WINNERS OF ROMANIAN MONTHLY KUKAI SEPTEMBER 2007

We go on to publish our winners. These are the awarded poems at Romanian Kukai contest for September 2007. The theme of the contest was first schoolday.

First place

Hanging up
the butterflies net on the nail…
again at school

Vasile Moldovan


Second place

A ink spot
In the new exercise book –
pressed butterfly

Simona Dobrescu

A walnut leaf
goes through the open window
the first school day

Ion Untaru

Third place

Fallen book
in the dust of lane
a barefooted child

Loredana Florentina Dănilă

Grain of hoar frost
on the dragonfly’s wings
asleep in the flowers

Eduard Ţară

Eave of the school
a swallow’s nest is empty –
only the yard is full

Adriana C. Iacob

Translation made by Magdalena Dale. We are not native English speakers. In this way we will appreciate if you will point out the possible mistakes of the English version of our poems.

THE MIRROR AS A MAXIMUM SPACE IN HAIKU

CLELIA IFRIM

The maximum space in haiku can be given by the kireji. It divides the poem in two parts. It is a mirror set in the inner of the poem. A pause of action. Non-action. The mirror participates only through its reflection. It is a maximum space for that anywhere it is placed, it has the attribute of a central space. The two parts of poem are reflected into it. The beginning and the end in the same place.

It is a habit of reading twice a haiku. It is actually a returning at the first word, at the beginning of the poem. But you can return provided that you pass through the centre, through this mirror. The last word from the haiku is linked to the first. The mirror creates their link. They are twin words, namely they are depeding on each other. Their relationship is made crossing this space of the centre. I have chosen a haiku by Dumitru D. Ifrim published in the Ko magazine, spring-summer 2006:

Wilderness of beach -
sea foam arranges on the sands
a spring wind drawing

The beginning and the ending are unloading themselves in the pause of kireji. Tne last word an the first word together are a drawing of solitude, „a wildernesss drawing”. The kireji, the pause is an empty place, a mirror that reflects this drawing. A maximum space, there, at the end of the earth, on the seashore where is the beginning of another mirror.

(published in the Lynx – a journal for linking poets, octomber 2007, SUA)

FRAGRANCE OF LIME (published with permission)

http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/revs/bs351.htm

This is a collection of Romanian language renga and related forms by Magdalena Dale and Vasile Moldovan, translated by Magdalena Dale. The front cover is very attractive, with a photo of lime flowers. As the fragrance of these flowers is one of my favourite scents, I was drawn into the collection immediately. In fact lime trees permeate the whole of the book, with two of the sequences been solely dedicated to the tree, including Moldovan's haiku sequence EMINESCU'S LIME from which this haiku is taken

A lime tree
instead of a bookmarker...
the old love story

The kasen FRAGRANCE OF LIME, although not solely focussed on the lime, includes this from Dale:

Useless nights
with the lime in bloom
only in my dreams

The kasen moves on to include this wonderfully evocative imagery from Dale:

Shooting stars,
the chestnuts are bursting
in an undertone

Other images of rural Romania appear time and again in the poems, including snow, orchards, birds — including storks and crows, haystacks and carol singers. All the poetry is influenced by the seasons, this haiku by Moldovan is from the renga MORNING BREEZE:

All of a sudden
over the burn stubble field
the harvest moon

The moon reappears later in this renga in a haiku by Dale:

Haystacks —
in the halo of the moon
the fireflies.

The only criticism is that some of the translations don't flow as well as they could, though that doesn't detract from this beautiful collection that transports the reader to a peaceful rural setting.

Reviewer: Juliet Wilson

reviwreviewer: Juliet Wilson.

reviewer: Juliet Wilson.

WINNERS OF ROMANIAN MONTHLY KUKAI AUGUST 2007

We go on to publish our winners. These are the awarded poems at Romanian Kukai contest for August 2007. The theme of the contest was lotus.

First place

Lotus in the twilight –
in the fisher’s bag
only despair

Simona Dobrescu


Second place

Leaving behind
a sad lotus in bloom –
an alone rower

Florinel

The sough of pond -
among the yellow lotuses
streaks of sun

Henriette Berge


Third place

A lotus
between the sweetheart’s breasts
hot summer…

Valeria Tamaş

Translation made by Magdalena Dale. We are not native English speakers. In this way we will appreciate if you will point out the possible mistakes of the English version of our poems.

WINNERS OF ROMANIAN MONTHLY KUKAI JULY 2007

We go on to publish our winners. These are the awarded poems at Romanian Kukai contest for July 2007. The theme of the contest was heat.

First place

Field burnt by the sun;
how much bitterness
in the peasant’s sight…

Jules Cohn Botea


Second place

Defying the sun –
on the hot asphalt
an ice cube

Flueraşu Petre


Third place

Summer twilight –
on the ditch edge
the grass glimmers

Florică Dan

fever of times
there are more two bridges,
my old father….

Dragos Tsuku

Translation made by Magdalena Dale. We are not native English speakers. In this way we will appreciate if you will point out the possible mistakes of the English version of our poems.

WINNERS OF ROMANIAN MONTHLY KUKAI JUNE 2007

We go on to publish our winners. These are the awarded poems at Romanian Kukai contest for June 2007. The theme of the contest was cherry.

First place

Slit of light
between two cherries –
the sunrise

Cristina Rusu


Second place

A crushed cherry
through the high grass –
soul, why don’t you cry?

Anghel Pop

Cherries almost ripe –
looking through the lattices
sad child’s sight

Valeria Tamaş


Third place

Butterflies dancing
around the clay hovel
bitter cherries

Loredana Florentina Dănilă

Through the broken fence
an abandoned house
and the dry cherry tree

Ion Untaru

Translation made by Magdalena Dale. We are not native English speakers. In this way we will appreciate if you will point out the possible mistakes of the English version of our poems.