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Natalie Wood
(1938-1981) |
Oh, Natalie …
When I was a lot younger I had a crush on Natalie Wood
(even today I still believe that of all actresses
she’s the most worthy of my love).
I give myself high marks
for not having become infatuated with B.B. or worse, God forbid, with Marilyn –
such shame has never stained me.
But Natalie Wood is really rather respectable.
I was in love with Natalie Wood.
We’d go for a stroll together in the evening in the Arsenal-Infantrymen-Dionisie Lupu neighborhood
I’d drape my arm around her shoulders and she’d hold me by the waist
it was a very beautiful autumn.
She didn’t mind that I was in my high school uniform.
“Mircea,” she’d coo to me, “Mircea,
you’re so wonderful,
everything an intellectual woman could ever want.”
“And you too, my little kitten, you’re wonderful.”
We’d walk on through withered leaves, no one understood us,
we were too sensitive, too different …
“Natalie,” I’d say to her,
“oh, Natalie, Natalie, Natalie
your name’s so beautiful … you know, Natalie,
today I’m nothing,
while you’re famous, you’ve got a whole filmography behind you,
but I’m going to work hard, Natalie, you’ll see,
I’m going to make the big bucks …”
And the autumn evenings were so sad,
the eyes of my sweetheart so deep …
It began to snow a little
and the trams flashed green at the contact with wet wires.
Then I’d already achieved glory, made money and women
I’d been published in Paris and Chicago
Out of habit, I’d still go to “Cantemir” for sentimental reasons.
Every evening Natalie would be waiting
at the high school gates in her little Porsche
and we’d go for a spin down the Street of the Prophet, Corporal Troncea Street,
back on the Street of the Future.
I recall that one night
she parked the car along a sidewalk
lit a cigarette in the dark, and, with her sensual voice
(but hoarse and bitter then)
she confessed she’d cheated with a man. “Mircea, I had to,
I had to tell you,
I couldn’t have continued on, otherwise. You know,
not for a single moment did I want to go to bed with Robert
but he’s so insistent … these blond guys are just awful …
but believe me, Mircea, believe me, you’re still the best …”
I forgave her.
What you can’t forgive a fallen woman
you must forgive a superior one.
“Cheat on me with your deeds, but not with your thoughts,” that’s all I said.
Then I had to leave for the army.
Daniela came to Cristi Teodorescu almost every week.
The very girl he’s now married to would come see Mera.
Somebody even visited Romulus once.
Natalie never showed up for me.
On Sundays I stood like a dumb jerk at the guardhouse
and ogled the others kissing their sweethearts
and squeezing hands across the table …
When we cleaned the weapons I furtively read “Cinema” magazine,
I clipped out everything about her. About Her.
For ten years I hadn’t heard a thing of her. Life kept us apart.
Then, about a week or so ago, as I was looking for blank tapes,
whom should I see at The Crystal Disk, near Lipscani Street?
Natalie! Natalie was back in Romania!
But she’d aged so much … I didn’t want to talk to her
so I left before she might notice me (outside waiting for her
was that straw-haired Redford with his Cadillac).
Broth tastes dull heated a second time.
No, Natalie,
you made your choice, go your own way.
And yet, when I got back to my villa,
why did the seventeen rooms seem so empty?
For a long time I stared through the frost-covered window at my pool
in which a dead leaf floated …
(Translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Daniel Mangu)
Mircea Cărtărescu
Mircea Cărtărescu nämns ofta som kandidat till Nobelpriset i litteratur om än inte ovanstående dikt är det avgörande. Inom kort tillkännages f.ö. vilken som får årets pris.
Ä n t l i g e n dags för Mircea Cărtărescu från Rumänien?
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| Mircea Cărtărescu |
Mircea Cărtărescu - Bibliografi (till svenska översatta verk (Ytterligare en översatt roman ['Travesti'] är på gång)
Romaner
- Nostalgia (originaltitel: Nostalgia), 2002. Översättning Inger Johansson
- Orbitor. Vänster vinge (originaltitel: Orbitor. Aripa stingă ), 2004. Översättning Inger Johansson
- Orbitor. Kroppen (originaltitel: Orbitor. Corpul), 2006. Översättning Inger Johansson
- Orbitor. Höger vinge (originaltitel: Orbitor. Aripa dreaptă), 2008. Översättning Inger Johansson
- Dagbok 1994-2003 , 2011. Översättning Inger Johansson
Trilogin 'Orbitor' lär vara smått jobbig. Så har iaf en biblioteksanställd som läst (arbetat sig igenom?) alla tre böckerna sagt mig.
Lyrik
- Levantul, 1990.
- En lycklig dag i mitt liv, översättning i urval av Dan Shafran och Lars-Inge Nilsson, 2008
'Natalie Wood' ingår i 'En lycklig dag i mitt liv'.
Mircea Cărtărescu reads his poem "Oh, Natalie" (in Romanian) at the Seventh Annual PEN World Voices Festival:
Romanian is a Romance language, belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European language family, having much in common with languages such as French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese.
However, the languages closest to Romanian are the other Eastern Romance languages, spoken south of Danube: Aromanian/Macedo-Romanian, Megleno-Romanian and Istro-Romanian, which are frequently classified as dialects of Romanian. An alternative name for Romanian used by linguists to disambiguate with the other Eastern Romance languages is "Daco-Romanian", referring to the area where it is spoken (which corresponds roughly to the onetime Roman province of Dacia).
Compared with the other Romance languages, the closest relative of Romanian is Italian; the two languages show a limited degree of asymmetrical mutual intelligibility, especially in their cultivated forms: speakers of Romanian seem to understand Italian more easily than the other way around. Romanian has obvious grammatical and lexical similarities with French, Catalan, Spanish and Portuguese, with a high phonological similarity with Portuguese in particular; however, it is not mutually intelligible with them to any practical extent. Romanian speakers will usually need some formal study of basic grammar and vocabulary before being able to understand more than individual words and simple sentences. The same is true for speakers of these languages trying to understand Romanian
Some consider Romanian the closest living language to Latin due to structure. However, other studies have disputed these claims, showing that Romanian has had a greater share of foreign influence than some other Romance languages such as Italian in terms of vocabulary and other aspects. One such study was done by Italian-American linguist Mario Pei in 1949, which analyzed the differentiation degree of languages in comparison to their inheritance language (in the case of Romance languages to Latin comparing phonology, inflection, discourse, syntax, vocabulary, and intonation) revealed the following percentages (the higher the percentage, the greater the distance from Latin):
Sardinian: 8%;
Italian: 12%;
Spanish: 20%;
Romanian: 23.5%;
Occitan: 25%;
Portuguese: 31%;
French: 44%.
The lexical similarity of Romanian with Italian has been estimated at 77%, followed by French at 75%, Sardinian 83%, Catalan 73%, Portuguese and Rhaeto-Romance 72%, Spanish 71%.
In modern times Romanian vocabulary has been strongly influenced by French, Italian and other languages.
Famous international writers will once again gather at the annual Gothenburg Book Fair next week.
This year’s event includes a focus on the fascinating literature of Romania. There will be a choice of 16 seminars, featuring numerous prestigious writers such as Mircea Cărtărescu and Norman Manea.
