The Romanian Riveter: THROUGH THE WALL by Simona Constantinovici, translated by Antuza Genescu

voles scurry across ashes
and burnt apple peels

several tourists return from the desert
on tiny camels

in Mauritania
near the border with Senegal
lemon trees grow in orchards
and white goats graze

time
rolls on
far and wide
like balls
over the snooker table
the meadow is blooming again
bewitching
incandescent

beyond the wall lies nothing

By Simona Constantinovici

Translated by Antuza Genescu

Read The Romanian Riveter in its entirety here.

---

Simona Constantinovici has published eleven books of poetry, prose, stylistics, semantics and literary lexicography. Her poems and short stories have appeared in many Romanian anthologies and literary periodicals. She has been honoured with several awards.

---

Antuza Genescu (b. 1968) is a freelance translator, teacher and writer. Besides several volumes of Romanian poetry and art albums, which she has translated into English, her work also includes translations into Romanian of various poets around the world (Sudeep Sen, George Szirtes, Fiona Sampson, Jean Portante, Alice Notley, Erkut Tokman, Kama Sywor Kamanda), as well as science fiction authors like Gene Woolfe, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Vernor Vinge, Orson Scott Card, Robin Hobb, Stephen King.