Two translations of Tudor Arghezi.

Because it is Saturday morning, and Arghezi returned yesterday in my readings of Benjamin Fondane. And so here is "Ceasul de apoi" by Tudor Arghezi, which could also be translated as “The Doomsday Clock.”

And here is one more… which feels awkward, which speaks of poverty and failure and carries the undercurrents of a wooden tongue. Arghezi titled it "Flori de mucegai,” which means “flowers of mold,” but one could argue for a translation of the title into “Mold, flowering” or “Mold flowers.”

Ending the first stanza with “it” and beginning the second stanza with this same “it” is very Arghezi, very typical of his elliptical moments and friskiness with pronoun-reference.