WINNERS OF ROMANIAN MONTHLY KUKAI JANUARY 2008

We go on to publish our winners. These are the awarded poems at Romanian Kukai contest for January 2008. The theme of the contest was blizzard.

First place

Gate in ruins –
only the fiery wind
still open it

Loredana Florentina Dănilă


Second place

Storm-swept winter -
the old woman with a bread
dragging her boots

Adina Enăchescu

Orphan children –
the blizzard throwing the gate
maybe is my mother?

Adriana C. Iacob


Third place

House of old people –
the last visitor shrouded
in blizzard

Eduard Ţară

The blizzard roars –
in the yard of kindergarten
a creaky cradle

Vali Iancu

Storm –swept passage
a sparrow picking at
the blind man ’s bread

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 DECEMBER 2007

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

First place

It hears the bells –
by a Christmas Tree
my sad grandma’

Henriette Berge


Second place

little lights in the tree –
a boy blinks his eyes
imitating them

Ivăşcan Horia


Third place

Christmas Tree
a carol at the window
angel’s whisper

Tincuţa Horonceanu Bernevic

Christmas Tree –
waiting for the presents
a sleeping child

Dan Norea

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 NOVEMBER 2007

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

First place

The first hoar frost
over the child’s coat
one more patch

Valeria Tamaş

Night with rime –
trees without name
watch the moon

Flavia Muntean


Second place

First white frost
only the chrysanthemums
don’t shade its petals

Maria Tirenescu

Firs bow down –
the frosted moon passes
through Tori

Anişoara Iordache


Third place

The first rime
over the last rose flower…
raven’s shadow

Magdalena Dale

The rime is fallen –
outdoor not one insect
Brahms in an undertone

Iancu Vali

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 OCTOBER 2007

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

First place

Waltzing with the wind
Through the poor field –
A dragonfly

Loredana Florentina Dănilă

Blade of grass –
a dragonfly bends
slowly the light

Eduard Ţară

A dragonfly
on the fisherman’s rod
the single smile

Horia Ivăşcan


Second place

Reed shadow
wavering slowly…
a dragonfly

Vasile Moldovan

Frosted wings –
a dead dragonfly
wind swept

Gabriela Marcian

A dragonfly
In the stone amber –
amulet in the chest

Simona Dobrescu

Third place

What is beyond
the dragonfly’s wing –
almost everything

Elia David

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

Ana Ruse


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 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.