King Crypto and Laplander Enigel
Sad minstrel, much steamier
than good old wine served at the wedding
By the groom’s father given there
With bags and ribbons, tinsel weaving,
Of all most stubborn minstrel
A grand old song still tries to sing,
Sing of Laplander Enigel,
And Crypto, the mushroom-king!
You, guest with quest!
Your feast, my tongue did burn and sting,
I’ll sing that song, with candid zest,
Of Enigel and Crypto king.
Sing it minstrel!
You sang it fierly yester-summer.
Now sing it to me slowly, well,
At wedding’s end, you, cellar charmer.
*
Oft searched by forests’ creatures wild
In riverbed, anointed clay,
Ruled over mushrooms’ fleshy mild
King Crypto, hidden heart, astray
On some eternal dewy throne!
But mushrooms gossiped, anyway
About a witch called Penny Bun
From the youth fountain, who could say.
And hateful snowdrops, violet
From dampy pits were cursing sour,
Calling him fruitless, balky yet
Because he didn’t want to flower.
In lands forever doomed by ice,
At the same time living as well,
A small Laplander, quiet and wise,
With furs, named sweetly Enigel.
From winter snow ’til grazing glow
In the new year her reindeers bring,
Through the wet time, further south clime
On the raw moss she found confine’
Near Crypto, meadow’s groom and king.
On three rugs’ grace of freshness
Gently she slept, spinning the grass
When near chest string , a glabrous king ,
With his old eunuch and his ring,
Came luring her with jam in glass:
– Enigel, Enigel,
Look, I brought you jam that’s sweet.
Berries too, dear to you
Take them all, enjoy and eat.
Glabrous king smart, from my heart
Thank you for your gracious will
But I go to to pick up
Fresh berries from down the hill.
– Enigel, Enigel,
Night decreases, light comes through,
If you go to pick up,
Start with me, I beg of you.
Gentle king, I’d pick you, pray…
But the dawn begins to burst
And you’re damp and feeble clay:
I fear that soon you’ll decay,
Leave me. – Wait you ripen first.
– I to ripen, Enigel,
How I’d wish, but from the sun,
Hundreds of nightmares, repel
Cut me off. He’s red, the one,
Lots of spots make him unwell.
Please forget him Enigel,
Tender sleep in freshness done.
– Crypto king, Crypto king,
Like a blade of curse severe
In my heart you stuck your saying
For the shadow I do fear,
For if in winter I was born,
And cousin to the polar bear
From the thick shadow I’ve been drawn
To the wise sun, I bow in prayer.
Under ice lamps, under snow’s pledge
My whole pole dreams only one dream.
Large golden platter with green edge
The dream is haunting with a gleam.
I bow to the wise sun as whole
For fountain is the heart and soul,
And the white wheel my master is,
In the soul-fountain lies and lives.
In sunlight, the wheel larger glows.
In shadow, only the flesh grows.
And flesh means sleep, it will decline,
Just wind and shadow make it fine …
Wisely spoke, shyly and well
Little Laplander, Enigel,
But time, you see, was waiting not,
And the sun stood now, large and hot,
Up in the sky, a ring of spell.
– Weep, you, kindhearted Enigel!
For how could Crypto, mushroom king,
Love the hot light, which death may bring?
He unwinds easily, unwell,
From Enigel,
To the soft shadow side to swing…
But the sun, hot fiery ring,
Mirrored deeply inside the king;
Ten times, without shame or chagrin
Reflected on his bald pale skin.
And all that’s sweet, sour becomes!
His hidden heart bursts into crumbs,
Ten lively signs of seals conceal
Venom, red oil to ordeal
Brew from the depths of curse’s seal.
For the frail mushroom from the wood,
It’s hard to bear the sunlight shrewd,
For the soul is a fountain feast,
Only for human, ancient beast,
And for a creature way too frail
The thought is glass of poisonous spell,
– Like for the foolish Crypto Sire
Whose heart was burned by the love’s fire,
Left now to wander aimlessly
With other beings, more royally:
With Dragon old, creature called,
To pour gold into the world,
To chop it, naked on the road,
With Penny Bun wedding to mold,
His queen forever to behold.
.
Riga crypto si lapona enigel
Menestrel trist, mai aburit
Ca vinul vechi ciocnit la nuntă,
De cuscrul mare dăruit
Cu pungi, panglici, beteli cu funtă,
Mult îndărătnic menestrel,
Un cântec larg tot mai încearcă,
Zi-mi de lapona Enigel
Şi Crypto, regele-ciupearcă!
Nuntaş fruntaş!
Ospăţul tău limba mi-a fript-o,
Dar, cântecul, tot zice-l-aş,
Cu Enigel şi riga Crypto.
Zi-l menestrel!
Cu foc l-ai zis acum o vară;
Azi zi-mi-l strâns, încetinel,
La spartul nunţii, în cămară.
Des cercetat de pădureţi
În pat de râu şi-n humă unsă,
Împărăţea peste bureţi
Crai Crypto, inimă ascunsă,
La vecinic tron, de rouă parcă!
Dar printre ei bârfeau bureţii
De-o vrăjitoare mânătarcă,
De la fântâna tinereţii.
Şi răi ghioci şi toporaşi
Din gropi ieşeau să-l ocărască,
Sterp îl făceau şi nărăvaş,
Că nu voia să înflorească.
În ţări de gheaţă urgisită,
Pe-acelaşi timp trăia cu el,
Laponă mică, liniştită,
Cu piei, pre nume Enigel.
De la iernat, la păşunat,
În noul an, să-şi ducă renii,
Prin aer ud, tot mai la sud,
Ea poposi pe muşchiul crud
La Crypto, mirele poienii.
Pe trei covoare de răcoare
Lin adormi, torcând verdeaţă:
Când lângă sân, un rigă spân,
Cu eunucul lui bătrân,
Veni s-o-mbie, cu dulceaţă:
Enigel, Enigel,
Ţi-am adus dulceaţă, iacă.
Uite fragi, ţie dragi,
Ia-i şi toarnă-i în puiacă.
Rigă spân, de la sân,
Mulţumesc Dumitale.
Eu mă duc să culeg
Fragii fragezi, mai la vale.
-Enigel, Enigel,
Scade noaptea, ies lumine,
Dacă pleci să culegi,
Începi, rogu-te, cu mine.
-Te-aş culege, rigă blând…
Zorile încep să joace
Şi eşti umed şi plăpând:
Teamă mi-e, te frângi curând,
Lasă. – Aşteaptă de te coace.
-Să mă coc, Enigel,
Mult aş vrea, dar vezi, de soare,
Visuri sute, de măcel,
Mă despart. E roşu, mare,
Pete are fel de fel;
Lasă-l, uită-l, Enigel,
În somn fraged şi răcoare.
Rigă Crypto, rigă Crypto,
Ca o lamă de blestem
Vorba-n inimă-ai înfipt-o!
Eu de umbră mult mă tem,
Că dacă-n iarnă sunt făcută,
Şi ursul alb mi-e vărul drept,
Din umbra deasă, desfăcută,
Mă-nchin la soarele-nţelept.
La lămpi de gheaţă, supt zăpezi,
Tot polul meu un vis visează.
Greu taler scump cu margini verzi
De aur, visu-i cercetează.
Mă-nchin la soarele-nţelept,
Că sufletu-i fântână-n piept,
Şi roata albă mi-e stăpână,
Ce zace-n sufletul-fântână.
La soare, roata se măreşte;
La umbră, numai carnea creşte
Şi somn e carnea, se dezumflă,
Dar vânt şi umbră iar o umflă…
Frumos vorbi şi subţirel
Lapona dreaptă, Enigel,
Dar timpul, vezi, nu adăsta,
Iar soarele acuma sta
Svârlit în sus, ca un inel.
Plângi, preacuminte Enigel!
Lui Crypto, regele-ciupearcă.
Lumina iute cum să-i placă?
El se desface uşurel
De Enigel,
De partea umbrei moi, să treacă…
Dar soarele, aprins inel,
Se oglindi adânc în el;
De zece ori, fără sfială,
Se oglindi în pielea-i cheală.
Şi sucul dulce înăcreşte!
Ascunsa-i inimă plesneşte,
Spre zece vii peceţi de semn,
Venin şi roşu untdelemn
Mustesc din funduri de blestem;
Că-i greu mult soare să îndure
Ciupearcă crudă de pădure,
Că sufletul nu e fântână
Decât la om, fiară bătrână,
Iar la făptură mai firavă
Pahar e gândul, cu otravă,
Ca la nebunul rigă Crypto,
Ce focul inima i-a fript-o,
De a rămas să rătăcească
Cu altă faţă, mai crăiască:
Cu Laurul-Balaurul,
Să toarne-n lume aurul,
Să-l toace, gol la drum să iasă,
Cu măsălariţa-mireasă,
Să-i ţie de împărăteasă.
.
Translator’s Note
Although contemporary with Tudor Arghezi and Lucian Blaga, considered the most valuable poets of the period between the two world wars, who skillfully combines the elements of traditionalist aesthetics with modernist ones, Ion Barbu is distinguished by a completely unique profile in Romanian literature, poetry being replaced by mathematics and vice versa.
Influenced by the modern western poetry of his time, Mallarmé or Valéry, he expressed his poetic belief:
“As in geometry, I understand by poetry a certain symbolism for the representation of possible forms of existence. For me, poetry is an extension of geometry, so, remaining a poet, I never left the divine realm of geometry.”
Heterogeneous, Ion Barbu’s poetry – Dan Barbilian by his real name, renowned mathematician, inventor of “Barbilian spaces” – allows a classification like the one made by his friend and literary critic Tudor Vianu, in which are distinguished three stages: Parnassian, Baladic-Oriental and Hermetic poetry.
In the first stage, the Parnassian one, are included the poems that capture mineralized landscapes, forms of the geological cosmos and of the flora, mythological aspects, and the virtues of some legendary characters.
He creates an imaginary poetry that violates the Parnassian restrictions of limitation to the precise form (poetry with a fixed form), through the Dionysian turmoil that each poetic text from this period contains.
Original is the way in which these frantic feelings are transferred to the elements that make up the geological, mineralized, and floral space:
“From the rough fusion of the polar frost
With the green and stagnant watery wilderness,
Transparent syntheses, of greedy radiance,
Burst out from the slumberous originar utmost.”
The second stage, and the most valuable, according to most exegetes, are extensive poems, in which lyricism develops in combination with the narrative and descriptive pictorial sequences of a single consistency.
The source of inspiration is the Balkan space, inspired by his predecessor, Anton Pann, to whom he expressed endless admiration. The theme of initiation (After snails), of passionate love (Miss Hus), of knowledge through love, bringing suffering due to incompatibility (Riga Crypto and Laplander Enigel), all these are hypostasized in pictures of life captured in its tumult and complexity, whose expressiveness develops, equally, at all levels of language: phonetic, lexical, morpho-syntactic, stylistic.
The hermetic stage is characterized by a refined encryption process. The central motif of these poems is the wedding, which was interpreted as penetrating the miracle of universal creation.
For example, in “The Dogmatic Egg” – the title has been interpreted as a metaphor for the mystery of the wedding – developing the idea of duality that precedes the wedding, the creation that precedes Genesis:
“It’s given to these humble folk
The barren egg for daily meal,
The egg with life, topped with the yolk,
Was meant in light his seal reveal!”
Seen in the strong beat of the Sun, this egg becomes the image of the uncreated, with all its implicit energies and tensions.
