Poems by Ioana Vintilă
Translated from the Romanian by Clara Burghelea
honey bee
our heads are crumbling
& all that is left is a thin crust
under which this magma I carry for you
is solidifying
& out of your hands
sticky
comes the shape of the memory foam
changed by my body
before it is no longer there
honey bee
se surpă capetele noastre
& rămâne o pojghiță subțire
sub care magma asta pe care ți-o port
se solidifică
& din mâinile tale iese
cleioasă
forma saltelei cu memorie
modificată de corpul meu
înainte ca el să nu mai fie acolo
apex
the center of this pain is not in the head
I once saw a colony of silkworms
sticky
like a layer of skin that does not come off
unless it brings forth tens of living cell strata
what memory binds you to this place?
good thing the storm has cuddled at the lighthouse shore
atoms peel off even with soft touches
apex
centrul durerii ăsteia nu e în cap
cândva am văzut o colonie de viermi de mătase
lipicioși
ca o fâșie de piele care nu se mai dezlipește
decât luând cu ea câteva zeci de straturi de celule vii
ce amintire te leagă de locul ăsta ?
ce bine că furtuna s-a ghemuit la țărmul cu far
atomii se iau chiar și cu atingeri moi
Born in 1997 in Sibiu, Romania, Ioana Vintilă is a biotech engineer, with an MA in Molecular Biotechnology. In 2016, she won the PEN International New Voices Award for her poems. Her first poetry collection, Birds in the sandstorm (2018) was published by Max Blecher Editorial House. Birds in the sandstorm was nominated for several national prizes and won the Iustin Panța and George Bacovia debut awards. Her latest collection, the origami bunker was published in 2022.
Clara Burghelea is a Romanian-born poet and translator with an MFA in Poetry from Adelphi University. Recipient of the Robert Muroff Poetry Award, her poems and translations appeared or are forthcoming in Ambit, Waxwing, The Cortland Review, The Los Angeles Review and elsewhere. Her second poetry collection Praise the Unburied was published in 2021 with Chaffinch Press. She is the Review Editor of Ezra, An Online Journal of Translation.
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