Mary MacRae - Life Story

CTITC

CENTRE FOR THE TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY TEXT
CENTRUL PENTRU TRADUCEREA SI INTERPRETAREA TEXTULUI CONTEMPORAN

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TRANSLATION CAFÉ

CTITC
CENTER FOR THE TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY TEXT

MTTLC
MA Programme for the TRANSLATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY LITERARY TEXT

TRANSLATION

CAFÉ

Review of Contemporary Texts in Translation and E-Learning

Nr. 30/April 2, 2008

Director: LIDIA VIANU

© CTITC
MTTLC

ISSN 1842 – 9149

Issue Editor: LIDIA VIANU si ANDREEA DIACONU

These translations are an online seminar of literary translation, part of Lidia Vianu’s course [Guide to Contemporary Literature and Its Translation], and a session of E-Learning in the MA Programme for the Translation of the Contemporary Literary Text, directed by Lidia Vianu.

The texts have also been discussed in translation group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/translationcafe/

poetry pRO

A collaboration between Lidia Vianu, Professor of contemporary British literature at the English Department of the University of Bucharest, and poetry p f, a growing showcase of poets writing in English, some fully accomplished with several published collections, others at the start of their poetic careers.

Lidia Vianu: www.e-scoala.ro/lidiavianu/index.html
poetry p f: www.poetrypf.co.uk/

CONTENTS

Mary MacRae

Mary MacRae lives in London and spent her working life teaching English. In 1997 she joined The Poetry School and has studied with Mimi Khalvati, Myra Schneider and other tutors there ever since; she was awarded the Poetry School Scholarship for 2002-3. Since then she has had poems published in a wide variety of magazines, and has won two prizes in Scintilla’s Long Poem Competition and, more recently, joint first prize in the Second Light competition. Her work is also included in the second Poetry School Anthology, Entering the Tapestry’ (Enitharmon 2003), and in Four Caves of the Heart, published by Second Light Publications, 2004. She has read at numerous venues in London and elsewhere.

Her prose writing includes a number of interviews with poets and reviews of collections; a biocritical essay on Mimi Khalvati will be included in the forthcoming ‘Contemporary ‘Black’ British Writers’ volume of the Dictionary of Literary Biography.

Translations of Life Story by: Petruta-Oana Naidut, Paula Sezonov, Raluca-Ioana Manolescu, Gabriela Moldovan, Ioana-Alina Stan, Iulia Anchidin, Violeta Mitu, Gianina Casleanu, Silvia Nicolae, Eliza Ghitulescu, Alina Petrescu, Ionela Maria Adam, Raul Cojocaru, Ana-Maria Purec, Teofana Cristina Trapcea, Ioana Tudor, Steliana Palade, Patricia Neculae, Daniela Bojica, Elena-Rodica Ionas (Tita), Brandusa Raileanu, Carmen-Oana Dumitru, Alina Barbu, Corina Nicoleta Iscru, Ileana Botescu Sireteanu, Liviu Martinescu, Andreea Hadambu, Monica Manolachi, Mihaela Guzu, Ruxandra Buluc, Roxana Dude, Simona Elisabeta Catana, Cristina Florea.

Translations from:

Mary MacRae

Life Story

Night, and you step out into blackness, over
the side of the silent vessel, dreading that you
or your boots might slip and miss the rung, one
false move your last. Between above and below
you hang breathless, locked into history—
and this is what you chose, what you want.

No moon, no stars—though light’s not what you want—
only a sound like a thumb rubbing over
corrugated card as the men in your story
run down the ladder, loaded with kit. And you
feel rather than see, where the man below
you wavers, shifts his pack, now there’s no-one.

‘Dropped like a stone,’ I hear you say, ‘just one
splash and he’d gone.’ A small smile. You want
to cry, can’t quite believe the man below
the water wasn’t you, rehearse it over
and over again to convince yourself that you
survived the war, came home to tell your story.

It comes back to me now: hearing your story
I saw what you saw, clear as glass, how someone
plummeted down, but whether it was you,
or him, or someone else, I didn’t want
to know. Slid through a door that closed over
his head, from dark above to dark below.

Whoever that man was who plunged below,
if you’re the secret sharer of his story
then I’m yours. And the story isn’t over;
when you dropped like a stone you left me one
part short, however much I wanted—want—
to understand the plot and why I miss you.

Taller than life, younger than in death, you
come to visit me now from way below
the spirit-level of dream; won’t speak. I want
to ask if you can love me—that old story—
but don’t; put my arms around you one
last time and say, I love you, over and over.

I conjured you from below by telling your story
and then I saw our two stories are one:
can I want yours to end before mine’s over?

by:

+ Petruta-Oana Naidut

+ Paula Sezonov

+ Raluca Ioana Manolescu

+ Teofana Cristina Trapcea

+ Elena-Rodica Tita (Ionas)

+ Brandusa Raileanu

+ Carmen-Oana Dumitru

+ Alina Barbu

+ Corina Nicoleta Iscru

+ Ileana Botescu-Sireteanu

+ Simona Elisabeta Catana

+ Cristina Florea

LICENTA LUCRARI DE DIPLOMA DOCTORATE TRANSLATION CAFÉ THE JOI JOY GRUP DE DISCUTII Translation in high school CONTACT

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Lidia Vianu - Director of CTITC (CENTRE FOR THE TRANSLATION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY TEXT), Bucharest University, Professor of Contemporary British Literature at the English Department of Bucharest University, Member of the Writers’ Union, Romania.




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