Babel

Tag: Corneliu M. Popescu

  • Sometimes I Wish I Had Poetic Talent

    Twilight over the river Aude, Hérault, Langued...
    Image via Wikipedia

    Well… I was walking near one of the canals in Tottenham Hale towards the twilight (not that twilight, ugh, I can’t even use this word without sparkly cheesy connotations any more, bless you whatever-is-your-name-woman-who-invented-sparkly-vampires-sensitive-to-the-humans’-emotions) and it just felt … umm… like poetry.

    If you watched the video before reading this post, then, very good, if you didn’t please watch it. It’s basically a poem by Mihai Eminescu, something of a lullaby, but also describing nature going to sleep. I won’t go into interpretations (just search for “Somnoroase pasarele” – if you know Romanian – or “Drowsy birds” could be its English translation: find the poem here, in Romanian, English, Hungarian, Modern and Ancient Chinese). Here are the lyrics as translated in English (from that site – the version which is really nice, not the other one, *cough* Sleepy Birds… But it still can’t catch the nuances that it does in the Romanian language, it’s maybe why they say poetry can’t really be translated, it can be at most re-written, but its form and rhythm are built within the music of certain language and that language alone):

    Drowsy birds

    Drowsy birds at even gliding,
    Round about their nests alight,
    In among the branches hiding…
    Dear, good night!

    Silence through the forest creeping,
    Lullaby the river sighs;
    In the garden flowers sleeping…
    Shut your eyes!

    Glides the swan among the rushes
    To its rest where moonlight gleams,
    And the angels’ whisper hushes…
    Peaceful dreams!

    O’er the sky stars without number,
    On the earth a silver light;
    All is harmony and slumber…
    Dear, good night!

    (trad. de Corneliu M. Popescu)

    Well, anyway… While I was walking along the water – and feeling guilty that I forgot to take some treats with me again and all the birds were looking at me quite irritated – I felt like singing this song (because it was made a song by George Popescu) while I was watching everything natural and human going to sleep. At times like this I really wish I were a poet, but for some reason I can’t find words (that is poetic words that can describe an image or another), it feels really difficult to give shape to feelings – especially if they’re complex and include a whole pantheon of elements.

    Well, I was thinking that Eminescu must have taken a walk like me, some 200 years ago. The only difference? He wrote a poem, which was given music, and which is now a part of the Romanian heritage. What did I do? A blog post. A conventional blog post, with a YouTube video link. It’s not that I want to point at myself and say “Sinner, heathen, stupid, whatever”… It’s just that I wish I could write a poem as simple and beautiful as that. Plus, if in the 1880s, if there had been such a thing as blogging, I guess he’d be blogging too. And most likely not the poems and nice stuff, but normal, opinionated, perhaps even politically incorrect posts.

    But don’t let me destroy the dreamy feeling I have with silly assumptions. I’ll leave you with the drowsy birds and bid you a very good, peaceful night!

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