Ana Blandiana is one of Romania’s foremost poets, a leading dissident before the fall of communism. In recognition of her contribution to European culture and her valiant fight for human and civil rights, Blandiana was awarded the Légion d’Honneur (2009), and the US State Department distinguished her with the Romanian Women of Courage Award (2014). She won the European Poet of Freedom Prize (Gdansk, 2016) for My Native Land A4 (2010), published in English by Bloodaxe.
Hexham, United Kingdom. Bloodaxe. 2017. 144 pages.
Fresh from their magisterial translation of Ana Blandiana’s My Native Land A4 (Bloodaxe, 2010), translators Paul Scott Derrick and Viorica P...
Photo by Paula Goodale
Thistles and Gods
Thistles and gods all withered in the sunLike the blanched remains of temples,Long and slender skeletons,Irrevocable examplesOf the burden of being immortal...
Paul Scott Derrick & Viorica Pâtea, tr. Hexham, Northumberland. Bloodaxe (Dufour, distr.). 2014. ISBN 9781780371054
Readers coming belatedly to the work of Ana Blandiana may be puzzled at the disc...
Photo: Kristina Sheppard/Flickr
A Young Horse
I’ve never figured out what world I live in.I rode on a horse as young and as happy as I.When he galloped I could feel his heartbeatAgainst my thighsAnd...