HILARY ELFICK

Aldeburgh
 

Perhaps in louder winds and higher seas
I might limpet the wall. In still, insidious
dry air, grown careless, the smallest skip
or stumble might just tumble me
into a rustling landscape where
small hints in the shadows scamper
hunting, hunting, hunting silently
each night beneath a cold defacing moon.

O how tabs hidden in old pockets fumble
into the bright air whispering Goldhanger
and Maldon Creek, where suck and sweep
across the wide salt marsh make burrowed-fest
for sanderlings to tug against its suction
pulling out a delicacy fit for kings.

Now these three long days of festival
play their own games with my memory,
flicking their treacherous tricks
beyond a window that frames a red fire,
inside a landscape that I’d whitened out,
and buried deep, some forty years agok.

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Aldeburgh*

Poate ca vanturile de-ar fi mai aspre si marile mai adanci
M-as catara pe zid asemeni unui melc. in acest aer tihnit si-nselator,
ma las la voia intamplarii, cel mai mic obstacol
sau pas gresit ma poate rasturna
intr-un peisaj frematand unde
indicii din umbra alearga
cutreierand neancetat, in tacere
noapte de noapte sub lumina rece si distorsionanta a lunii*

Butoni ascunsi in buzunare vechi bajbie
in aerul stralucitor susotind Goldhanger*
si Golful din Maldon*, unde abosrb si matura
de-a lungul vastei mlastini de sare facand o adevarata petrecere*
pentru ca ploierii* sa se sustraga aspirarii ei
cu o finete demna de un rege.

Astazi aceste trei lungi zile de festival
imi rascolesc amintirile
jucandu-si farsele perfide
in spatele unei ferestre ce incadreaza un foc rosu,
intr-un peisaj pe care l-am dat uitarii*
si l-am ingropat adanc, acum patruzeci de ani.

*Aldeburgh is a coastal town in Suffolk, East Anglia, England. Located on the Alde river at 52° 9' North, 1° 36' East, the town is notable for its Blue Flag shingle beach and fisherman huts (freshly caught fish sold daily), its proximity to Thorpeness village and boating mere and golf courses at Aldeburgh, Thorpeness and Ufford Park. It is noted for the internationally renowned Aldeburgh Festival of arts, which takes place at nearby Snape Maltings. The festival was created in 1948 by the resident and acclaimed composer Benjamin Britten.

*cold defacing moon” in the source text- „lumina rece si distorsionanta a lunii”- i chose „distorsionanta”(distorting) as an equivalent for „defacing”(which erases, deforms) because it focuses on the fact that the moonlight erases the normal contours of things and made them look odd and unnatural. It is this atmosphere of a mysterious night witch evokes the witches, elves and all the fairy-tale creatures.

*Goldhanger, is a neat and pleasant village, at the head of a short creek, on the north side of the estuary of the Blackwater, 4 miles East North East of Maldon. The village has a fair for toys on Whit-Monday, and a great part of the parish is low and marshy, but on the north side the surface rises gently, and the soil is a gravelly loam.

*it is located in Australia

*in the original text „burrowed-fest”- could be interpretet as hinting at “the burrow owl festival”. This is to celebrate the Burrowing Owl, that is the official city bird and Cape Coral’s natural resource treasure. This festival is designed to educate people about the owl and to involve them in its preservation. Events included a children’s corner, native plants sales, live animals, educational speakers, nature walks, burrowing owl tours and exhibitors’ displays. Demonstrations on installing starter burrows, perch making and burrow maintenance, a butterfly tent with live butterflies. I chose to translate this by”petrecere”(party) retaining only the idea of party/festival.

*This bird is similar in size to a Dunlin, but stouter, with a thick bill. It shows a strong white wingbar in flight, and runs along the sandy beaches it prefers with a characteristic "bicycling" action, stopping frequently to pick small food items. It eats small crabs and other small invertebrates. In spring, birds migrating north from South America consume large numbers of horseshoe crab eggs in the Delaware Bay area. In Romaninan it is called “ploier”.
 

*”l-am dat uitarii” (to pass into oblivion) – „I’d whitened out”. To pass into oblivion supposes to leave a blank (an white space) in the memory. Therefore if we associate the verb „to withen” with the noun „oblivion”(„uitare” in Romanian) we can translate „to whiten out” by „a da uitarii” ( to pass into oblivion).