M.M.
Liniile din palma mea stângă
seamana uimitor cu cele din palma mea dreapta.
Nu știu ce înseamnă pentru chiromanti asta.
E ca şi cum as fi venit lume in rugăciune.
Glossary
|
WORD
|
DEFINITION
|
POSSIBLE SYNONYMS
|
|---|---|---|
| asta(pron.) | previously mentioned and understood by the speaker andhearer | this |
| ce(pron.) | asking for information specifying something | what |
| chiromanti (n.) | aperson whopractices palmistry, a fortune-teller | palmist, palm-reader |
| cu cele (adj.) | used to identify a specific person or thing observed by the speakerwhile indicating an association between two entities | those of |
| din (prep.) | expressingthe relationship between a part and a whole | with, from |
| dreapta (adj.) | relating to the side of a human body or of a thing that is to the east when the person or thing is facing north | right |
| eca şicum as fi | phrase translation | it’slike I had, it is as though Ihad |
| in (prep.) | expressing the situation of something that is or appears to be enclosed or surrounded by something else | in, in the middle of |
| înseamnă(v.) | to have a particular meaning | it means |
| liniile (n.) | long, narrow marksor bands | lines, contours, configurations |
| lume (n.) | the earth, with all of its countries, peoples, andnatural features | world, earth, planet |
| mea (adj.) | belonging to or associated with the speaker | my |
| nu (adv.) | something not to be done | don’t, do not |
| palma (n.) | the inner surface of the hand between the wrist and fingers | palm |
| pentru(prep.) | aimed at, on behalf of | for |
| rugăciune(n.) | asolemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship | prayer, plea, appeal, wish, hope |
| seamana(v.) | has qualities or features in common with someone or something | looks, resembles, seems to be, appears to be |
| stângă(adj.) | relatingto the side of a human body or of a thing that is to the west when the person or thing is facing north | left |
| știu(v.) | hold information in mind, be certain about something | (I) know |
| uimitor (adj.) | causing great wonder or surprise | amazing, astonishing, breath-taking, surprising |
| venit (v.) | moved or traveled toward or into a place | came, moved nearer, approached, drew closer |
Background
About the poet
Mariana Marin was born February 10, 1956, in Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Madi’s parents separated when she was three years old, and she was raised by her mother and grandmother. She received a degree in philology from the University of Bucharest in 1980, and then taught elementary school, first in a village on the Danube River and then in Bucharest. Her first book, Un rǎzboi de o sutǎ de ani (A Hundred Years’ War) was published in 1981 and won the Romanian Writers’ Union Prize. Her second book was written in the form of a fantastic diary of, and dialogue with Anne Frank, using the metaphor of a concentration camp to express life under the Communist dictatorship. Mariana Marin was banned from publishing until the fall of the regime in 1989. After that, she was invited to literary festivals in many European countries, but she never managed to hold a steady job and fell deeper into alcoholism. She was married and divorced twice, and never had children. She died of tuberculosis in Bucharest on March 31, 2003.
Romanian poets remember Mariana Marin as a militant dissident and a generous friend. Florin Iaru remembers, “if you knocked on her door at midnight or five in the morning, all she would say was come in, come in, and she would open a bottle of red wine and together we would declare the truth of our souls and put the country on the right track.” Mircea Cǎtǎrescu adds, “Madi did not know how to lie, neither in life nor in literature, as so many of us do. She was not impressed by her own reputation as a great poet. She lived and died in poverty. She lived and died as a poet. Her whole life was poetry.” Her translator Adam J. Sorkin describes her as “a distinctive voice revealed from the dark night of humanity’s soul.”
History
The Dacian tribes living in what is now Romania were conquered by the Roman emperor Trajan in 106 CE. The Romans pulled out under pressure in 271 CE. During the Middle Ages the territory was ruled by warlords and nobles and then was variously part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while ethnic Romanians were considered second-class citizens. Romania’s independence was declared in 1859, but great powers such as Russia and Germany still fought for control. Romania sided with the Allies in World War I and with the Axis in World War II. After that war, Romania became a satellite under the direct control of Soviet Russia. Beginning in 1965, the country was ruled by the brutal dictatorship of Nikolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena, who piled up personal riches while impoverishing the common people. The Ceaușescus were overthrown in the Romanian Revolution of 1989, put on trial, and executed. Romania became a full member of the European Union in 2007.
Culture
Although the Roman Empire ruled the territory of Romania for less than two centuries, Romanian is a Romance language based on Latin and closely related to languages such as Italian, French and Spanish. There are no known documents written in Romanian prior to 1521. The most famous and influential Romanian poet was Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889). A friend wrote that he could pick Eminescu out of a crowd of young people in a café by his “romantic” appearance, long hair and gaze lost in thoughts. Eminescu’s most famous poem, Luceafǎrul (The Evening Star) has been officially designated the longest love poem ever written. Tristan Tzara (1896-1963), who was born in Romania but lived most of his adult life in France, was the father of Dadaism, an absurdist anti-establishment offshoot of Surrealism.
Poetic Form
Quatrain is a four-line stanza, rhyming with various forms for example:
o ABAC or ABCB (known as unbounded or ballad quatrain), as in Samuel Taylor
Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.”
“It is an ancient Mariner,
And he stoppeth one of three.
Now wherefore stopp’st thou me?
The Bridegroom’s doors are opened wide
And I am next of kin
The guests are met, the feast is set:
May’st hear the merry din.”
o AABB (a double couplet); see A.E. Housman’s “To an Athlete Dying Young
“The time you won your town the race
We chaired you through the market-place;
Man and boy stood cheering by.
And home we brought you shoulder-high
Today the road all runner come,
Shoulder-high we bring you home.
And set you at your threshold down,
Townsman of a stiller town.”
Bio
Mariana Marin was born in Bucharest, Romania. After her parents divorced, her mother andgrandmother raised her. She was silenced during much of the 1980s by the Ceauşescu dictatorship. Moving between enthusiasm and disappointment during those troubled years, barely making a living, she survived with the help of friends and the Writers’Union, before descending into chronic alcoholism and developing tuberculosis. Despite her misery and ills, she kept writing—publishing six books of poetry.