NEW HOPE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW
An independent small press poetry review
 MAGDALENA DALE & VASILE MOLDOVAN: FRAGRANCE OF LIME Editura Fat-Frumos Bucuresti, Romania ISBN 973 552 85 Visit the website of Romanian Kukai visit the visit the website of Magdalena Dale Read a review of a solo book by Magdalena Dale        Web design by  This page last updated: 14th December 2007. |
MAGDALENA DALE & VASILE MOLDOVAN: FRAGRANCE OF LIME | |
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This is a collection of Romanian language renga and related forms by Magdalena Dale and Vasile Moldovan, translated by Magdalena Dale. The front cover is very attractive, with a photo of lime flowers. As the fragrance of these flowers is one of my favourite scents, I was drawn into the collection immediately. In fact lime trees permeate the whole of the book, with two of the sequences been solely dedicated to the tree, including Moldovan's haiku sequence EMINESCU'S LIME from which this haiku is taken: A lime tree instead of a bookmarker... the old love story.The kasen FRAGRANCE OF LIME, although not solely focussed on the lime, includes this from Dale: Useless nights with the lime in bloom only in my dreamsThe kasen moves on to include this wonderfully evocative imagery from Dale: Shooting stars, the chestnuts are bursting in an undertoneOther images of rural Romania appear time and again in the poems, including snow, orchards, birds — including storks and crows, haystacks and carol singers. All the poetry is influenced by the seasons, this haiku by Moldovan is from the renga MORNING BREEZE: All of a sudden over the burn stubble field the harvest moonThe moon reappears later in this renga in a haiku by Dale: Haystacks — in the halo of the moon the fireflies.The only criticism is that some of the translations don't flow as well as they could, though that doesn't detract from this beautiful collection that transports the reader to a peaceful rural setting. | ||
| reviewer: Juliet Wilson. |