HILARY ELFICK

Macedoine


A thin film of syrup running down the
plump slope of a ripe pear, too good
to wipe clean. Two orange pippins

bursting into a champagne pop.
She is laughing. Lifting her
I bury my nose in her velvet

roundness, her scent of raspberry
and boysenberry, teasing her into
more pops, more bubbles, more fizz

as she struggles to break free. I am damp
from her, my face blotched with her juices,
my hair sticky in her honeysuckle clasping.

She is all the warmth of harvest, all the
lightness of Spring. ‘I am your Grannie’
I whisper against her tumbleweed head.

‘I am your candles and your songline. I am
your storyteller and your painter. I am
your secret root, your crumbled ground.’

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Salata de fructe

Un strat subtire de sirop curgand de-a lungul
pantei abrupte a unei pere coapte*, prea buna
sa fie curatata. Doua mere* portocalii

explodand intr-o pocnitura de sampanie.
Ea rade. Ridicand-o
Imi ingrop nasul in rotunjimile-i

catifelate, mirosul ei de zmeura
si mure*, tachinand-o in
mai multe pocnituri, mai multe bule, mai multa spuma

in timp ce se lupta sa se elibereze. Sunt umed
fata mi-e patata cu sucurile ei,
parul imi e lipicios in stransoarea ei de caprifoi.

Ea reprezinta toata caldura recoltei, toata
lumina Primaverii. “eu sunt Bunicuta ta”
Ii soptesc langa capul-i acoperit de buruieni.

“eu sunt lumanarile si versurile tale. Eu sunt
povestitorul si pictorul tau. Eu sunt
radacina ta secreta, pamantul tau sfaramicios.”

*In the source text: “plump slope of a ripe pear”- I translated by “pantei abrupte a unei pere copate” trying to preserve the alliteration in the target text. Stylistic devices, such as alliteration, are important for the musicality and the sonority of the verse/ poem, and the translator should try to preserve them in the target text.

*”Pippin” in the original text - any of numerous superior eating apples with yellow or greenish yellow skin flushed with red.

*boysenberry- in the original text- is a cross between a raspberry and the Pacific blackberry. For a berry, this is a very large fruit (8.0g), with large seeds and a deep maroon color.