MYRA SCHNEIDER

Amazon

      for Grevel

 

For four months
all those Matisse and Picasso women
draped against
plants, balconies, Mediterranean sea, skies
have taunted me
with the beautiful globes of their breasts as I've filled

my emptiness
with pages of scrawl, with fecund May, its floods
of green, its irrepressible
wedding-lace white, buttercup gold,
but failed to cover
the image of myself as a misshapen clown

until you reminded me
that in Greek myth the most revered women
were the single-breasted
Amazons who mastered javelins and bows, rode
horses into battle,
whose fierce queens were renowned for their femininity.

Then recognising the fields I'd fought my way across
I raised my shield
of glistening words, saw it echoed the sun.

Alina-Olimpia Gaci (Miron)

Myra Schneider
 

Amazoana
 

        pentru Grevel
 

Timp de patru luni
toate acele femei ale lui Matisse si Picasso
pictate pe fundalul
plantelor, balcoanelor, Marii Mediterane, cerurilor
ma tachinau
cu minunatii lor nuri in timp ce-mi umpleam

goliciunea
cu pagini de mazgalituri, cu fecunda luna de mai, cu suvoaiele
sale de verde, cu albu-i de nestapanit
asemeni dantelei de nunta, auriul precum piciorul cocosului,
dar nu am reusit sa-mi ascund imaginea de clovn diform

pana nu mi-ai amintit
ca in miturile grecesti femeile cele mai slavite
erau amazoanele cu un singur san
cele care manuiau sulita si arcul, care manau
cai in batalie,
ale caror aprige regine erau renumite pentru feminitatea lor.

Apoi recunoscand campurile pe unde-mi facusem drum luptand
mi-am ridicat scutul
de cuvinte scanteietoare si am vazut ca raspundea ca un ecou soarelui.