Pietà by Gabriela Melinescu translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Inger Johansson

Pietà by Gabriela Melinescu translated by Adam J. Sorkin and Inger Johansson

Once in a while, like an angel, I’ll throw myself in the mud

with the green plants from the ruined garden,

and like a devil I dote on my taste and smell,

feeling life overturned by impending passion.

Like the fragrant must of pressed grapes, the mud swarms with seeds

that stick to the skin of the immersed.

Like an angel, I feel them tickle my back

like sharp young diamonds in a lamb’s dark eyes.

You yourself, what else are you but a man with wings

on whom, too quickly, the mud cakes

and the plants painfully sprout shoots of fresh green!

In her arms, the Mother carries away

her poor precious burden.

Back to Archive

Gabriela Melinescu

Poetry