Lucia Cherciu
Translating My Own Poems
is as absurd as taking the trouble,
building the euphoria to pay the parking fee,
board the train, travel for two hours to the city
enjoying the view of the Hudson,
only, when I arrive,
instead of getting off at Grand Central
and merging the crowd slick in black,
to find out immediately when the next train returns
and maybe, if I am lucky,
even discover that I can simply wait
on the same shuttle,
and just come back to Poughkeepsie,
rather than straighten my tight skirt,
practice my strut,
the city waiting for me at the gate, giddy, gallant.
Bio
Lucia Cherciu is a Professor of English at SUNY Dutchess in Poughkeepsie, NY, and she writes both in English and in Romanian. Her poetry appeared in Connecticut Review, Connotation Press, Cortland Review, Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment, Memoir, Off the Coast, Paterson Literary Review , The Prose-Poem Project, Spillway, Oglinda Literară, Pro Saeculum, Salonul Literar, Timpul, Hyperion, Contrapunct, Astra, and elsewhere. She is the author of two books of poetry: Lepădarea de Limbă (The Abandonment of Language), Editura Vinea 2009, and Altoiul Râsului (Grafted Laughter), Editura Brumar 2010.