Bifrost Publishing House » Clelia Ifrim-sv

The way of the earth-born ones is a love dream.

I have it from my parents and I will take it with me

in the blue eternal night, as a part of my life.

Clelia Ifrim

She was born in Bucharest, where she leaves at present.

She is member of Romanian Writers’ Union, JUMPA - Japanese Universal Poets Association (Japan), of Cultural Foundation “Naji Naaman“ (Lebanon) and IWA – International Writers and Artists Association (USA).

Her first poems appeared in “Luceafărul” magazine (The Morning Star) in 1979.

“There is in these poems a strain of the thought, an accuracy of the words, that express the suffering of the artist“, Aurel Dragoş Munteanu wrote. She makes her editorial debut in 1986, in the collective anthology of short prose “Debut” at Cartea Românească publishing house.

“Strange stories that evince a very restless sensibility and an imagination in a fantastic register“, Laurentiu Ulici wrote.

Her works of poetry, drama, short prose, translations, essays, drawings have been published in many literary magazines and journals like:

Literary Romania,The Morning Star,The Ark, The Hearth, Counterpoint (Romania), The Mainichi Daily News, The Asahi Shimbun/The Herald Tribune, Ko, Mushimegame, The Mie Times (Japan), International Poetry Copybooks, The Romanian Roots, The Modern Haiku, Lynx – a journal for linking poets (USA), and so on.

“She is a poet whose words are very quiet, but with a lot of meaning beyond what she says“, the editor of e-zine “Sound of Poetry” writes about her poems.

Her works have appeared in several poetry anthologies such as: “Anthology of Romanian Sonnet” and “Haiku – ancient and modern poetry” (MQPublishing, London), an anthology that includes “the best 136 poets of the world”.

She has published 25 books.

Among them, ” My Loved Japan” an edition in Romanian, English, French and German, that is Best Books of 2011 (David Burleigh, The Japan Times)

Hidenori Hiruta from Akita International who rewrote and translated it into Japanese writes: “Please read this book and immerse yourself in the universe of a very original thinker and artist, whose sensivity fills every reader’s heart with the subtlest music of words and ideas you have listened to in years“.

Among her published books is “The Children of The Royal House“, a book of 5 plays, that was shortlisted for the Prize of the Romanian Writers’ Union in 2013. About the play that gives the title of the book, Mircea Ghiţulescu wrote: “Working with such major cultural symbols proves her power to synthesize and her interest in what is the best in the culture. The daring of her vision, the short and sharp speech are very suited for a performance or a public reading“.

About the “Medals Field“, another play of this book that was awarded at the International Festival of Drama from Oradea, Elisabeta Pop writes: “The speech is essential dramatic, precise, and the word has the coldness of a diamond“.

“Whom does yesterday belong to ?” is a novel appeared in 2012 at Reflection Publishing House (USA), with a foreword by the well known poet and translator Andrei Zanca from Germany, who writes:

“Clelia Ifrim gifted with seduction resurrects the prose, its clearness, concision and charm. She made a texture in which the reflections of reality are well-balancedly knit. They are interrupted by natural and laconic dialogues, but that require fine innermost sounding lines, traversed by a poetical thread like “an angel sight”. All are harmoniously interweaved to a final that claims a new reading, the evening hour when The God descends in the world to find the lost children. A revelation, and therefore the absolute certainty of a charming and stirring book, read in the fertile hours of the solitude“.

Also about this book, the prose-writer and physician Adrian Sîngeorzan from USA says: “Clelia Ifrim writes a delicate and grave prose like a Japanese water colour. Her work has substance and charm, and it starts from the daily, but it is continuing in the high sphere of the existence.

A magic thrill accompanies her words. A sensible author who pays attention to the psychology of the world in which she lives“.

Three of her poetry books have been translated into Japanese by Mariko Sumikura and published by JUNPA, Japan.

She is recipient of many international haiku prizes. Among them: Grand Prix, Matsuo Basho Festival, Japan, 2011.

Two of her poems were selected by JAXA – Japan Aerospace Explorating Agency – and stored aboard the space module Kibo (Hope) of the ISS – International Space Station.

The poet and translator Kiwao Nomura, selector for this project, in his comment says:” Again using simple words, she speaks only the love and departure. Such a work seemed to be the most suitable for connecting to astronaut Wakata“.

The poem was sent from the Earth to the astronaut Koichi Wakata who was on The International Space Station. In the movie made aboard the space module Kibo, Wakata – san says: ” Reading the 24th link written by Ms. Clelia Ifrim, I felt we’ve been given a gift from our parents and also the mother earth. When I looked out of the window of Kibo, the beauty of the blue planet struck me and I was overwhelmed with gratitude for the gift I received from it.”