HILARY ELFICK

War

 

It was while my Mum was knitting that, unheralded,
the fire picked itself up out of the small tiled grate
and dropped in perfect shape on the middle of our only rug
and never faltered in its burning

but when my father came in, he didn’t notice
because he’d just tidied away a man’s foot
still whole inside the boot
whose buttons were quite undisturbed.

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Razboi

In timp ce mama impletea, scantei
Sarit-au deodata din semineul mic de teracota,
s-au napustit cutezatoare* pe pledul nostru-singurul !
si nu au ezitat o clipa in valvataia lor

insa cand tata a sosit, n-a observat
el tocmai asezase intr-un colt piciorul unui om
inca varat in intregime-n gheata
cu butonii incheiati.

*I used « cutezatoare »(audacious, bold) because associating it with its determiner, the noun fire, I tried to underline its intensity- the « perfect shape » which the source text mentions suggest this intensity and boldness of the flames which, as the poem afterwards says, « never faltered in its burning . »