Ok, second installment from my Levantul saga (first one here). Some of it is so, so funny, and I'm not sure the irony comes through. Especially the switch from a very serious, sorrowful registry to a lewd, soft, romantic one (towards the end).
| Tînărule, a ta faţă îmi apare străvezie, Gemetul ce scoţi e oare de amor sau de mînie, Mîna cu inele grele şi cu petre răsucite Pe jungher sau pe şold fraged va voi să se invite? Ah, pe junghiu! Si degrabă, căci tiranii înca rîde Conjurati de arvaniţii cu a lor turbane hîde, Incă mai jupoi ţeranii, înca junele le smulge Din a mumelor lor braţe, inca ţara o mai mulge! Tu de duci la Zante, unde în barcaz, la felinari Te aşteaptă a ta soră cu treizeci de palicari A ta soră! Zenaida! Cine-o vede se uimeşte Cine buzele de rujă, cine ochii i-i zăreşte I se pare cum că Hero vie s-au împeliţat Să-l aştepte iar pe Leandros lîng-al mărilor palat. |
Young man, your visage appears all translucent to my eyes, The deep moan you heave, it’s rage, or is it amour in disguise? Your hand, covered with old heavy golden rings, will perhaps grip The quick knife, or will it want to touch a tender, curvy hip? Ah, the knife! And quickly, for the tyrants laugh and roar Guarded by the fierce Albanians in their turbans laced with gore They still rob the peasants and they cruelly rape their young, who cry, In their mothers’ arms, and they will suck this country dry! You—you leave for Zante, to the sailboat by whose light, Your dear sister with her thirty palikars await to fight. Oh, your sister! Zenaida! He who sees her is amazed— Who her rouge lips or her bright eyes glimpses, will be dazed, And believe that he can once again sweet Hero see, As she waits for her Leander in the palace by the sea. |
NOTES:
1. On arvaniţi=Albanians. Arvanit/pl. arvaniţi is an archaic word no longer used in Romanian, which comes from the Modern Greek arvanitis, for Albanian. To this day there is a small ethnic Albanian community in Greece called Arvanits (more here).There are many other names in Romanian for ethnic Albanians -- skiptari, schipetari (from the official name of Albania, Shqiperia), arbinasi, or the more common arnauti. I think this word is a wonderful example of Balkan syncretism, where an Albanian word becomes Romanian via Greek. Well, I'm not sure how Albanian the word "Albanian" is (I know, very confusing), but Wikipedia provides some clues.
Regrettably, while Romanian seems to have at least 5-6 words for "Albanians" floating around, due to a long history of intermingling and what not, I can only seem to find one such word in English. Unfortunately, "Albanian" doesn't carry within the rich connotations of "arvaniţi<," only one of which is linguistic, and others having to do with the social and political role Albanian soldiers played in the Ottoman Empire.
2. Palicari=palikar//brave men. Another wonderful archaism employed by Cartarescu for maximum linguistic authenticity and color. Again, it's derived from a Greek word, pallikári, which used to mean a Greek volunteer during the 1821-1828 Greek independence war; it came to mean, by extension, a "brave man." I initially translated "palicari" with "brave men," which is quite accurate, but lacks local color, then I discovered that "palikar" is a legitimate (though esoteric) word in English, so...I went ahead and used it! I'm still waffling a little on this one--mainly, because the English meaning of "palikar" is very restrictive ("Greek soldier in the war of independence against Turkey, 1821-1828") and does not include the general meaning that it has acquired in Romanian (and possibly throughout the Balkans, who knows?) of brave, strong man.
3. If you need your memory refreshed re: Hero and Leander, here's a nice summary.
