Mihaela Cristescu

Archetypes in Code-Mixing Poetry Mihaela Cristescu

ArchetypesÕ is a collection of poems intent on revealing the deeper patterns of meaning beneath the surface level of languageÑthat infinitely generative folk resource of words and syntax which streams through every border and connects all antipodes. Code-switching from English to Romanian with a virtuosic contiguity, CristescuÕs evocations of an author divided between _Ego, Õ _SoulÕ and _SelfÕ are enigmatic and preciseÑthey seduce the monoglot reader into the unfamiliar territories of a foreign language, and draw the casual observer into a verdant philosophical landscape. In the poems, familiarity and estrangement meet where word and object intersect, and the simplest images [...] pierce the page and become rich metonymies, carried along by the rhythm of lines; they are thoughts brought in heavy buckets over field and stream. These charged signs and symbols pour as water through Ôbranches and fingers, doors and circlesÕ until they become Ôlines on paperÕ read by Ôhumans learning letters.Õ / Luke Carman /