Nina Cassian - RIP

Nina Cassian, an exiled Romanian poet who sought refuge in the United States after her poems satirizing the regime of President Nicolae Ceausescu fell into the hands of his secret police, died on Monday at her home in Manhattan. She was 89.

Intense, passionate and cleareyed, Ms. Cassian’s poetry often centered on the nature of erotic love and — both before her exile and after — of loss, death and decay. In “Ballad of the Jack of Diamonds,” published in The New Yorker in 1990 in a translation by Richard Wilbur, she wrote:

Nina Cassian read her poetry at Cooper Union in New York in 2003.  

Credit Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times

Here is the Jack of Diamonds, clad

In the rusty coat he’s always had.

His two dark brothers wish him dead,

As does the third, whose hue is red. ...

One brother, on his breast and sleeves,

Is decked with tragic, spadelike leaves.

The next has crosses for décor.

The motif of the third is gore.

The Jack of Diamonds is dead,

Leaving a vacuum in his stead.

This ballad seems at least twice-told.

Well, all Rumanian plots are old.

By MARGALIT FOX  APRIL 18, 2014

more here : 

The New York Times 

RIP Nina Cassian

'In unele clipe ideale, sunt pasarea maiastra-a lui Brancusi.
Mi-e gatul ca un cast lunecus
pentru mainile tale. '