[I'm a woman] Poem by Svetlana Cârstean

I'm a woman,
for a long time my body's been floating
above an expanse of water, as white as moonlight,
indecent and silent.
I'm a cruel mother
who hugs her child
to the point of suffocation,
makes him one with herself
as once it had been,
when the big bellies were shady rooms to rest in,
were the good spaces along the street,
the rooms of unending vacations
without pain, without tears,
were the place in which no one gets separated from anyone else.
I'm a woman, often ugly.
Yesterday, my body was a paper boat
that I threw playfully on the surface of this water,
hoping it would carry me away.
Today, I'm the killer whale,
often beautiful,
waiting for the fisherman.

Translation from Romanian by Claudia Serea