Perpetuum Mobile

By Marin Sorescu 1936–1996 Marin Sorescu

Translated By Michael Hamburger

Between people’s

ideals

and their realization

there is always

a greater drop

than in the highest

of waterfalls.

This potential gradient

can be exploited

rationally,

if we build a sort of

power station above it.

The energy it supplies,

even if we use it only

to light our cigarettes,

is something

anyway;

for while one is smoking

one can very seriously

think up

ideals even crazier.

“Perpetuum Mobile” from Selected Poems by Marin Sorescu, translated by Michael Hamburger. Published in 1983 by Bloodaxe Books. www.bloodaxebooks.com

Source: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 1983)

Biography

In 1964 the Romanian government relaxed its censorship policies, signaling a new openness to free expression. The nation's poets heeded that signal, and Romanian poetry experienced a striking revival. Poet and playwright Marin Sorescu is perhaps one of the most popular figures to emerge from Romanian literary culture in the years since.

Sorescu writes in a plainspoken, down-to-earth style spiced with sly humor. He responds to . . .

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