Watercolor

The clouds which threaten us with a couple of showers, led me to thinking to Ion Minulescu's poem "Watercolor / Acuarela". 

"The People's House / Casa Poporului" , Bucharest, Romania

* The pictures were taken in Bucharest/ Bucuresti, with my phone camera, in a cloudy day of  2009.  
"The People's House / Casa Poporului" is the second's biggest building in the whole world after Pentagon.

In the city where it is rainy weather about three times a week
City slickers, along sidewalks,
Walk leisurely hand in hand.
In the city where it is rainy weather about three times a week
Under their old umbrellas, which groan
And bend
Overburdened by so much rain
City slickers along sidewalks
Look like marionette puppets
Straight out of the store windows.


In the city where it is rainy weather about three times a week
Just footsteps resounded along sidewalks
It's those walking leisury hand in hand
Counting
In their mind
The cadence of rain drops
That drip  from umbrellas
From water-pipes
And from the sky
Like a power of a potion
To give a slow life,
Monotonous,
Ineffective,
And absent-minded

In the city where it is rainy weather about three times a week
An old man and an old lady
Look like two broken toys
Walking leisury hand in hand...

  "The People's House / Casa Poporului", Bucuresti, Romania

I like this poem wrote by Ion Minulescu (1881-1944), which was inspired by Bucharest. Actually I like the archaic and bohemian tone of his works with free verses. Romanian poet, writer, and symbolist novelist who was known also as I.M. Nirvan or Koh-i-Noor,  he studied Law at the University of Paris (between 1900 and 1904) and published in 1908 his first book "Songs for Later On / Romante pentru mai tarziu" . He wrote many sentimental poems " Verses for Everyone/ Strofe pentru toata lumea", "Confessions/ Spovedanii" "Conversing with Myself/ De vorba cu mine insumi" and plays "The Sentimental Mannequin/ Manechinul sentimental" "The Anonymous Lover / Amantul anonim" , "The Wingless Dove / Porumbiţa fără aripi" suitable to be read in a rainy day.  I do not know why ... if we pay attention to the actual political life...   his political satire "Red, Yellow and Blue / Roşu, galben şi albastru" (named after the colors of Romanian national flag) it is old but it is not obsolete ;-)




The Romanian verses of the "Watercolor / Acuarela" poem:
In orasu-n care ploua de trei ori pe saptamana
Orasenii, pe trotuare,
Merg tinandu-se de mana
Si-n orasu-n care ploua de trei ori pe saptamana
De sub vechile umbrele, ce suspina
Si se-ndoaie
Umede de-atata ploaie
Orasenii pe trotuare
Par papusi automate
Date jos din galantare

In orasu-n care ploua de trei ori pe saptamana
Nu rasuna pe trotuare
Decat pasii celor care merg tinandu-se de mana
Numarand
In gand
Cadenta picaturilor de ploaie
Ce coboara din umbrele
Din burlane
Si din cer
Cu puterea unui ser
Datator de viata lenta
Monotona
Inutila
Si absenta

In orasu-n care ploua de trei ori pe saptamana
Un batran si o batrana
Doua jucarii stricate
Merg tinanadu-se de mana...