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:
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.
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. '
Mi-e gatul ca un cast lunecus
pentru mainile tale. '
