The Omani “sceneries” of Camelia Radu


“Stones inadvertently resemble pain/ sharp when raw/ freshly torn from rock” (Desert Story); “I'll wrap around the silk of each day/ until I become core/ to your time// I gather you up speck by speck/ rumor/ flutter/ tear” (Oman); “At nights’ edge/ I meet the sea/ with my back to the shore I find her/ so fragile as if/ she's just fervor/ and verse” (Bandar al-Jissah); “White halo/ The city travels/ Through the desert/ A ship/ Of prayers” (Terrace in Azayba); “The night in Oman-/ of shawls fashioned out of silk/ Amouage perfume” (Haiku, 1); “The consistency-/ The goat, the date tree, a man/ A stony desert” (Haiku, 3); “The everlasting-/ A woman watching the sea/ A man deep in thought.” (Haiku, 4); “Broken mountains – / sun biting/ shrieks of shadows” (Grains of sand, 2); “The blind old man by the wady/ Touches the stone/ With his cane./ The earths’ eye/ Sheds a tear.” (Grains of sand, 6); “White between the rocks:/ A man./ His woman,/ Black flake” (Grains of sand, 11); “A scoop/ A nest/ A dream/ Any bearer of emotion/ Because you or I have nothing/ We are/ Transient ships/ brimming with memories/ Of steps// In the sails blow winds of arbitrary names/ Glorious histories/ Deceitfully swallow us whole. (A word’s edge); “In Shatti-al Qurum, by the sea shore,/…/ the stillness is more consistent than the sky,/ and over the world, a primordial truth falls./ The voices melt away without a recollection,/ not even the grains of sand underneath the footsteps/ can be discerned,/ you are the only inhabitant of Earth,/ you are the first./ The voice of sadness has not been yet heard,/ and neither the taste of fear is known/…” (Shatti al-Qurum beach, the version for Europeans).
This juxtaposition of verses, sequences, segments of poems taken from the first half of the volume “Oman”, written by Camelia Iuliana Radu, almost constructed itself when I began searching, following and suggesting through a suite of “highlights” the strong lines of the book, the accents that form its variable landscape.
From each poem to another, the poet surprises her reader with skillfully crystallized notations, images, observations, in their concise, intense haiku formula or delicately interwoven in the ample fabric of a letter-poem with an impetuous vigor (Shatti al-Qurum beach, European version).
The energy and freshness of her expression and the sincerity of elocution reveal the authenticity of the inner experience and of the states and primordial poetic motifs which led to the writing of these poems.
Encountering the Arab space, in this case the Omani one, creates in Camelia Iuliana Radu’s case a true change of her poetic destiny.
There she has found the place/moment for an insight/an essential feeling, regenerating, transforming: “You are the only inhabitant of Earth, you are the first”. The sceneries communicate the joy of this discovery.


Constantin Hârlav