Marieta Maglas (19-05-1964 / Radauti, Judet Suceava, Romania)

Exciting, jumping, bowing, stretching
In jerky sequence, exaltation, exhilaration
Wild in a wet meadow, mutual rejoicing
Reflecting a sense of limited aggression,

Engendering hope for a free and open future,
With their elegant posturing and dramatic leaps,
Enthusiastic and sometime even immature,
High into the air with outstretched wings,

Coordinating bows, leaps and short flight,
Liking to dance in pairs for a courtship ritual,
Turning their head and balancing the weight,
Being paired for life, never trying to be perpetual

Bowing and bobbing, jumping for joy and fidelity
Throw their trumpet, grass, stone and feather,
Performing ballet leaps with a graceful fragility
Better yet, they dance when they need to be together.

Red-crowned, they certainly dance in the snow
Having tears as crops needing to be sown in June.
Being in competence with light, their future's glow
Soars into the clouds as if chasing the moon.

Called simple 'the bird of happiness' in Japan
Or 'patriarch of the feathered tribe' in China,
A symbol of wisdom, painted always with the sun
A symbol of Vietnamese, beautiful images on the retina

Sandhill crane, always the great spirit of the wild
Bowing head, flapping wings in an exquisite dance,
Leaping up, touching the ground like a child
Tossing wisp of grass, twigs into the air by chance

Imitating the crane dancers, seemingly being humane
At the ancient Chinese funerals and Okinawan festival.
In Japanese myths the soul takes the form of the crane
In Indian mythology, they stand for malice and betrayal.