Two poems by Cassian

[Nina] Cassian travelled to the United States as a visiting professor for creative writing at New York University in 1985. During her stay in America, a friend of hers, Gheorghe Ursu, was arrested and subsequently beaten to death by the Securitate for possessing a diary. The diary contained several of Cassian's poems which satirized the Communist regime and the authorities thought to be inflammatory. Hence, she decided to remain in the US.
~Wikipedia entry on Nina Cassian

Happy Poetry Friday, all! Poems by Romanian poet Nina Cassian today.

Preston and Lucy

Nina Cassian: "I switched to literature for children because it was the only field where metaphors were still allowed, where imagination was tolerated and assonance was permitted." (How bad was it in Romania? "A 2006 commission estimated the number of direct victims of the Communist repression at two million people." But Nina Cassian was still writing secret anti-Communist poems, up until she left.)

Morning Exercises
by Nina Cassian

I wake up and say: I'm through.
It's my first thought at dawn.
What a nice way to start the day
with such a murderous thought.

God, take pity on me
-- is the second thought, and then
I get out of bed
and live as if
nothing had been said.

translated by Brenda Walker and Andrea Deletant

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A Man
by Nina Cassian

While fighting for his country, he lost an arm
and was suddenly afraid:
'From now on, I shall only be able to do
things by halves.

I shall reap half a harvest.
I shall be able to play either the tune
or the accompaniment on the piano,
but never both parts together.
I shall be able to bang with only one fist
on doors, and worst of all
I shall only be able to half hold
my love close to me.
There will be things I cannot do at all,
applaud for example,
at shows where everyone applauds.'

From that moment on, he set himself to do
everything with twice as much enthusiasm.
And where the arm had been torn away
a wing grew.

translated by Roy MacGregor-Hastie

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Karen Edmisten has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Karen!