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January 1, 2025

happy new year / poezii

On the 1st of every year I publish a list of art I liked in the previous year. This year’s list is woefully inadequate because I forgot many things, but it includes a playlist of my favorite 2024 songs and a few other details.

I’m working on a follow-up release to Verses that will include just the poetry translations from Romanian & Hungarian and some accompanying notes. It’ll hopefully be done by Spring. Here’s a screenshot:

notes on Plumb  Romanian text: Dormeau adânc sicriele de plumb, Și flori de plumb și funerar veștmânt - Stam singur în cavou… și era vânt… Și scârțâiau coroanele de plumb. Dormea întors amorul meu de plumb Pe flori de plumb, și-am început să-l strig - Stam singur lângă mort… și era frig… Și-i atârnau aripile de plumb. Verses translation: The lead coffins are fast asleep, and leaden flowers and funeral robes confined in our cave a cold wind blows and the lead wreaths creaked. Toward the west her leaden head rests upon lead flowers, I speak - alone with the dead it starts to freeze where they hang their wings of lead.    Plumb was one of the first poems Daria recommended to me. I loved it - the repetitive, concise language; the eerieness; the unusual ABBA rhyme scheme. I ran through a number of more literal translations before speaking with Daria about the actual meaning and allusions in the poem, some of which I'm sure I've still missed. It was a challenge, and I went through numerous revisions trying to pack both an accurate translation and one that conveyed George Bacovia's intent into eight short lines. I especially struggled with the fifth and sixth lines, where Daria pointed out the loaded meaning of

Wishing you all many happy returns in 2025!

<3 kit

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