Nina Cassian

Bread and Wine

We said there’d be a celebration…
There wasn’t
And so I dressed for no apparent
reason in the height of fashion.

I waited for you till dawn.
All night I waited.
In the carafe-stagnant wine,
on the tables-stale bread.

And when day came upon the land
-and I knew it would remain there-
I took the flowers from my hair
with a withered hand.

(translated from the Romanian by Brenda Walker and Andrea Deletant)
p. 31