green areas (Gabi Eftimie)
Pretending to be a tourist in my own town, I take the bus to the last stop.
It doesn`t take long and all filters disappear
when you`re on autopilot.
Soon, I arrive to my destination. My electrified hair is spread in the
same direction as I’m headed to. I pick up crumbs left behind of my fellow passengers and I try to guess: bread, biscuits, falafel? Ahead:” the park, the green lung of the city.”
In the deepest depth, fishes hobble, enduring like uranium.
The crows` croaking doesn’t pierce through anymore.
The black-throated loon spreads out its cry like a fishnet
through the lake´s surface.
I surrender to these inputs. Like in some guided meditation.
The park, now on mute, is lost in space.
Pigeons coo their mantras. Happiness to all humankind! Let us be spared by weakness! May all care for their fellows´ well-being! Don´t let anyone experience gloom and sorrow!
Suddenly, a green, lit water-bus pops up in the surrounding twilight.
Translated from Romanian to English by Gabi Eftimie.
Photo: Sorin Nainer
The piece is composed by Ana Teodora Popa with a poem by Gabi Eftimie in the frame of POLYPHONIC ECHOES, a project organized by Jumătatea plină for SEMI SILENT. Partners: Czech Center and the National Museum of Romanian Literature. With the support of the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.
*
Ana Teodora Popa (b.1988) is a sound engineer and composer from Iași, Romania. She studied at Ontario Institute of Audio Recording Technology and worked as a live sound engineer for the London City Music Theatre. In 2013, she started her dream job at the National Theatre in Iași, Romania, and later became the Sound and Video Department leader. To stay involved in more creative projects, in 2017 she become a freelancer. In 2018, she won third place in the Grand Prix Nova competition with a nonverbal binaural piece, created using only mono/stereo files and a unique editing method. She takes part in innovative and challenging independent projects, including theater plays, experimental performances, sound installations and films. She worked with Regenerator and Descentrat projects, and she participated to Sonic Future Residencies. She currently writes music and works on her own binaural audio research and technique. Her artistic goal is to reach the listeners at a level where they can relate and be moved by what is already inside them.
Gabi Eftimie has been living in Sweden since 2011, where she teaches Swedish and translates literature and children’s books from German, Swedish, and English. Her debut poetry collection, ochi roșii polaroid. acesta este un test (Vinea) was published in 2006, followed by nordul e o stare de spirit (Charmides), in 2014. Her work was also featured in several anthologies in Romanian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and English. She has participated in various festivals and workshops, among which the one organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute in Visby, Sweden in 2009. In 2020, she published her third book on nature: Sputnik în grădină (OMG), awarded by Sofia Nădejde Awards for literature written by women.
Recorded, played, composed, edited by Ana Teodora Popa for SEMI SILENT.
Voices: Ana Teodora Popa and Sebastian Bădărău
