’s

murderous arms.

I can only hold

your hope

coins

in a tin cup

in the sky.

Welcome to the National Translation Month!

This is a new project initiated by Loren Kleinman who asked me to guest-edit a month-long celebration of translation for the PCCC blog. I hope it will catch on and become a regular feature, much in the same way that National Poetry Month in April has become. During the month of February, I will post essays about the craft of translation and poetry translations from various languages requested specifically for this project from fellow translator contributors.

Here are the first 2 installments: Adina Dabija and Hafez. Enjoy!

The System, a new chapbook just published by Cold Hub Press, New Zealand. You can order it here: http://www.coldhubpress.co.nz/coldhubpress.co.nz_/The_System_~_Claudia_Serea.html

The System

1.

The small

toothed wheel

turns,

bites

and makes

another steel

wheel spin.

They hum,

lock,

and click

inside

the machine

that crushes,

mills,

makes paste,

shapes,

packs,

and delivers

the new man.

2.

—Where’re you going, lamb?

— Nowhere, Ma’am.

—What do you remember, lamb?

—Nothing, Ma’am.

—Lamb, who slaughters you?

Who skins and sells you?

—The masters, Ma’am.

— Lamb, who buys you?

Who roasts your ribs into a crown

and eats you?

—Everyone else, Ma’am.

The whole world, Ma’am.

3.

Rumors travel

from mouth to mouth.

I hear there are fields

where I can lie in the grass,

press my ear

to the mouth of the earth,

against its clay lips,

and listen

to the thousands of voices

murmur and pray

in the wind.

It’s been an incredible year! I am very happy to announce the publishing of my new chapbook The System. The publisher is Cold Hub Press from New Zealand. This 40-pages collection means a lot to me because it’s inspired by my father’s experience as a political prisoner in Communist Romania and it speaks out against repression systems everywhere.

My chapbook is now available on the publisher’s web site:

Here are some videos from my reading with Adina Dabija at JujoMukti Tea Lounge. Many thanks to Mike Markham who made them!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsZ45Cgmg6g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bz1I9Mfr8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYNWgEpk42c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_PtatwxJGY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgIIUSdSdwQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-c2d0qppIU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eeWPhOdn7K0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-y1ofLYiN0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bfux93T6-jg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnaW7PA2yOw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAk48Eq9RXo