Sorescu's Choice
Young Romanian Poets
Description:... Romania's comic genius Marin Sorescu had a great fondness for Ireland. He managed to visit friends there in his occasional visits abroad during the Ceausescu years, and the Irish poets made many translations of his work. In the recent Bloodaxe anthology of contemporary Romanian poetry, When the Tunnels Meet, the versions are by Paul Muldoon. Sorescu was generous in his encouragement of young writers, promoting their work in the journals he edited and in his publishing ventures. While in Belfast in 1991 for the opening of an exhibition of his paintings (he had started painting while under house arrest during the 1980s), a group of young Irish poets honoured him by reading their personal choice of his poems in English translations. Sorescu's response was to arrange for ten young poets from his home region of Craiova to translate the ten Irish poets for a book to be published in Romania by the Brancusi Foundation. Sorescu's Choice is the companion English anthology, with versions of the same ten Romanians by the same Irish writers - a fitting tribute to the inspiration of the books and the poets. The poets are:Ruth Carr * Amelia CalujnaiAndrew Elliott * Ion MunteanuJohn Hughes * Grigore BalanescuJohn Kelly * Nicolae DiaconuPeter McDonald * Doina PologeaMartin Mooney * Ion HirghidusPhilip Orr * Constantin PredaPatrick Ramsey * Florea MiuJanet Shepperson * Carmen FiranKevin Smith * Patrel Berceanu
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