Analfabetilor / You, illiterates

POSTED IN translated Romanian-English September 21, 2015

Analfabetilor / You, illiterates

V-am spus ca sunt un om periculos
Si nu mi-ati luat avertismentu-n seama.
V-am spus s-aveti pentru persoana mea
Un plus de-ngrijorare si de teama.

V-am spus ca fac teribil de urât
De sunt calcat putin pe libertate.
V-am spus ca sunt osteanul credincios
Dar care doar cu inamici se bate.

V-am spus sa va astâmparati si voi,
Cenzori capriciosi ai vremii mele,
C-o sa va coste scump maruntul moft,
De a ne face noua zile grele.

V-am spus sa puneti mâna sa munciti.
Sa nu mai tot pânditi zelosi din umbra,
V-am spus ca n-o sa placa nimanui
Pornirea voastra, tulbure si sumbra.

V-am spus ca vremurile s-au schimbat
Si ca situatia e mai complexa,
Nu-i intelectualul – servitor.
Cultura nu-i ceva ca o anexa.

Si lumea nu se poate cuceri
Umflând la cifre si mimind tumulturi
Cu aroganti si trindavi doctoranzi,
Cu papagali care tin loc de vulturi.

V-am spus si am puterea sa mai spun
Ca nu încape muntele în sera
Ca prea-i scurt drumul de la rai la iad
Si de la caprioara la pantera.

V-am spus sa nu-l fetisizati pe Marx,
Sa nu-i pastrati în spirt învatatura
Si voi într-una fara sa-l cititi
Îl pomeniti pâna va doare gura.

V-am spus ca batalia pentru om
Nu iarta astazi nici o dezertare
Si voi v-ati decorat voi între voi
Când lupta este în desfasurare.

V-am spus ca muzica nu-i un microb
Care ameninta civilizatii
E-a omului pentru a fi mai bun,
V-am spus: ceva care sa-i placa dati-i.

V-am spus, concetateni analfabeti,
Si luati aminte si sa tineti minte.
Dar nu stiam ca v-ati nascut si surzi
Si scoateti arma când vedeti cuvinte.

ADRIAN PAUNESCU

……………………………………

You, illiterates

I told you that I am a dangerous man
and you chose to ignore my righteous warning.
I told you be more cautious and afraid
when you speak and my person is concerning.

I told you that I terribly react
if you step on my freedom just a tad.
I told you that I am the faithful soldier
who’s fighting only foes, worst kind of lad.

I told you to calm down and to appease,
you, capricious censors of our age,
that you’ll pay dearly your petty caprice
to make our days much tighter than a cage.

I told you to start working, really work,
and not lurk zealously behind our back.
I told you that no one will ever like
your dreary tendency, troubled and dark.

I told you that the time of now has changed
and the lay of the land is more complex.
The intellectual is not a servant
and culture’s something more than an annex.

The world cannot be conquered only with
inflated figures, phony enthused vox
with arrogant and lazy doctorates,
and parakeets replacing eagle-hawks.

I told you and I have the guts to tell
that in a greenhouse cannot fit the mount,
that is too short the path: Eden to Hell
and from the doe to panther in a hunt.

I told you to not fetishize Marx, and
to not preserve his teaching in a jar.
But without reading him, you, on and on,
quote him until your tired mouth has scar.

I told you that the battle for mankind
allows not a desertion nowadays,
but you awarded medals to yourselves,
while the battle goes on many ways.

I told you music isn’t a disease
that threatens our old civilization.
It’s for the humankind, to make them better,
I told you: give it the best of a nation.

I told you, fellow citizens, illiterates
forever to remember and beware!
But I knew not that you were born deaf
and fire arms when words are in the air.

Romanian version Maria Magdalena Biela