Untitled (from "Stitches")

by Doina Ioanid

Translated from Romanian by Monica Cure

To be born again at almost 42 years old just from what’s left of you: cartilage and bones. To
come into the world knowing that sometimes it’s nothing more than a dirty drop of water. To not
be protected by any membrane or sound. To be exposed to the harsh air, saturated and heavy
with those who came before you. To come into the world as fog takes big bites out of the bark of
birch trees and foxes hop around drunk. To come into the world as if from someone’s tear. And
from this tear, the world to solidify again, with trees, with houses, with people. To see them as
they are, with their flesh, their desires, their griefs, their neuroses, plastered over their hearts. To
put the moon back into its place. To acquire the patience of grapes and quinces. And for your
body to call you by your name every day. For everything to be easy, like a cake recipe. To not
care about the painful knots headed your way.

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Doina Ioanid (b. 1968, Bucharest, Romania) is a poet and French to Romanian literary translator. She is also a senior editor for Observator cultural, a leading Romanian cultural weekly. Ioanid has published eleven books of poetry thus far and has been translated into over ten languages in international anthologies and journals. She is frequently invited to read at international poetry festivals and has been awarded several international residencies.

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.