in the space between your arms (poem by Florin Caragiu, English translation: Simona Sumanaru)

photo: Diana Popescu













I’d write in the space between your arms what lies rather on this side
of my own skin stretched under the milestone, the path
interrupted here and there by the jump over the rapid springs
to catch up with myself and meet my true nature

I will not lean my elbows against my own thought,
convinced that the roaring water will carry me together with your smile
thrown in like a life-saving rope over the abysses, I will only notch my escape
on the shore you now tread on with the fervor of discovery

growing apart from familiar things is not abandoning, just moving forward
on the arc of the circle that pulls us together like a child running
and revealing for his parents’ eyes what he is inside: insects, stones, and flowers
bravely emerging here and there under the footstep
that quickly draws them out of hiding

the jump leaves behind only the shadow, as it’s the only way
a sharp eye could throw out its net into blooming abysses;
things cling to the garments, they rise from their slumber
to remind you of what you did not know
about the nest forsaken at dawn


(poem published in the volume "catacombe. aici totul e viu" ("catacombs. everything is alive here"), Vinea Publishing House, Bucharest, 2008, p. 71. English translation: Simona Sumanaru.)