Marin Sorescu
The Complaint
They have murdered my time,
Your honour.
When of my own free will
I returned from the war
I realized
that my time,
heart, mouth and forehead
had been amputated.
But they still wouldn’t leave it alone,
it had to absolve days of torment,
days of tears, days of machines, days of oxen
and many other things
it did not care for.
After that they began
to use it for testing
a number of poisons,
griefs and cares -
that’s what they called them.
They finished me off
with a well-aimed
blow of fate.
With all due respect
that wasn’t a life.
Meanwhile, in order
to voice my complaint,
I have wasted half my death
standing in queues
here,
at the Last Judgement.
Translated by Michael Hamburger
Page(s) 10
magazine list
- Features
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- 10th Muse
- 14
- Acumen
- Agenda
- Ambit
- Angel Exhaust
- ARTEMISpoetry
- Atlas
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- Candelabrum
- Cannon's Mouth, The
- Chroma
- Coffee House, The
- Dream Catcher
- Equinox
- Erbacce
- Fabric
- Fire
- Floating Bear, The
- French Literary Review, The
- Frogmore Papers, The
- Global Tapestry
- Grosseteste Review
- Homeless Diamonds
- Interpreter's House, The
- Iota
- Journal, The
- Lamport Court
- London Magazine, The
- Magma
- Matchbox
- Matter
- Modern Poetry in Translation
- Monkey Kettle
- Moodswing
- Neon Highway
- New Welsh Review
- North, The
- Oasis
- Obsessed with pipework
- Orbis
- Oxford Poetry
- Painted, spoken
- Paper, The
- Pen Pusher Magazine
- Poetry Cornwall
- Poetry London
- Poetry London (1951)
- Poetry Nation
- Poetry Review, The
- Poetry Salzburg Review
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- Private Tutor
- Purple Patch
- Quarto
- Rain Dog
- Reach Poetry
- Review, The
- Rialto, The
- Second Aeon
- Seventh Quarry, The
- Shearsman
- Smiths Knoll
- Smoke
- South
- Staple
- Strange Faeces
- Tabla Book of New Verse, The
- Thumbscrew
- Tolling Elves
- Ugly Tree, The
- Weyfarers
- Wolf, The
- Yellow Crane, The