DANIELA ALBU

 

The Song Of The Refugee Troubadour

 

 Daily I cross through this desert, the silence terrifies me,

 I left the lands of hatred

 gazing in frozen nights at the mystery in the stars

 looking for a long-lost peace.

 In the cold sands I manage to forget for a moment

 the places I left forever

 where death crushes the buds disfiguring the spring.

 I only remember slowly dripping through my fingers

 the ashes of the ruins, I left the door of the old house open

 and behind me some flowering trees

 silent witnesses of lost normality.

 In the nights of this vast understanding desert

 I raise my song to the sky for a world of peace

 

Hephaestus

 

The wild horses run

bluish with waters of the twilight sky

on the thread of thought.

I trick them with silver horseshoes

and with bridles of gold,

with my spells and whispered charms

under the moon until dawn

from the threshold of my smithy.

How I would like to lie to steal them

beauty, freedom and grace,

but all that was destined for me is the incandescent metal

because I’m not one of them,

I slowly poured my hate into the forge of love

always striving to master beauty

with cunning and skill,

just as I painstakingly worked

at the enchanted throne

to seduce my Aphrodite.

Why such a fate

to one like me

an artisan so ugly?

connoisseur of light

sovereign of the volcanoes,

the hearth fire and the tumult of the skies,

how I worked like a slave to make Pandora's box

with the claw of hate suffocating the untamed

and misunderstood love,

my disgusting ugliness crowned with such beauty

my poisoned gift, unleashed curse,

perfection sprouting from my gnarled hands.

When I limp tirelessly creating wonders

my mind flies to them

indescribably beautiful and free

and I dream of galloping together,

I sniff the smell of seaweed

with spicy aromas

of truffles, unknown potions,

intoxicating lures of the deep

all sent by Poseidon.

My fire fed with stirred poison

from the rage of never being loved

steals perfection from the wild horses

freezing it in the secret of rare metals,

but I can never

bite the shores of freedom

throwing sparks from basalt hooves

on sands caressed by the waves

along with them.

 

Flight

 

  Spiraling

  White eagle cuts the sky…

  In arrow flight shapes dark blue origami

  Sparkled with silver stardust

  Circling,

  Flies and flies in painful quest

  To see

  What is beyond the puzzle

  Of the snowy laced clouds

  Embraced by the cosmic night well

  Of Silence.

 

Sadness In Luxury

 

                           Pink marble table,

                           Summer heat through lace curtains

                           Invading the room...

                           Drinking lemonade, we sat

                           Ice cubes in a crystal bowl.

 

The Apple Tree Dream

 

I could never interpret

that dream you had on my birth

of a resplendent apple tree

with luminous fire-red apples

that you were not able to touch.

It had grown overnight in our garden.

You were so sad you could not reach it,

and touch not even one apple.

And none of us understood why

the apple tree dream obsessed you so much

until the day you died.

We both then knew: the apple tree was me

whom you won't see turned into a woman

happy, or married, or successful, or else,

not even one apple...

Mum, I want you to know

I'm hanging on.

 

Tower Of Babel

 

Bubbling and swarming

In different languages they were circling.

Babel's Tower was filled with fear.

Losing sense and meaning they fumbled,

Expelled from the Paradise of communication.

 

DANIELA ALBU

 

DANIELA ALBU: 1993 Catrene din deșert, poems (”Quatrains of the Desert”) Steady Promotion Publishing House; 2001 Părintele Ioan (”Father John” – short stories,  Dacia Publishing House- 2004 wins international essay contest ”Paris seen through the eyes of foreing writers” http://paris-eiffel-tower-news.com/paris-stories/paris-story-poem-to-henry-in-paris.htm; 2007 the novel Petru și Pavel-între lumi ( Peter and Paul –between two worlds), Dacia Publishing House –a fresco of the Romanian society especially of the life of artists and itellectuals before and after 1989 (Gaudeamus Book Fair) ; 2009 – Literary Prize for Proze of the Lucian Blaga International Festival; 2011 - Miniaturi pariziene/Miniatures parisiennes  poems (”Parisian miniatures”)  – Romanian-French bilingual edition, translated in French by Claude Dignorie, graphics by artist Dalia Bialcovski, Eikon Publishing House; the volume was present at the Bookfair  Salon du livre, Paris, 22-25 martie 2013, http://www.comunicatedepresa.ro/daniela-cristina-albu/editura-eikon-la-salon-du-livre-paris-22-25-martie/ 2011  The Center of Excellence for Study of Cultural Identity, University of Bucharest nominates and recommends Daniela Albu for  pentru Premio FIL for Romanic languages and literatures, Guadalajara, Mexic; 2014  ”The Soul’s Unseen Orchids” poems in English, FeedARread, UK; 2014 ”The Orange Dress” short stories,   FeedARead, UK  2014- 2021   co-author of Anthologies of poems , Inspirescu Publishing, Art Creativ Publishing and Betta publishing; 2014 First Prize for poetry awarded by Inspirescu Publishing and Cervantes/Inspirescu cultural group for the volume ”Citadini și levantini” (”Tonwspeople and Levantines”); 2015 ”Citadini și levantini”, Inspirescu Publishing; 2015  Prize of Art Creativ publishing for the poem  ”Evadați în miraj” (”Escaped into the Mirage”) at Love Poems  Gala; 2015  First Prize with short story ”Tanti Zelma” (”Auntie Zelma”) Liternautica short story contest http://liternautica.com/tanti-zelma/ 2016 Romanian American Atology Haibun  „Travelers through Seasons”(co-author) 2017  Volume of poems“Cearcănele verii” (Dark circles under the eyes of summer), Art Creativ publishing house, 2019, mention for the prose “Maybe only the ashes” The national prose contest ”Nicolae Velea 2020 Vasile Cârlova Prize for poetry Brâncoveniana contest; 2020 Diploma of exellence from the Romanian Haiku Society (member of the Romanian Haiku Society). 2021 grand prize haiku competition city of Beauchamp, France; 2020-2021 Awarded mention for short story „The Badger” an featured with poem „The Mulberry Tree” in Nature Antholgy -  Nature International Literary Contest. Since 2014 member of the literary circles  Catacomba , Cenaclului de urgență, Haiku,  Lira21  www.lira21.ro, Monitorul de Poezie, Qpoem, Liternautica www.liternautica.com, (she is editor at LiterNautica and  short stories author) member of the Poets of the City poetry circle. Daniela Albu was born on 20 August 1961, in Bucharest: 1986 graduated  the Faclty of English Language and Literature, Bucharest University; 1986-1989 English teacher. Since 1990 had worked for 20 years at the United Nations Development Programme on environment, human rights, equal opportunitie and in the field of  sustainable development, communications and interantional relations, UN RC office. During this period contributed with articles and translations for UN publications and Reports. Since April 2012 is editor and honorary researcher on Human Rights and UN issues as well as coordinator of women’s rights working group at the  Romanian Institute for Human Rights, Bucharest.