APOTHEOSIS

-by Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator-


-Photo 1 (Constantin Dumirescu-Cunctator at the Cosmopoetry Festival 2002,
“Admiral Vasile Urseanu” Bucharest Municipal Observatory)
by Calin Niculae
-Photo 2 (Train of a Leonid Fireball, 1998)
by Valentin Grigore


“What is the secret of your longevity?”
a reporter asked Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator when he turned 90.
“40 years of political prison!” was his answer.

Born in 1913, Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator became in 1930s
a young Christian-democrat politician and lawyer.
But between 1949 and 1964, the (atheist-totalitarian) communists
put him to jail,
and between 1964 and 1989 they kept him in house arrest
in the Baragan Field.
After the Romanian Anticommunist Revolution (1989),
he became a senator in the Romanian Parliament in 1992.
In the meantime, he had composed in 1960, in the Galati political prison,
a monumental, rhymed and rhythmic poem with elements
of Romanian history and astromythology,
dedicated to the great Romanian hero and unionist Iuliu Maniu,
who had been killed in 1953 by communists
in the Sighet political prison.
In 1997, Constantin Dumitrescu-Cunctator recited Apotheosis
(freely adapted below into the English language)
during SARM’s Cosmopoetry Festival at the Youth House in Targoviste,
in a memorable evening when that town
was flooded by a terrible storm.





-To Iuliu Maniu-

A magic and solemn night is coming
With stars as guardians on her hair.
Torches of light are running in space,
Spirits arriving from the infinite,
From over the sphere of astral glories,
From places over our understanding.

They lower with fire wings, filling the sky as silver ghosts.
The celestial Plough (the constellation Orion) catches fire too.
Three Romanian fighters for freedom, Horia, Closca
and Crisan (XVIII-th century) sit down over there.
Romanian soldiers, rhapsodists, nobles, free peasants
and great rulers also use stars as thrones.
There are so many lights with sacred burdens.
The celestial Brood-Hen and her Pullets (the Pleiades star cluster)
fantastically shine.
Another Romanian hero of freedom, Avram Iancu (XIX-th century)
appears with his brave fellows.
There are so many beings in the sky,
and the Shepherd from the Moon is proudly watching them.

Bumblebees of light are tying each other in flight
With silver threads spun by their wings.
Meteors are carrying fast relays
Towards clusters of stars, suns and planets.
Suddenly, the flights stop,
And all together look at an archangel
Who is coming down on the Milky Way,
Under a triumphal arc of great auras.

He has an embers sword throwing sparkles
and leaving whiter the celestial road.
Then the first Romanian unionist, Mihai Viteazul (XVI-th century),
appears with his captain Novac
and his brave lieutenants, Buzescu brothers.
The Four Pillars (Antares, Fomalhaut, Aldebaran and Regulus)
sustain the sky, and the suite eclipses zodiacs and stars.
Stepping majestically upon heavenly bodies, they stop on the Polar Star.
Rhapsodists begin to sing the lyres and flutes,
while the Shepherd from the Moon sings
an old melancholic song that fills the whole sky.
Their gazes bathe the Earth, which just seethes with blood,
encircled on with the terrible hatred of a terrible devil.
But the magic night heralds the term, and the skies prepare the end.

Down, through his love, an earthling wants
To revive the light of the sublime Dome.
He is tied by chains, which hurt him,
But his smile keeps the light from the Sun.
The clear sky is a part of his blue eyes,
And no cloud sighs in them.
When he clanks the chains, the whole Earth resounds,
And the slaves begin to pray.

Big storm. The Earth is close to be swallowed by the chaos.
The ocean is thrashing about, waves are agitating,
mountains are swinging, forests are bending.
Suddenly, the chains of the earthling noisily fall.
The clay bends too, giving birth to a berry of light.
The earthling begins to fly towards the sky,
sipped by the call of divine love.
He rests a little on the Royal Evening Star
and feels the light of Jesus.
Rhapsodists begin to sing the lyres and flutes,
while the Shepherd from the Moon
sings an old melancholic song of light.
Their music embraces the Earth.
The unionist Mihai Viteazul and the others stand up from the Polar Star
and call the earthling,
whose white shadow flies in the canopy of the sublime Dome.

The archangel is carrying the earthling on the Milky Way,
Under a triumphal arc of great auras,
And the bright suite of spirits is lining up,
Seeming like a comet with a long fan.
The night becomes blacker and colder.
The Shepherd from the Moon is singing for them,
And his song disappears up there,
Where You, God, are watching
From over the sphere of astral glories,
From places over our understanding.
The suite disappears too, carrying that earthling
To see the face of Jesus, smiling.





ROMANIAN ORIGINAL VERSION OF THE ASTROPOEM


APOTEOZA
(lui Iuliu Maniu)

I
Solemna se lasa o noapte de vraja
In buclele negre cu stele de straja.
Faclii luminoase alearga-n vazduh.
Din nemarginire vin duh dupa duh.
Mai sus decat sfera slavitelor astre,
Din locuri ascunse privirilor noastre,
Coboara cu aripi de foc licarind
Si umplu tot cerul naluci de argint.
La Rarita dintii iau foc deodata.
Pe ei se aseaza Cei Trei trasi pe roata.
Fac tronuri din stele osteni si rapsozi,
Boieri si plaiesi si mareti voievozi.
Ii scartaie roata si oistea-i franta
De-atatea lumini cu povara lor sfanta.
Feeric luceste si Closca cu Pui.
E Iancu si gloata ortacilor lui.

Treptat se-mpanzeste cu zumzete cerul.
Ce mandru-i priveste din Luna Oierul!
Bondari de lumina se leaga in zbor,
Cu fir de argint tors din aripa lor.
Si duc meteorii grabite stafete
Spre roiuri de stele, de sori si planete.

Deodata aripa de zumzet s-a frant
Si-ntoarsera ochii spre locul lor sfant.
Coboara-un arhanghel pe Calea Lactee,
Sub arc de triumfuri din mari curcubee.
La soldu-i vegheza o spada de jar.
Scanteile-n palcuri din varful ei sar.
Hermina hlamidei ca zorile-i dalba.
Pe urma ei Calea ramane mai alba.

II
1
Urmandu-si stapanul, Buzesti si Novac,
Sirag de matanii, sclipind, se prefac,
Si sprijina cerul Cei Patru Pilastri,
Alaiul paleste si zodii si astri.
Plutesc lin si calca, in mers majestuos,
Puzderii de stele, risipa pe jos.
In tron se aseaza pe Steaua Polara.
Rapsozii din lire un imn intonara.
Apoi, la un semn, tanguitul caval,
Din marea durerii urni primul val.
Si umple tot cerul o doina strabuna
Cantand melancolic Ciobanul din Luna.
Si franti de restriste, cu tot focul sfant,
Privirea lor scalda intregul Pamant.

2
Musteste de sange, ca fructul de rodii;
Asa vad Pamantul privindu-l din zodii.
Un duh rau in flamuri, ca macul aprins,
C-un hohot de ura ca-n cinga l-a-ncins.
Obrocul de vrajba i-acopera stele,
Sa nu se mai scalde-n lumina din ele.
Intr-una ridica privire de orb
Si-l mangaie straniu aripa de corb.
Dar noaptea de vraja vesteste sorocul.
Tot cerul asteapta sa-i cada obrocul.
Lumina din bolta sublimului Dom
Ar vrea s-o re-nvie prin dragoste-un om.
In lanturi trudeste si lantul il doare.
Surasu-i pastreaza lumina din Soare.
In ochii-i albastri tot cerul senin
Si nu-l adumbreste un nor de suspin.
Cand zornaie lantul tot globul rasuna
Si maiinile robii spre ruga-mpreuna.

III
Se-afunda-n nestire Pamantul rotund,
Neantul sa-l soarba-n gatlej fara fund.
Se zbate sa-si iasa din matca oceanul,
Harapnicu-n valuri izbind uraganul.
Si muntii se smulg inspre cerul lor sfant,
Iar codrii se-ndoaie cu fruntea-n pamant.

Cad lanturi cu zgomot si lutul se-nclina.
Din el izbucneste un bob de lumina.
Ii creste aripa si-n primul lui salt
Cu chipul lui urca spre cerul inalt.
Aripa lui arde obrocul de flamuri.
Privesc iar spre stele robitele neamuri.
El zboara ca gandul si dus s-a tot dus,
Sorbit de chemarea iubirei de sus.
Feeric luceste regescul Luceafar.
Pe el se aseaza din zborul lui, teafar.
Priveste Pamantul si-n roiul de jos
Se-aprinde lumina lui Domnul Christos.
Rapsozii-acordara theorbe si lire.
Cuprinse tot cerul un imn de marire.
Apoi, la un semn, mangaiosul caval,
Din marea iubirii urni primul val.
Si umple tot cerul si cerul rasuna
Cantandu-i lumina Pastorul din Luna.
Si doina, lumina, din cer i-a rasfrant
Sa-nvaluie, dulce, intregul Pamant.

Mihai se ridica din Steaua Polara.
Rapsozii din lira alt imn intonara.
Il cheama. Pe bolta sublimului Dom,
Zbura umbra alba cu chipul de om.
Arhanghelu-l duce pe Calea Lactee
Sub arc de triumfuri din mari curcubee.
Din duhuri se-nsira lucindul alai.
Ei par o cometa c-un lung evantai.

IV
Iar noaptea se face mai neagra, mai rece.
Cu doina din Luna Pastoru-i petrece
Si doina se stinse cand tot se pierdu,
Acolo de unde veghezi, Doamne, Tu.
Mai sus decat sfera pierdutelor astre,
In locuri oprite privirilor noastre,
Alaiul pieri si s-a dus, l-au tot dus,
Sa-l vada la fata pe Domnul Iisus.


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