The Gambrinus Alehouse

And those who still squirmed in their mothers’ wombs
Although they had left there long ago
Were thought to be very sad
Were patted tenderly on their heads
Were urged to drink beer
Were told that beer could be such a miraculous child
And they looked at where their legs could reached
There they made a mark

And there were days when the lines for good films knew no end
And a pleasant terror took over the crowd
Bread and butter slice after slice
Ballet schools where the reader is taught what gestures
Have to be made without any delay
When something important is read aloud

I was writing and for that I was granted the use of a wall
A pickaxe helped my fingers get closer to the wall
And a chisel

I wrote about the blonde beyond the shop window I managed to see from my table

I was trying to astonish her
As I raised a leg
And lost any importance

translated by
Adam J. Sorkin and Lidia Vianu

POET: Daniel Banulescu’s poetry books include I’ll Love You to the End of the Bed (1993), The Ballad of Daniel Banulescu (1997), The Federal Republic of Daniel Banulescu (2000), and It’s Good to be Daniel Banulescu (2010). Poems have appeared in The Pedestal, The American Reader, Toad Suck, Apiary, Prairie Schooner, Salamander.

Co-TRANSLATORS:
Lidia Vianu is Professor of English at the University of Bucharest and director of a translation center. She has published much literary criticism, The Desperado Age: British Literature at the Start of the Third Millennium, Alan Brownjohn and the Desperado Age, British Desperadoes at the Turn of the Millennium.

Adam J. Sorkin is an award wining translator of contemporary Romanian poetry who has published more than fifty books. In 2014, he published Rodica Draghincescu’s A Sharp Double-Edged Luxury Object (Cervena Barva) and The Starry Womb by Mihail Galatanu and The Book of Anger by Marta Petreu (Diálogos Books).