Saturday 30 August 2014

The end of summer


In all our legends and stories we can see that Romanians were very tight to their land, the agricultural moments used to mark the calendar and these days were felt as holidays or feasts.
Today, even if many peasants forgot what they used to work and how they used to do it the hard way thanks to the upcoming technologies and to the ways everything is being mechanized and industrialized, you can still feel a special itch in your heart when you get close to the old traditions.



The in-gathering in august is one such moment. The days are long and hot, the crops need to be harvested, the hay as well.


The peasants now only use the evenings to do this as during the day you have to hide from the sun that's getting stronger and stronger by the day, definitely the pollution and global warming are crying out to us in all ways possible, the earth is getting damaged and soon so will we.


I found myself in the past years in need of silence and peace, away from the agitated city-life, the angry and rushing inhabitants of the city, nervous neighbors and irritated retired old men; the life in the countryside of Romania seams to give you that peace and quiet by the moments nature gives us when we comply to it.
So, here are some images of the superb moments you can live if you follow the old ways, if you are willing to look around and feel the old bond we have genetically inherited with our lands.

 
The Romanian countryside life has its special poetry, its own music that you have to live first before you can understand it, you have to be there to understand how the land and nature can be such a muse to you even while working. So, if you haven't been yet to the countryside, make sure you take a couple of days off and do this, no regrets guaranteed!

It's not for nothing that we say "the Romanian was born a poet". 


I will leave you in the company of some verses extracted from a Romanian poem by Vasile Alecsandri, the poem's title is "Tara"/"The country": 
"(...)Aice-i ţara basmelor
       Ce-ngână-a noastră minte
       Prin freamătul fantasmelor
       Din timpi de mai nainte.
  (...)
       Aice-i vestea Doamnelor

       Din lumea legendară,
       Ş-a prelungirii toamnelor
       Sub cerul de primăvară. (...)."
 
Translation(by myself):
   "Here's the country of fairytales
   That our mind is humming
   Through the fluster of our phantasies
   From times that came to pass.

   Here's the word of the Ladies
   From legendary worlds,
   And of the extending autumns
   Under the spring's heavens."

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