Tudor Crețu trans. Antuza Genescu

Winter 2023 | Poetry

Putin

what would you say

vladimir putin

to the puppy you hold in your arms

the little saint bernard

(its sex still has a ribbon around it)

about how to kill with the shashka or the bullet

about the mixture

of sauerkraut juice and vodka

and the intercostal space

the most frequently perforated interstice

what would you tell the dead fish

that you feed to the dolphins

(its colors fading one by one)

but what would you tell the dolphin

that you would probably shoot it in the head

dismissively

like a ticket collector or a ticket machine

maybe you would munch a little

your eyes would turn even bluer

you would feed the baby dolphins

with the nuclear

bottle

 

*

putin eats green paste

a bit tart a bit acid

his spinach is brighter

his plate flashes like traffic lights

putin is always extracting something

the white radish – the slice of

his cheekbones

turn shapeless

when he makes threats

his eyes are also traffic lights

putin is a citric cynical old-timer

he has his snacks on large sterilized lenses

his sorrel is chopped with slightly sharper ones 

putin is medicinal

his sauerkraut juice lysergic

his buttons are moral too

putin loves splitting watermelon –

he shows his grandchildren the reddest core

the blackest seeds

with his wet napkins you can disinfect scalpels

battlefields

etc.

 

*

to slit

is his feline verb

the blade is rarely jagged

he rinses the spotless steel

with something that resembles

the sauerkraut juice falling from his eyes –

when he is tired

of course

when he washes his hands

he splashes around as if blessing

the sandstone slabs the mirror

he shakes his fingers

harder and harder

his breath is polar

his blood just as cold

inside

as outside

inside – his

outside – whose?

on the hands I mean

on the sandstone slabs and the mirror

Tudor Crețu (b.1980), writer, manager of the „Sorin Titel” Timiș County Library. He writes prose, poetry, literary criticism. POETRY: Dantelăriile Adelei [Adela’s Lacery], Mirton, 2001; Obiectele oranj [The Orange Objects], Vinea, 2005. Fragmente continue. Poeme live [Continuous Fragments. Live Poems], Printpress, 2014. The Poetry Book of the Year award of the Romanian Writers` Union, the Banat branch. studio live, an anthology, Printpress, 2015. FICTION: Omul negru [The Bogeyman], Cartea românească, 2008. Casete martor [Witness Tapes], Tracus Arte, 2013. The book earned the author a nomination as the Young Prose Writer of the Year, at the Romanian Young Authors` Gala and the Ioan Slavici Prize, awarded by the Romanian Writers` Union, the Banat branch. S…(Casete martor II) [S… Witness Tapes II], Tracus Arte, 2015. Maluri [Riverbanks], Vellant 2023. CRITICISM: Developări literare [Literary Developments], Editura Universității de Vest, 2010. DIARIES: Jurnal fantasmatic [Phantom Diary], Paralela 45, 2016. He also published in The Kenyon Review online, buenosairespoetry.com, thepunchmagazine.com, levurelitteraire.com, etc.

Antuza Genescu (b. 1968, Lugoj, Romania) is a freelance translator, interpreter, teacher and writer. She has a PhD degree in Letters with a thesis on the symbol of blood in Seneca and Shakespeare, and is a member of the Union of Romanian Writers — the Translators’ Department. Besides several volumes of Romanian poetry and art albums she has translated into English, her work also includes translations into Romanian of various poets around the world (Paul Muldoon, Sudeep Sen, George Szirtes, Fiona Sampson, Stephen Watts, Alice Notley etc.) for the anthology published for LitVest, an annual festival of literature organised in Timisoara, Romania. She has translated into Romanian important science fiction authors like Gene Woolfe, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Vernor Vinge, Orson Scott Card, Robin Hobb, Stephen King etc. Her stories have been published in a number of Romanian science fiction anthologies. She is chairman of the “H.G. Wells — Timisoara” SF Society (www.hgwells.ro) and editor of “Paradox” SF fanzine.

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