HILARY ELFICK

The Oil Bird has a nightmare

 

I live in shadows where
the mountain streams
have found a way

beneath the valley floor.
On a high dark ledge
I rest from the sun’s glare.

When evening comes I stir,
ruffle my wing feathers,
tweak them till they gleam.

It is the evening rain
that calls me out with all the
scents of honeyed berries

under sagging boughs
of clementine and
passionfruit and lime,

sucking and swallowing all the songs
of starlight and a smoky fire.
Returning before dawn

I spew fermenting juice
into my waiting chick
until he swells and strains,

becomes a ball of
oily nectarine, stumbles,
spins, rolls over, over,

hits the dank floor,
explodes into a
steaming dream of punch.

Roxana-Monica Mîndrican

Hilary Elfick
 

Pasarea de ulei* are un cosmar

Traiesc in vagauni umbroase
din care se strecoara
paraurile de munte

de-a lungul vailor.
Pe o stanca inalta si-ntunecata
ma ascund de lumina orbitoare a soarelui.*

Cand se lasa seara ma trezesc la viata,*
imi intind aripile,
le scutur pana ce stralucesc.

Ploia de la amurg
ma ademeneste cu
mireasma dulce a zmeurei

sub cracile incovoiate
de clementine,
fructul pasiunii si lamai,

sorb si inghit toate cantecele
stelelor si a vapaii fumegande.*
Ma intorc in zori

Si vars licoarea fermentata
In gatlejul deschis al puiului meu
Pana ce se umfla si se intinde
devenind o minge,
o nectarina uleioasa, se impleticeste,
se roteste, se rostogoleste iar si iar,

loveste podeaua umeda,
explodeaza intr-un
vis aburind de punch.

*This rare bird is unique to Trinidad: falling chicks do literally explode.

*“the sun’s glare” –‘glare’ suggests the idea of a dazzling/blinding light in torrid summer day. Therefore I chose “lumina orbitoare a soarelui” (the sun’s dazzling light) in order to stress the idea of intensity.

*I chose to translate „stir”( to begin to move, to wake up”) by „ma trezesc la viata”(„I wake up life”), because associating the verb „ma trezesc” ( wake up) with the noun „viata” (life) we add much energy and vigour to the event. „ma trezesc” suggests the idea that someone passes from passivity to activity, and the noun”Viata” stresses this idea of activity and vital power.

*vapaie fumeganda” (smokey fire)- i chose „vapaie”(flame) for „fire”(In Romanian „foc”), because „vapaie” is mower powerful than”foc” which is rather neutral. „vapaie” focuses on intensity