Vasile Gârneţ

                                     for Mariana Codruţ

I lived far from the sea, I shunned mirrors
and the crowds that rejoiced and prayed
with equal fervour

it was now silent there and I could observe
how one was sleeping, the others guarding his sleep
and they were unaware that he was already dead,
that his mouth was filled with darkness
and a sickly-sweet fecund steam seethed, filling our house
(“the vivacious corpse” I said of the one who – apparently – slept,
and added: “some not even death sets free,”
but I took care not to be heard)
I was grateful to them for not calling me over
to sit alongside them
they shouted out to me in jest, bored and sardonic,
like connoisseurs of mockery:
cover yourself up, why don’t you take shelter!

I’m one of those people who don’t need much
I can sit quietly on the terrace in the garden and read,
listen to the grasses growing and the trees breathing
and to the rain…
– it’s always such a promising afternoon –
I sit and wait
even if the thing I’m waiting for will never come

Translated by Alistair Ian Blyth