Back in July, I had a very happy encounter with a poet new to me; her name is Nora Iuga and her work was translated from the Romanian by Adam J. Sorkin and Diana Manole. Diana was kind enough to pass my thoughts on to Nora, for which I was very grateful – it’s always lovely to know that an author appreciates your response to their work. However, interestingly enough, it also transpires that Manole is a poet herself, and she was generous enough to send me a copy of a collection of her own work, “Praying to a Landed-Immigrant God”, a book which explores her own life and experiences. This was an equally fascinating and moving work, and so I want to share some thoughts on it here.

Manole was born in Bucharest and moved to Canada in 2000; as she notes, she now proudly identifies as a Romanian-Canadian scholar, writer and literary translator. Whilst in Romania she published widely, and this continued when she moved abroad; her range includes poetry and plays, and she has worked alongside co-translator Adam J. Sorkin on many projects. As well as winning a number of prizes and awards, she has taught in Ontario universities since 2006 as well as taking part in an impressive array of academic activities.

What’s initially intriguing about this book is that Diana wrote her poetry in Romanian and then co-translated it with Sorkin; it seems that she’s most comfortable writing in her original language. She tells me that the poems cover her first thirteen years in Canada; the book is divided into seven sections, and the first six are dated, indicating they relate to specific times of that period of her life. For example, the first (Diana-Canadiana in the Blue Light – 3 August 2000 – 16 August 2002) come from the viewpoint of someone young, who’s newly arrived in a strange country and is struggling to cope with the changes that brings.

“As I hurry down
my face reflects in the pupils of people
passing me on their way up –
a kaleidoscope that jumbles my features,
like a puzzle
I keep losting pieces of.
A smile that long ago stopped being mine
peels of my face
expressionless like after Botox.”

We move forward through the years in subsequent sections, following the writer’s narrative voice through her experiences growing up, dealing with her rather harsh grandmother, discovering her sexuality, and in section five (Black, Decalogue – 13 February 2013) beginning an ardent affair with someone very other to her own origins. These are poems of of intense and sometimes erotic intimacy, exploring the layers of emotion involved in any relationship, but particularly when both parties are from such different backgrounds. The deeply personal verses which chart the course of the affair dig deep and linger in the mind.

The final section of the book is a fascinating exercise in poetry and translation, entitled in English “Deflowering. Other Peoples’ Languages“. There are nine parts to this, the first of which is the (presumably original) poem in Romanian by Manole. It’s then translated into eight other languages – English, Finnish, Russian, Persian, French, Spanish, German and Dutch – by a talented range of translators, making this a truly multi-cultural, multlingual work. I’m impressed and frankly a little stunned by this – such an achievement and a way to make words cross linguistic borders.

All in all, I’m happy to say that I loved “Praying to a Landed-Immigrant God”. It’s a powerful collection of thought-provoking, moving and compelling poems, concerned with love, language and identity. It’s obvious that Diana Manole has poetry in her blood, and I’m pleased to have been able to discover her work. The book has been published by Grey Borders Books in Canada, in I think a limited run, so I’m not sure how easy it will be to get hold of. However, if you do come across any of Diana’s poetry I can highly recommend it – a powerful and singular voice!