Tribar

Translated from Romanian by Anca Roncea, Tribar starts from the geometrical concept of an impossible triangle whose three sides do not connect but still exist in the form of a triangle, creating a direction for movement. Andra Rotaru’s poetic work has developed from some of her encounters with modern dance choreography: her poems simultaneously mimic and track the body in motion. Her “connections” become joints or articulated bones that work together to carry the body along. This translation recreates this embodiment in English by focusing on the minute details of movement and sound in Andra’s language and on the “kinetic air” of Romanian. Poet Sawako Nakayasu describes Tribar as scenes that "carry you through a changing landscape that can be menacing, historical, scientific, or downright violent—all in torqued connection with each other like the 'incorrect connections' of the tribar." Romanian literary critic Ioana Bo?tenaru describes this book as "a choreography of visions, impregnated with explanations, definitions and confessions, at the end of which the instance, which found relief in the smell of milk on its knees, manages to emerge from the wound, rediscovering self-joy."

Andra Rotaru is a poet and author of a number of projects in collaboration at the intersection of arts: the dance performance Lemur, presented in the US and across Europe by the choreographer Robert Tyree; the documentary All Together, produced during the International Writing Program 2014; the photography project Photo-letter pairing, involving the Iowa community and IWP writers. Rotaru is also the author of Într-un pat sub cearsaful alb (In a Bed Under the White Sheet, 2005) and En una cama bajo la sábana blanca (the Spanish translation of her debut volume, 2008). Anca Roncea is a poet and translator. She has lived in Bucharest, Iowa City, Yangon, Los Angeles, Paris, and New York. Through her work, Anca explores the space where language can create pivots in the midst of displacement, while incorporating the aesthetics of Constantin Brancusi and the women artists of the Dada Movement. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and the University of Bucharest’s Cultural Studies MA program. Anca’s poetry has been published in the Berkeley Poetry Review, Beecher’s Magazine, Omniverse, the Bare Life Review, and Lana Turner.