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.