I COME FROM SALT
Donca Vianu

I come from salt
The white, glistening salt in the Black Sea.
I come from salt, , the youngest daughter of Lear.

I come from blood
The blood of treason
Of former allies and friends
Tortured and murdered
In cellars made into prison.

I come from blood
Seeping through words, and seeping through lines — all lies.

I come from silence
Of vast stretches of books along mahogany walls
Waiting.
From a golden frame Jesus Christ the Redeemer
Looking,
His mouth shut,
His right hand raised:

To bless? To arrest?

I come from calmness
The calmness after the death sentence
Has been announced.

I come from calmness
The calmness after the resolution to fight.

I come from calmness
The calmness when everything has been lost.

I come from innocence
The innocence of wheat- and cornfields mothered
By the Danube
Of ashes and larches, lilies of the valleys
And clear blue skies.

I come from innocence
The innocence of the Carpathians:
All of them witnessing, not comprehending.