Beyond the Labyrinth

by Constantin Severin

- a solo nijuin renku -

English version by Liviu Martinescu

to no avail watching
the hawthorn
a stone musical C

the mystery of white flowers
dilate mountains at dawn

in the untainted air
the silent mirrored
undulations of shape

the saint quietly sipping
universes at his teatime

the sea stirring
the halo of the moon
as well as flat thoughts

autumn and her lips reflect
a kiss not mine

leaves gliding
beyond the labyrinth
on the green thigh

I know why I close my eyes
whenever I have taken the wrong road

the blind are listening
to the light's deafening clap
in the cathedral

I am placing organ tubes
on Johann's tomb

the frosty wind
the circular garden
turns into a sound

no longer will we find in embers
the sacred music of the moon

on the writing table
Venus of Tomis
fills up the emptiness

the passing - on
defies any form of exile

alone I engrave
your kiss ideograph
on the grain of wheat

the blood-bathed ladder
I will hurl down to you

on the wooden beam
wheat-ears rotted
in the hands of angels

over the clockface the bonsai
is turning the minute-hand green

out of accacia blossoms
the midget is making
his house of woe

the fragnance of spring
making sound the tenderer

From: 
Constantin Severin, 1995




Constantin Severin's picture

ABOUT THE POET ~
Constantin Severin was born on the 8th of February 1952, in Baia de Arama, Romania., He is a writer, member of the Romanian Writers’ Union, represented by Your Agent Agency, Oslo and a visual artist, member of the International Art Group, 3rd Paradigm., He is the theorist and promoter of archetypal expressionism and of post –literature. Honorary citizen of his birthtown, Baia de Aramă, Mehedinţi, Romania, in May 2011., Poetry Works:, ‘’The Sunday of Things Real” (poetry), Junimea Publishing House, Iasi, Romania, 1984;, ”Wall and Neutrino” (poetry, bilingual edition-Romanian/English, translated by Liviu Martinescu), Vlasie Publishing House, Pitesti, Romania, 1994; the poem won The Bucovina Cultural Foundation Award;, ”Wall and Neutrino. The Poet in New York”, Minerva Publishing House, London, 1997; translation by Liviu Martinescu;, ”Improvisations on armonic key” (poetry), Axa Publishing House, Botosani, Romania, 1998;, ”The Axolotl” (poetry), Masina de Scris Publishing House, Bucharest, 1998; the first renga (renku) book in the Romanian literature, bilingual edition-Romanian/English, translation by Liviu Martinescu; the Bucovina Cultural Foundation Prize, 1999;, ”The Alchemical City” (selected poems), Dacia Publishing House, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, 2002; the Bucovina Cultural Foundation Prize, 2003;, ”Improvisations on armonic key” (poetry, Opera Omnia), Tipo Moldova publishing house, Iasi, 2011. More info:, http://constantinseverin.wordpress.com/


Last updated September 25, 2011