My City by Maria-Ana Necula

Here is a stirring and evocative poem that makes my heart sing with longing for my native Bucharest ~ the city that seduces you and haunts your memories long after you leave it, luring you back to it again and again, the city of my childhood, the city of my heart, that undefinable blend of chemical reactions of Parisian-Latin-Ottoman(ish)-Slavic elements on steady Dacian hearts and progressive Roman spirits. Sublime, cunning, self-indulgent, adaptable, ironic, beautiful and ugly, savage and elegant, sophisticated and primitive, and always true to its unique Romanian-ness.

My City

By Maria-Ana Necula

A city in the middle of a vast plain,

A crossroads of centuries of history,

An ebullient city

Growing and claiming

Its right to European civilization.

This was my city.

Modern and ancient,

Vibrant and lazy,

Anchored in two worlds,

East and West,

Handling ambiguity with grace and innovation,   

Lucid and sentimental,

This was my city.

The morning strolls

Under the bluest of the blue skies 

In the pure light 

Of an early June day

Were like making peace 

With mankind.

Flooded by light in the summer days,

Covered by snow

On harsh winter days,

My city is a river running through history.

I do not fully recognize it today,

But I am so grateful

That I lived at a meander

Where a less frantic world

Allowed this city

To peacefully float on the Danube plain.

Bucharest. My home.

September 30, 2020

Images of Bucharest (top to bottom) 1. University Square, 2. the Arch of Triumph, 3. Victory Avenue (Calea Victoriei), 4. the river Dâmbovița, 5. the pedestrian zone and famous restaurant Caru' cu bere (the Beer Cart) opened in 1899 in the Old Town, 6. the Macca-Villacrosse Passage.