POETIC HORIZONS: CICÉRON ANGLEDROIT (FRANCE)

Le drapeau

Je suis le drapeau

Du monument aux morts

Parfois, très tôt,

On me sort

Pour écouter

De la musique militaire.

Tous, à mes pieds, déplorent

Les ravages de la guerre

Et tous ces soldats de naguère

Trop tôt disparus.

Pourtant moi, de là-haut,

Je les vois bien

Qui préparent

La prochaine.

Drapelul

Eu sunt drapelul de pe

Monumentul eroilor

Uneori, prea devreme,

Mă scot

Ca să ascult

Muzică militară.

Cu toţii, în faţa mea, deplâng

Ravagiile războiului

Şi pe toţi acei soldaţi de altădată

Prea devreme dispăruţi.

Cu toate astea, de la înălţime,

Îi văd bine

Că îl pregătesc

Pe următorul. 

Profile. Profil

Cicéron Angledroit, alias Claude Picq, est né fin 1953 à Ivry sur Seine (94) et a toujours vécu en banlieue parisienne. Il a été poursuivi, péniblement, par les études (faute de les avoir poursuivies lui-même) jusqu’au Bac et est aussitôt entré dans la vie active par la voie bancaire (secteur qu’il quitte avec joie en 2016).  Comme tout un chacun il a fondé une famille, puis une autre. Il traverse son temps avec une forte conscience de sa brièveté et s’étonne chaque jour de la vacuité humaine. Les règles, la hiérarchisation de la société, les croyances sont pour lui autant de notions insondables quand  il se replace dans cet univers sans fin et ce temps sans limites qui lui servent de décor. Très tôt il a eu goût pour la lecture. Notamment les romans. Tout y passait, Céline, Dard, Malet et bien d’autres. Et très tôt aussi il a ressenti le besoin d’écrire.  Mais ses velléités littéraires ont été longues à aboutir. Un premier roman en 1994 (Les cinq doigts de Dieu) où il règle ses comptes pêle-mêle… Et puis neuf autres depuis (« Sois zen et tue-le », « Nés sous X » et « Fallait pas écraser la vieille », « Riches un jour, morts toujours », « Qui père gagne », « Hé cool, la Seine », «  Tout est bon dans l’boulon » et « Y a toujours un môme qui braille quelque part », « Tiens bon l’pinceau, y a des coulures ») dans lesquels il utilise l’humour pour exprimer ses quatre vérités sans esprit revanchard (a-t-il une revanche à prendre d’ailleurs ?).  Affaire à suivre ! Du même auteur: Sois zen et tue-le, Nés sous X, Fallait pas écraser la vieille, Riches un jour, morts toujours, Qui père gagne, Hé cool, la Seine !, Tout est bon dans l’boulon (2017), Y a toujours un môme qui braille quelque part, Tiens bon l’pinceau, y a des coulures ! (2018).

Cicéron Angledroit (pe numele său adevărat Claude Picq) s-a născut în 1953 la Ivry sur Seine şi a locuit întotdeauna în zona pariziană. A fost urmat, în mod anevoios, de studii (fiindcă nu el le-a urmat) până la nivelul bacalaureatului, apoi a intrat imediat în viaţa activă pe calea bancară (sector pe care l-a părăsit bucuros în 2016). Ca oricare altul, şi-a întemeiat o familie, apoi încă una. Străbate timpul cu o puternică conştiinţă a scurtimnii sale şi se minunează în fiecare zi de deşertăciunea umană. Regulile, ierarhia socială, credinţele sunt pentru el tot atâtea noţiuni insondabile, când el se plasează în acest univers infinit şi în timpul fără limite care îi serveşte drept decor. De timpuriu a căpătat gustul lecturii. În special pentru romane. Toţi autorii i-au trecut prin mână,  Céline, Dard, Malet şi mulţi alţii. Şi foarte curând a simţit el însuşi nevoia de a scrie. Dar a durat mult până când veleităţile sale literare s-au realizat. Un prim roman în 1994 (Cele cinci degete ale lui Dumnezeu), în care îşi pune ordine în socotelile amestecate... Şi apoi altele nouă: Fii zen şi ucide-l, Născuţi sub X, Nu trebuia s-o striveşti pe bătrână, Într-o zi bogaţi, întotdeauna răposaţi, Care tată câştigă, Hei, Senă mişto, Totu-i bun în bulon (2017), Există mereu un copil care plânge undeva, Ţine bine pensula-n mână, că-ţi curge (2018).

Traducere de Daniel Dragomirescu

LITERARY HORIZONS

The Last Loaf of Bread

...After this Pantagruelic feast in times of ration coupons, Virgil and Marieta went back into the house, in order to do a last check-up, while the driver lit a cigarette and sat on the wooden bench in the front of the summer kitchen, waiting benevolently and trying unsuccessfully to  run the fingers of his left hand through his mane with a view to arrange it. Taking advantage of this respite, the children ran again to the ambulance, in order to play with the wheel and honk, while Stelian, taking advantage of the respite, too, rushed towards the fence, with his double Italian carpenter's tape measure, in order to measure a few wooden stakes, which Brumărel had damaged the other day. Since he could no longer repair them, he had decided to replace with some leftovers from the house he had never built – because of the categorical opposition that his now dead wife had put up. Unfortunately, he did not have much time for measurements, as after a short while Virgil, followed by Marieta, went out and gave the signal for departure in a stentorian voice. They took down Brumărel from the cabin, in spite of his protests, and in his place, next to Dorian, sat Marieta. In his turn, Virgil, holding a kicking Brumărel in his arms, got on in the back of the car, seating himself among the packages, between a broken side window and the window that opened onto the driver's cabin. Behind them, Nelu Chelu pushed the doors with the painted red cross closed, pressing them as strongly as he could, and then opened the door on the left of the cabin and sat at the wheel, ready to start.

When he was about to turn on the engine, as it was late, Iustina, Marieta's older sister, showed up at the last minute. As she had only found out about their departure a while ago, she had rushed to bring them a large homemade loaf of bread, covered in a white cloth, so that they had something to eat on the roads of Deliorman. That loaf looked like the last peasant's loaf in the world, the last be-fore the end of colectivization, an offering and a testamentary bequest; it's true that their old mother, Safta, was going to bake such loaves for another year, before she would ask them to bring dark potato bread from Mandravela, on the outskirts of Bucharest, in a vynil bag. Marieta took the homemade loaf as if it had been something holly and her eyes filled with tears, and Iustina wished everybody – since they had decided to leave – a good and prosperous life away from home, on the oil-soaked lands of Deliorman. On her suntanned forehead there were traces of sweat, as a result of her rushing to get to the Mavrodins in their old house before they left.

“Good-bye, sister, we'll see each other in spring!” Marieta shouted in a happy voice, sticking her head out of the cabin of the ambulance and looking at her from  above, from where Iustina looked smaller and thicker than she was.

The driver twisted the key in the ignition immediately. The ambulance started slowly and carefully reversed on the narrow path, towards the wide open gates of the homestead, while Stelian, with his tape measure forgotten in the trousers pocket and Iustina, holding the empty cloth in one hand, standing next to each other, seemed overwhelmed by the regret that Virgil and his family, after so many years, still had to wander in the world, in order to find their spot under the sun.

The car drove slowly through the wide open gates and over the platform, which cracked under the heavy load, turned to reverse on the road that led to the valley, then up the lane, passing by the neighbouring houses in a cloud of dust. In a short while, the ambulance that was carrying the Ma-vrodins reached the edge of the village, turned to the left and drove down a broader yet bumpier lane. They passed Eforie and came closer to Wooden Leg's furrier shop, on the crossroads towards Vadul Vacilor; afterwards Nelu Chelu turned right and accelerated. From here until Bucharest, the recently tarmacked road saved them from jolts until Vidra, where, leaving the main road, they drove again on the dusty and bumpy country roads. Straight ahead, towards the promised land, Davida. Full of oil, grains and rationed bread.

(from the novel in progress 

La apa Deliormanului. By the water of Deliorman by Daniel Dragomirescu)

Traducere de Roxana Doncu

Universitatea de Medicină şi Farmacie 

“Carol Davila” din Bucureşti

HORIZONS CONTEMPORAINS. CONTEMPORARY HORIZONS

Succès. Un prix pour un livre paru 

dans “Bibliotheca Universalis”

Le jour de 27 mars 2019, au cadre de la manifestation “Gala cărţii. Gala du livre” organisée par la Bibliothèque Départamentale de Satu Mare (importante ville au nord-ouest de la Roumanie) le livre “Le roman. L’aventure spirituelle d’une forme protéique” par Gheorghe Glodeanu,  professeur à l’Université de Baia Mare, critique et historien de la littérature et directeur honoraire  de la revue “Orizont literar contemporan”, a reçu le prix pour essai & histoire littéraire. Le livre de Gh. Glodeanu a été publié en 2018 aux éditions Pim de Jassy, dans la collection “Bibliotheca Universalis” fondée par la revue “Orizont literar contemporan”. Nos sincères félicitations à Gheorghe Glodeanu pour le prix obtenu!

La rédaction de la revue “Orizont literar contemporan”

Succes. Un premiu pentru o carte apărută 

în “Bibliotheca Universalis”

În ziua de 27 martie 2019, la Gala cărţii organizată de Biblioteca Judeţeană Satu Mare, lucrarea “Romanul. Aventura spirituală a unei forme proteice” de Gheorghe Glodeanu, critic, profesor la Universitatea din Baia Mare şi director onorific al revistei “Orizont literar contemporan”, a obţinut premiul pentru eseu şi istorie liteară. Cartea a apărut în 2018 la Editura Pim din Iaşi, în colecţia “Bibliotheca Universalis”, fondată în anul 2014 de revista “Orizont literar contemporan”. Adresăm călduroase felicitări autorului pentru premiul obţinut!

Redacţia revistei “Orizont literar contemporan”

PORTUGUESE HORIZONS IN BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS (II)

SILVA F. COSTA

nihao!

queria dizer nihao estou muito contente

por estar aqui

mas toda a gente sabe que só a pele

é expatriada.

tudo o resto pede retorno, os ossos

as veias, os traços mais poluídos

dossinogramas.

toda a gente quer dizer xiexie

mas não me sinto grata

por cavalgar o búfalo taoista

na parede do templo,

rodopio yin yang da minha frágil convicção.

toda a gente quer dizer jiayou

mas não há combustível

para dessincronizar os sentidos.

há apenas este atravessar de estrada sem tons,

este sabor a moedas,

este odor ao incenso do corpo.

vou de bicicleta de encontro ao poema,

como um Herberto Helder taoista.

de que me serve este passado ruivo,

esta voz a cigarro,

estas corridas em direção aos poemas,

de que me serve o poema por debaixo do rosto.

nihao! *

aş vrea să spun nihao sunt foarte mulţumită

că mă aflu aici

dar toată lumea ştie că numai pielea

este apatridă.

tot restul cere reîntoarcere, oasele

venele, urmele cele mai poluate

dosinogramele.

toată lumea vrea sa spună xiexie** 

dar nu ma simt mulţumită

să călăresc taurul taoist

pe zidul templului,

rotesc yin yang-ul din fragila mea convingere.

toată lumea vrea să spună jiayou***

dar nu există combustibil

pentru a desincroniza sensurile.

exista doar această traversare de stradă făra tonuri,

această aromă de monede,

acest miros de tămâie al corpului.

merg pe bicicletă la întâlnirea cu poezia,

precum un Herbert Helder taoist.

la ce-mi foloseşte acest trecut roşiatic,

acest glas cu ţigară,

aceste alergări în direcţia poemelor,

la ce-mi foloseşte poemul mai jos de chip. 

________________________

*Alo (în limba chineză)

**Mulţumesc (în limba chineză)

***Haideţi (în limba chineză)

(din volumul în pregătire A segunda antologia de poetas portugueses. A doua antologie de poeţi portughezi, col. “Bibliotheca Universalis”)

Perfil. Profil

Sara F. Costa (Oliveira de Azeméis, 1987) é licenciada em Estudos Orientais e Mestre em Estudos Interculturais: Português/Chinês pela Universidade do Minho em parceria com a Universidade de Línguas Estrangeiras de Tianjin, China. Tem recebido vários Prémios Literários nacionais na área da poesia. Foi autora convidada do Festival Internacional de Poesia e Literatura de Istambul 2017. Em 2018, fez parte da organização do Festival Literário de Macau e do Festival Internacional de Literatura entre a China e a União Europeia em Shanghai e Suzhou. Tem poemas seus traduzidos em várias línguas e trabalhos publicados em Revistas Literárias um pouco por todo o mundo, desde o Brasil à China. Atualmente reside em Pequim e é coordenadora da comunidade de escrita criativa de Pequim, SpittoonArtsCollective. 

Sara F. Costa (Oliveira de Azeméis, 1987) este licenţiată în studii orientale şi maestră în studii interculturale: portugheză şi chineză a Universităţii din Minho şi a Universităţii de Limbi Străine din Tianjin, Republica Populară Chineză (China comunistă). A primit diferite premii literare naţionale în domeniul poeziei. A fost autor invitat la Festivalul Internaţional de Poezie şi Literatură de la Istanbul, 2017. În 2018, a făcut parte din comitetul de organizare a Festivalului Literar din Macau şi a Festivalului Internaţional de Literatură China – Uniunea Europeană de la Shanghai şi Suzhou. Are poeme traduse în diverse limbi străine şi lucrări publicate în reviste literare în întreaga lume, din Brazilia până în China. În prezent locuieşte la Pekin şi este coordonatoare a comunităţii de scriere creativă din Pekin, SpittoonArtsCollective.

Traducere de Daniel Dragomirescu

NEW IN BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS

Khordoora or Paradise Lost before Found

by Roxana Doncu

When Montesquieu wanted to criticize the narrow-minded, self-satisfied French society he chose to do it through the voice of a foreigner, Usbek, in The Persian Letters (1791). The objectivity of a foreign, neutral perspective was also Jonathan Swift's choice when targeting the petty political fights between the Whigs and the Tories in Gulliver's Travels. Both Montesquieu and Swift owed the success of their novels to the popular taste of the age, an age of colonial conquest, for exotic characters and journeys. Mocking this taste for the exotic, Voltaire chose to criticise human society and Catholic megalomania by means of two aliens (one from Sirius, the other from Saturn) paying a visit to our planet in his novella ''Micromegas'' (1752), one of the earliest pieces of science-fiction. Nowadays, due to technical progress and the discoveries of quantum physics, the genre is considerably richer in strange, hybrid characters: robots, mutants, cyborgs, androids, transformers, as well as in things like teleportations, parallel worlds, cyberspace, and so on. The subjects of science-fiction have changed, too, adapting to the technological world we live in. Yet the classical tradition of the critique of human nature has never disappeared: it gained new insight and profound ethical connotations in the works of such a giant of SF like Stanislav Lem. The two stories of the uruguayan writer Carlos Maria Federici, reunited in the bilingual volume Llegar a Khordoora/Sosirea la Khordoora in the collection Bibliotheca Universalis are part of this classical tradition of reflection on the imperfections of human nature and human society.

The first story, ''A road accident'', is a short but eloquent parable of the end of the world, or perhaps of the fall from paradise. Vaevar – the anagram of her name in Spanish is made up of Eve and the first syllable of the word 'man' – woman and androgyne symultaneously, is devoured by a morbid curiosity: she wants to find out the ultimate nature of things, to discover the meaning of the Bolar, a huge pyramid that represents the triad enormity-mystery-eternity. Vaevar and Danahem (the anagram of which is made up of Adam and the first syllable of the word 'woman' in Spanish), the androgyne-man, are a human couple living on Dene (Eden), together with the Boravians (from the Spanish word for viper), a slave population exhibiting serpentine features. Tanassa (Satan) assists Vaevar in her research and urges her to enter the Bolar and steal the black hexahedrons, where the two complementary principles, that of creation and destruction, are hidden. The words which Tanassa uses to determine Vaevar to commit a forbiden act remind us of the biblical parable of the tree of knowledge: ''We, the boravians, think that those on Dene have a right to know. Those on Dene instead think that you should discover.'' Under Tanassa's careful guidance, doctor Vaevar reaches the place where the hexahedrons are hidden and manages to take them; and, as the woman is capable of tricking even the Devil, Vaevar annihilates Tanassa at the end of her mission, when he claims the hexahedrons. All alone, contemplating the mystery of universal energy, of the fountain of Life, Vaevar, like another Pandora, opens the two hexahedrons one after the other. Unfolding in successive stages from '-seven' to 'zero', the last chapter is a biblical meditation on the end which will bring about a new beginning, a new world, where the role of woman will be different: ''And, when (by the hazard of the new evolution), the human race will re-emerge, the woman, the cause of the return to Origins, will not become a mother unless she serves the man; nd he will be her master; and her pains during pregnancy will be more intense, and she will give birth to her children in pain”.

If the first story turns out to be a critique aimed at the inquisitive spirit of Eve, unexpectedly associated with the scientific research spirit (in the great narrative of modernity the man is the hero of progress, of discoveries and tehnical innovation), the second story, ''Sosirea la Khordoora'' (Arriving in Khordoora), analyses the subtle mechanism through which desire can lead to self-delusion. Moved (again!) by curiosity, Cordoba, nicknamed 'Coop' (because of his physical likeness to Gary Cooper), the actor that plays Major Thorn in the movie They came to Cordura), a lonely wolf whose job is intergalactic transport in a Cosmic Community the pushes globalization to the last boundaries of space, looks into a strange load and discovers he is carrying a charming android, modelled after Rita Hayworth. The world of Cordoba 'Coop', although definitely superior to our own by the technical and communication means it possesses, is a closed universe, carefully supervised by the Cosmoplanners, and also a totalitarian one, where the guidelines of the Great Project of Total Cosmoplanning are faithfully obeyed. The only freedom that these beings retain is the freedom to dream, to escape in the realm of illusion, since, as the end shows, desire itself, the origin of uncontrollable instinct and resistance against bureaucratic regimentation, becomes a mechanism of control. Trying to control backward planets like the Earth (renamed Terrasolar by the new cosmic authority), the Cosmoplanners create two androids, prototypes of Hollywood stars like Erol Flynn and Rita Hayworth. Rita's charm is so powerful that even the brain behind this project, Cosmoplanner Choxco Vull falls in love with her and has to undergo psychoremodellation. Consequently, the Stellar Security decides that the two prototypes should be carried to a remote corner of the galaxy, using Cordoba's spaceship. Yet 'Coop' will also fall prey to Rita's beauty; he revives her and tries to escape the Cosmoplanners by going to Khordoora, a deserted asteroid in the Suntleones sector (an allusion to the unchartered territories on the ancient maps). After he defeats the pirate Harka Dynn, who tried to capture his ship and the android, Cordoba dreams of settling down, together with Rita, who is gradually humanized by his love. But Rita is just another instrument in the hands of the Cosmoplanners: her beautiful eyes are the windows through which Cordoba is permanently traced by the Security. When, eventually, conscious that he is going to be found and subjected to psychoremodellation, he tries to have one last taste of freedom and happiness, he will discover that ''dreams are smooth and impenetrable, distant and untouchable'': the beautiful Rita is asexual, made of ''one continuous piece, without any cut, without any hole that would have soiled her supernatural perfection''. Coming to Khordoora, a paradise that is already lost before being found, turns thus into a parable of what life is like in a totalitarian universe, where looking for meaning makes no sense.

The stories of Carlos Maria Federici, in the lively and captivating translation of the writer Daniel Dragomirescu, is a must not only for the fans of science-fiction literature and totalitarian distopias, but also for any reader with an interest in philosophical reflection, the borders of the human, and the eternal imperfection of human nature, which turn out to be, in the end, our most valuable assets.

English version by Roxana Doncu

BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS. 

ALL THE WORLD IN A LIBRARY

PORTUGUESE HORIZONS IN BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS

CLARA MARIA BARATA

Que luz reflectem os teus olhos?

Que luz reflectem os teus olhos

quando eternos

param nos meus olhos?

que rios que mares que fontes

derramam no meu sangue?

que lume que lava que chama 

ateiam na minha pele?

que néctar que rosas que beijos  

anunciam à minha boca?

que vento que chuva que canto

acordam no meu corpo?

meu amor 

se soubesse dizer como te quero

nomearias todas as estrelas.

Quelle lumière reflète tes yeux ?

Quelle lumière reflète tes yeux

quand ils sont éternels

pour mes yeux ?

quelles rivières quelles mers quelles fontaines

se déversent en mon sang ?

quel feu quelle lave quelle flamme

dévore ma peau?

quel nectar quelles roses quels baisers

annoncent ma bouche ?

Quel vent quelle pluie quelle chanson

réveillent mon corps?

mon amour

si je savais te dire combien je t’aime

je compterais toutes les étoiles

(from the book in progress: Antologia de poetas portugueses, II (coord. Antonio MR Martins), col. “Bibliotheca Universalis”)

Version française par Noëlle Arnoult (France)

Perfil

Clara Maria Barata é natural e residente em Coimbra. Participou em vários eventos ligados à poesia. Em 2012 fez a apresentação da obra de um autor. É co-autora em nove trabalhos antológicos, tendo sido, num deles, (Antologia de Inverno – Acordando Sonhos”, Pastelaria Studios Editora, 2012) um dos três concorrentes premiados. A solo, tem dois livros editados: “O sol disse-me que amanhã acorda cedo”, 2012, e “No silêncio das luzes e das sombras”, 2014, ambos sob a chancela da Temas Originais.

NEW BOOKS IN "BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS"

DEUX LIVRES POUR COMPLÉTER 

UNE BELLE BIBLIOTHÈQUE 

182. Max, le petit sorcier. Max, micul vrăjitor. Col. "Bibliotheca Universalis", 2019 (paru)

“Max grandit, on assiste même à une scène de métamorphose, dans le chapitre du même nom, il n'oublie nul membre de sa fratrie et, grâce à l'aide des fées, il retrouvera ceux de sa famille.... Toute péripétie que vous pourrez découvrir au sein de cette si jolie et originale histoire où, finalement, sans vouloir vous révéler l'épilogue, tout finit tout à fait fondu, réalité comme imaginaire, pour fusionner la plus belle des routes ou chemin de l'existence.”

„Max va creşte, asistăm chiar şi la o metamorfoză, în capitolul omonim, el nu îi uită pe fratele şi pe sora sa şi, graţie ajutorului dat de zâne, va reuşi să-şi reîntregească familia. Toate peripeţiile pe care le veţi putea descoperi în cadrul acestei frumoase istorii, unde, la final, fără a vă dezvălui propriu-zis epilogul, totul se reuneşte, real şi imaginar, pentru a deschide cel mai frumos drum al existenţei.“   

Noëlle Arnoult

184. Les Sanglots du vent. Col. "Bibliotheca Universalis" (en cours de parution) 

BIBLIOTHECA UNIVERSALIS. 

TOUT LE MONDE DANS UNE BIBLIOTHÈQUE.