Adam J. Sorkin on Romanian Poetry PART TWO

Joel:

Thanks so much for your comments.I'll venture two more questions, which you should feel free to skip if you haven't the time or inclination to reply.

- We noted in the poems in the anthology a number of poems dealing
with women's issues, a number dealing with the church, and a few, most
intriguingly, which seem to deal with both at the same time, e.g.
Stanescu's "The Infanta Augustina," which seems to have something to
say about violence against women as well as something to say about the
(mis)uses of religious iconography. Could you comment on the currency
of these topics in Romanian poetry?

- And on another note, not so much regarding poetry translation per
se, but rather its promulgation in anthologies. On the one hand, our
class is consistently finding itself wishing that each section of the
anthology had a prefatory essay, even a brief one, giving some
cultural/political/historical context for the poems. How, for example,
are we to understand the nationalist (or anti-nationalist?) sentiments
in Vakulovski's poems if we have no clue about the history of
Bessarabia? On the other hand, we understand full well that this is a
poetry anthology, not a history book, and there's no way short
headnotes could ever really give us the degree of context we wish we
had. You've contributed to many, many anthologies; I'm guessing you'll
have some thoughts on this question.

Dr. Sorkin:

Romania remains an Orthodox country and religion is a powerful force. That
Communism discredited and opposed (rather, in a sense, co-opted religion)
makes the free choice of being religious more compelling, even to the
younger generations.Feminism actually has been a kind of force since the late 70s with a group of strong women voices, Ana Blandiana, for instance, Denisa Comanescu,
Daniela Crasnaru, Ioana Ieronim, Ileana Malancioiu, Angela Marinescu, Grete
Tartler, Liliana Ursu. Mariana Marin, too, who cites Anne Sexton and Elsa
Lasker-Schuler in her poems, but there's the Plath example, too. Many of
these poets were far more resistant to communism than male poets, at least
in their terms of being a bit challenging to the censors. The younger women
are more outspoken, but while domestic and other violence might well be of
note, in a male-macho kind of society, I wouldn't say violence is a major
theme these days.

If you look at the history of Moldavia, become Bessarabia (the SSR of...,
indeed given over to Russia with the secret protocols of the
Molotov ­Ribbentrop Pact [non-aggression pact, between Hitler & USSR --
didn't last long, did it?], then become the Republic of Moldova after 1989,
with a retrieval of Romanian-ness, you can understand that
politics/nationalism is important. I do think the poet implies his own
situation, including reasons to leave (a poor, poor country) and a kind of
patriotism side by side with it.

I admire Graywolf for this book, as well as the editors, Kevin and Wayne,
for their thankless task of keeping things to a publishable size and dealing
with such courtesy and restraint with what could have been a herd of
rampaging translators. Remember, the press has to control the pages, even
distribute book space carefully, for pages add up to expenses, as well as
the amount of space for intros, etc. So it is not meant to be critical, but
I would agree with you. On the other hand, make the book bigger, add to its
cost, what do you do to the market? Clearly the decision was made to be as
inclusive of poets and poetry. Hard to fault that. All the production values
were topnotch, as one would express of a press of this stature.

Context helps, and poems help define contexts... it goes both ways, doesn't
it?