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Romania

An ivory background with water stains
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Kaddish: For Miklós Radnóti
By Radu Vancu
If the light cries at what I write / it doesn’t mean that I’m alive
Translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
Multilingual
The covers of Vengeance Is Mine, Under Our Skin, Negras, Rotten Evidence, MA, Owlish, The Love...
The Best Books We Read in 2023—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2024
By Words Without Borders
WWB staff members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they’re most looking forward to in 2024.
2023-07-City-and-Writer-Dana-Grigorcea-Feature.jpeg
Credit: Mardiana Sani
The City and the Writer: In Zürich with Dana Grigorcea
By Nathalie Handal
In Switzerland people tend to be reticent, but reticence is—from both literary and theoretical perspectives—the best starting point for sudden passion.
Translated from German by Alta L. Price
The covers of the books featured in the list
The Best Books of 2022—And What We’re Looking Forward to in 2023
By Words Without Borders
Our staff, contributors, and board members share their favorite translated books of the year and the titles they’re looking forward to in 2023.
The covers of the books featured in the Watchlist
The Watchlist: December 2022
By Tobias Carroll
Tobias Carroll recommends exciting new books in translation from Mauritius, Romania, Japan, Spain, Germany, and Puerto Rico.
Left, the Romanian cover of Mircea Cartarescu's Solenoid; center, translator Sean Cotter; right,...
Romanian Translation’s Johnny Appleseed: An Interview with Sean Cotter
By Clara Burghelea
We shall see if the hype in the United States reaches the levels Cărtărescu garners in Colombia, where he needed a police cordon to get through his crowd of fans.
Portrait of writer Ioana Morpurgo
The City and the Writer: In Bucharest with Ioana Morpurgo
By Nathalie Handal
I love this city against my own better judgment.
The Release of Mr. K
By Matéi Visniec
There was no one to tell him what to do.
Translated from Romanian by Jozefina Komporaly
Onomasticon
By Mircea Horia Simionescu
As a child, he suffered from the disease called humility. Poor man!
Translated from Romanian by Sean Cotter
The Ditch
By Răzvan Petrescu
The shovels’ dull thud mixed with the steady patter of rain.
Translated from Romanian by Florin Bican
The Agent
By Tatiana Niculescu Bran
“Little lady, do you have a craving for cozonac?”
Translated from Romanian by Jean Harris
Grin and Bear It: Transformative New Romanian Fiction
By Jean Harris
To make haz de necaz is to transform tribulation through the play of wit.
from “The Confession”
By Tatiana Niculescu Bran
As they wearied, the whips would fall from their hands.
Translated from Romanian by Jean Harris
Multilingual
In Our Backyard
By Dumitru Tsepeneag
Then, for the first time, the strange thought occurred to me that our carpet frame had become a gallows.
Translated from Romanian by Patrick Camiller
The Bicycle Factory
By Adrian Sângeorzan
What was better: to lie in the ground with a uterus or to live above it without one?
Translated from Romanian by Jean Harris
The Amigo
By Ioan Es. Pop
He’s so drunk he can hardly stand and he’s bruised all over.
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Lidia Vianu
From “The Same Way Every Day”
By Gabriela Adamesteanu
We had all heard rumors about an album of naked girls, from which guests invited to a tea in the City could choose the ones they liked.
Translated from Romanian by Carrie Messenger
Trilingual Poem with Dead Swans
By Alta Ifland
Dead swans on purple waters
A photo of dark clouds over a town.
[Cloud study]; Unknown maker, French; about 1860–1870; Albumen silver print. Public domain; courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
Bilingual Poem avec Clichés
By Alta Ifland
Danse avec moi baby under the stormy sky
Lockjaw
By Richard Wagner
I walk toward the mill / To meet my quiet father
Translated from German by Victor Pambuccian
Father’s Return from War. Topics
By Horia Gârbea
Father went to war. Then he died in the war. When our neighbors found out the news, they looked at us, Mother and me, with pity.
Translated from Romanian by Mihaela Mudure
Counterfeits
By Carmen Firan
how many words do we need to make ourselves clear?
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Carmen Firan
Suppositions
By Carmen Firan
what would the savior have looked like / grown old?
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Carmen Firan
On Packing
By Herta Müller
I carried everything I had. It wasn't actually mine.
Translated from German by Donal McLaughlin
An Exchange on Nation and Exile
By Paul Celan & Yehuda Amichai
Perhaps I am one of the last who must live out to the end the destiny of the Jewish spirit in Europe.
Translated from German by John Felstiner
From “Laundry”
By Suzane Adam
I don't blame my parents for what happened next, they had enough troubles.
Translated from Hebrew by Becka Mara McKay
after pompeii
By Mariana Dan
today I see / as I can't be seen
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Mariana Dan
claustrophobia
By Mariana Dan
outside, lonely horses / shod with crescent moons and crosses
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Mariana Dan
Deaf as a Log
By Mariana Dan
you're deaf as a log
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Mariana Dan
Barbed wire fence at early morning
Photo by Jannik on Unsplash
Haul
By György Dragomán
The bears are tame, I broke them in myself.
Translated from Hungarian by Paul Olchváry
Pastoral
By Max Blecher
An expansion of plants with water fingers
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Inscription on a Tomb
By Tristan Tzara
And I felt your pure and sad soul / As you'd feel the moon float in silence
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Encounter
By Gabriela Adamesteanu
Feverish, tense, you try to calm your rapid breathing.
Translated from Romanian by Jean Harris & Constantin Virgil Banescu
Domestic Sadness
By Tristan Tzara
In the seed of lilies / I buried you serenely
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Come with Me to the Countryside
By Tristan Tzara
House under construction with dried branches, like spiders, in your scaffolding
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
The Birch Grove
By Luminita Mihai Cioaba
Then, without ever knowing why, trees raise their naked arms to the King of the Sky.
Translated from Romany by Adam J. Sorkin & Cristina Cirstea
Queen of the Night and Stone Flower
By Luminita Mihai Cioaba
The eyes of the Roma know exactly when the earth's heart begins to stir deep down at spring's root, reviving the shoots of grass and the buds of trees until the green sap bursts with love before the Sun's eyes.
Translated from Romany by Adam J. Sorkin & Cristina Cirstea
I
By Eugène Ionesco
Life is full of unexplainable things. But, moreover, it is full of me. To be better heard, I repeat, ladies: it is full of me. From this you will deduce that I too am one of those unexplainable things,…
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Voice
By Tristan Tzara
What a pity you don't feel / How the trees bow to kiss you
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Last Night
By Paul Celan
From the trees planted by dusk in our rooms that were set on firewe’ll slowly untie the glass pigeons, that eternal foliage;they’ll grow rustling on our shoulders and arms, and there will…
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
Friend midear
By Tristan Tzara
Sun in your eyes, craving on your lips
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
A Kiss
By Ioan Flora
On the intergalactic station Malmorius, Jaspar the Terriblefeverishly prepares for the decisive attack.Who knows where in the Central Desert of Athyria, Commander Z.checks the converters one by one, the…
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Alina Carac
A Letter to Ernesto Sábato
By Norman Manea
Author’s noteErnesto Sábato’s novel Abaddón el exterminador (1974) includes a dense epistolary chapter addressed to a virtual fellow writer, which begins “Dear, distant young man…”…
Translated from Romanian by Stephen Kessler & Daniela Hurezanu
Poem for Marianne’s Shadow
By Paul Celan
To think it's the right moment now to talk to me in tears, / to go barefoot there, so you be told what's in store for us:
Translated from Romanian by Victor Pambuccian
From “The Lost Country”
By Luminita Mihai Cioaba
Don't be afraid. I'll be here by your side, and I'll give you the gift I promised.
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Cristina Cirstea
Beretta
By Mariana Marin
Chemical. / Fire grass. / Retching.
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
Mynheer
By Mariana Marin
Good man, my friend Mynheer . . . / Banished one day far from home
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
L’apparition
By Mariana Marin
And the redeeming hour in which the poem writhes; / and the young desert in the still glowing cinders;
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
Red and White
By Mariana Marin
At times reality catches me in the middle of the act / and stuffs down my throat its five-cornered red stars.
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
In Another Life
By Marta Petreu
I could have been your refuge. I could have killed you. Yes you-
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Christina Illias-Zarifopol
Here
By Marta Petreu
You are forbidden to me. I love you but my flesh turns black upon me / a block of coal pure useless alive
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Christina Illias-Zarifopol
A Friend of the Archangel
By Gabriela Melinescu
As shadows turn to light, so was Gabriel's sadness turning constantly into something else.
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
Tip of the Day, or, Shakespeare and Computers
By Adrian Otoiu
There was one more reason to get worried: for some time now, her handwriting had been shrinking, reticulated like oil paint applied on a frozen surface.
Translated from Romanian by the author
The Karenina Complex
By Mariana Marin
If only I knew how to lose my shadow on time / if only I knew how to point myself out with my finger,
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
To Live in Sin
By Virgil Duda
The chief was about to run after him and give him a beating, but Lia stood in his way and said: He's underage.
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
Crematorium
By Marta Petreu
The violence / the guilt with which I love you thus derive from that distance
Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin & Christina Illias-Zarifopol
From “Portrait of M”
By Matei Călinescu
Anyone's death is a great tragedy.
Translated from Romanian by Angela Jianu
Nabokov in Brasov
By Mircea Cartarescu
I was asked to join Securitate.
Translated from Romanian by Julian Semilian
From “Wasted Morning”
By Gabriela Adamesteanu
“The preeminent voice among contemporary Romanian women novelists.”—Norman Manea
Translated from Romanian by Patrick Camiller
The Two Boys
By Anonymous (from George Borrow)
Two Romany boys were sent, / sent across the great sea.
Translated from Romany by Peter Constantine
Multilingual