intimacy

I can be alone,
I know how to be alone.

There is a tacit understanding
between my pencils
and the trees outside;
between the rain
and my luminous hair.

The tea is boiling:
my golden zone,
my pure burning amber.

I can be alone,
I know how to be alone.
By tea-light,
I write.


- Nina Cassian
trans. from the Romanian
by Eva Feiler and Nina Cassian


(thanks emily.)