THE NEW NOTEBOOK

Full of superstition

I begin a new notebook,

white leaves--sea foam.

I close my eyes and wait

for the first day of the world,

for Aphrodite with wet lips,

red curls of flame, 

an open shell,

shy and sure,

to rise from the salt foam,

out of the primordial algae.

I wait under closed eyelids.

One can hear the grey rustle of sea gulls

under the low sky

and the monotonous thunder of waves

only of waves

which come and go.

Maria Banus

      Tr. from Romanian by Laura Schiff & Dana Beldiman