Floareau Ţuţuianu (translated by Adam Sorkin)

Like a Rare Bird

She hops to the tip of the tongue
not to disturb the remnant of tomorrows
A nude exhausting a mirror—
body set loose in words
Light settled in layers on her forehead

a crown of thorns and laurels—
the dust of words

Nonetheless I'll die like a rare bird
on my own tongue

Floarea Ţuţuianu graduated from the Nicolae Grigorescu Institute of the Fine Arts in Bucharest and is now a member of both the Artists' Union and the Writers' Union of Romania. She has published four books of poetry, most recently a collected volume with new poems, The Art of Seduction (2002). Ţuţuianu works as a graphic designer at the Romanian Cultural Institute Publishing House in Bucharest, where she lives. Poems of hers have been printed in The Marlboro Review, Artful Dodge, Turnrow, Tampa Review, New Letters, Puerto del Sol, 5 AM, Diode (rpt. in Coldfront) and are forthcoming in Poetry International and Blood Orange Review.

Adam J. Sorkin recently published Memory Glyphs, a collection of three Romanian prose poets, Cristian Popescu, Iustin Panţa and Radu Andriescu (Twisted Spoon, 2009) and Ruxandra Cesereanu's Crusader-Woman, translated with Cesereanu (Black Widow, 2008). Distinguished Professor of English, Penn State Brandywine, Sorkin is the most active translator of Romanian poetry in the English-speaking world.