Rodica Draghincescu
Although I Sweeten Myself with Sugar


My hands filled with sugar
(a new being? lucky?)
I met him along the railroad tracks
watching over his ruddy goats
HOW DO YOU DO? DID YOU SLEEP WELL?
good morning I MEAN CAN’T
YOU SEE IT’S STILL NIGHT
the DAYS have turned to grass
and GRASS isn’t good for these animals any longer
I’ve brought you sugar
the goats bleat whenever they feel like it
their bleating has stopped – in goat language this is called
FREEDOM – I’m about to experience the sensation that I’ve
DISCOVERED DOCILE SOUNDS IN MY LARYNX
that won’t cause me trouble
B A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A H
Dear mr. goatherd I’ve brought you
sugar
I reach out my hand – I don’t know
why it’s said THIS WAY when in FACT
the movement is made with the root fastened
between shoulder blade and breast WHICH breast
is BIGGER: it’s learned to sing and TO
TALK: NURSING this other condition
scares it depresses it leads it to droop it wishes
IT HAD eyes to scope out temptations UNDERNEATH clothes
although I sweeten myself
with sugar I’M ONE OF THOSE
WHO DON’T DO a lot of good for the REPRESENTATIVE
ORGANS now for INSTANCE grass
grown on THIGHS is poisonous to goats
THAT’S WHY I reach out my hand filled with sugar
DEAR MR. goatherd TASTE it
for YOURSELF
(meanwhile) the indifferent or CAPABLE goats
have stopped the freight train at the railroad museum
where the railroad clerk SAILING-SHIP was celebrating his WEDDING
they were sitting DUMBFOUNDED wearing IN PERPETUITY
kaleidoscopic CARDBOARD flowers attached with SAFETY
PINS to THE CIRCUMFERENCE OF THEIR HEARTS
WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE WHEE
WHEE
HEY HEY WHEE COME ON HEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
(a SOLDIER escaped from his UNIT
was trying to ameliorate the error)
LET’S GET A MOVE ON/farther ahead it’s tHERE/
the wedding OF dead goats
the MAN makes dynamite FOOD
DEAR MR. GOATHERD
the museum’s freight train is like a kind of LOVE
you’ve given up waiting for
(having a TOTALLY different OBJECTIVE
THAN killing goats)
(the goats were too greedy)
B A A A A A A A A A A A A A A H
(AFTER ALL THEY can live without being GOATS)
NO ONE will hold their FREEDOM
up to ridicule
good morning mr. goatherd
CAN’T you (EVEN) see IT’S
MORNING I’ll take pains
to believe that the NOISES AND THE BLOOD
enveloping us will give FREE REIN to a new relation
between you and me
(my hands filled with sugar
I’ll never be
HUNGRY or THIRSTY)
Good morning mr. goatherd
the kid hawking the morning papers has spread
the news everywhere in town
ALREADY WE’RE STARS

Translated from Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin and Antuza Genescu