You Be the Judge
I read some pretty good stuff during the National Translation Month - NTM as confirmation that more international literature is a valid form to reinvent one's own culture. I have also worked on something personal and important and do not have energy to translate these juicy poems by our national poet, Mihai Eminescu, so if you read Romanian, you will judge their content for yourselves, and if you are a translator maybe you'd like to render them from Romanian into English -- however one thing is certain. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate reversals, how important it is to let audience judge and appreciate art rather than (selectively) impose who is great and who is not, who must be remembered and thus eternal and who not, etc.
These poems written by our national poet show him in a light that is rooted in an old and vicious lie, i.e., that men can write and think as they please whereas women must be careful when they choose their phrasing. Men are looming large as they advance and expand, women are contained and eventually silenced.
It's time we did not think like that. Last year a female poet read something that was considered vulgar (https://www.activenews.ro/stiri/Scandal-monstru-la-Gala-Premiilor-Eminescu-la-Botosani-Spectatorii-au-iesit-din-sala-revoltati-dupa-ce-o-poeta-anti-Coalitia-pentru-Familie-a-recitat-o-?poezie-cu-continut-pornografic-148754) but if you read these poems written by Eminescu and if you dig into the work of other male authors you realize not only the double standard but also that because of it, to this day in Romania (and in other places), violence against women's bodies could just as easily start with lines like "Merge drumul din lindic/ Pan? chiar pe sub buric/ ?i buricul fric? n-are/ C? el merge tot c?lare./Da lindicu-i manios/ C? el merge tot pe jos/ Pe spetezea pizdii late/ Pe bucile afumate./ Mult m? mir ?i m? badur/Cum st? pida lang? cur,/?i nu moare/ De putoare".
PS: It would be healthier to teach one of these poems along others just to paint Eminescu's portrait in a more full + candid light. That will never happen because we can't distinguish what is vulgar from what is not, even though most of us think and dream in erotic terms. That is a different issue and will divert me from the moral of this post: What's sad is that we allow one's mother tongue to divide, men are on one side and women some place else. There is no perfect translation for hypocrisy.
More here: https://hyperliteratura.ro/10-poezii-porno-de-mihai-eminescu/