K. 7:00

by Krista Szöcs

Translated from Romanian by Monica Cure

I woke up and wanted to see the sun rising through the clouds
you were right
nature can explain more than a single person
who is intimidating
it can say why clouds quickly pass overhead
and trees move
why when going uphill tiredness pauses thoughts
even if the heart faster
and you were right
love will save us when
control is lost and hands are left without gestures
it will save me from wind blowing through wet clothes
on a fall day
from the friend I betrayed
for which not even for a minute did I feel
guilty
from this landscape too much before my eyes
too green
they say love will save me from the distances I can’t cross
the distance from here to many meters away measured in footsteps
love will also save me from tiresome fantasies
that inflate my ego and self-confidence
where is my ego and self-confidence?
I sit on a chair and sink down
ambitions are baser and baser
when it comes to the issue of inspiration

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Krista Szöcs (n. 1990, Sibiu, Romania) obtained her master’s degree from the College of Arts and Letters in Sibiu with a dissertation on poetry and post-punk. She debuted as a poet in 2013 with her volume cu genunchii la gură (with my knees to my chin), and in 2017 an English language chapbook, locked in silence, was published by the Luma Foundation as part of the 89plus project and exhibition “Poetry will be made by all!” In 2019, she won the Young Poet of the Year prize and the Observator Universitas prize for her poetry collection berlin (Nemira Press).

Monica Cure is a Romanian-American poet, translator, and dialogue specialist. She won the 2023 Oxford-Weidenfeld prize for her translation of Liliana Corobca's novel The Censor's Notebook and her second translation by Corobca, Kinderland, recently appeared with Seven Stories press as well. Her poetry translations have been published in journals such as Kenyon Review, Asymptote, and Modern Poetry in Translation. Her own poems have appeared in Plume, RHINO, Boston Review, and elsewhere. She is currently based in Bucharest.