Romanian Poets Romanian Poets

“Mihai Eminescu National Highschool”, Buzau, Romania

Mihai Eminescu (born on 15th January 1850, died on 15th june 1889) was a poet, prose writer, culture critic, critical journalist, literal and dramatic critic, folk reaper, mindful of philology, pedagogy, metaphysics, politics and he was considered a complete and manysided genius, because his creation is about so many domains of the spirit. He is not a myth anymore, he is a spiritual reality, a permanent value of the national culture.Eminescu's interest for the folk creation has been manifested by the reaping of folk texts, by the folk inspiration, which came from the original texts and folk problems, as they were written by the poet.

Mihai Eminescu Mihai Eminescu

The biggest themes and reasons of Eminescu's creation are:1) The theme of the TIMEThe theme of the TIME, which has been seen as a super theme of the creation and the poet's favourite and is found in almost every poem. It is correlated with the theme of the cosmic.2) The COSMIC The COSMIC is represented by its elements, the infinite, the sky, the Sun, the Moon, the stars, the lucifers, the music of the spheres, the chaos.3) The HISTORYThe HISTORY, which can also triger other themes of Eminescu's creation:a) the idea of mother country, the feeling of patriotism ;“What I wish you, sweet Romania”:

What I wish you, sweet RomaniaMy country of glory, my country of longing?

Nervous arms, the weapon of strength,To your great past, a great future!

b) a panorama of the deserts (“Memento mori”);c) genius and art condition (The Satires,” Lucifer”);d) the patriotic meditation ;“The Third Satire”:

While at the earth's four corners rose up against the skyAtlas, Caucasus, Taurus and the Balkan mountains high,

The wide Euphrates, Tigris, the Nile, the Danube old,All 'neath its boughs protecting their mighty waters rolled.

4) The NATUREThe NATURE: “The First Satire”, “Desire”, “One Wish Alone Have I”, “Eve on the Hill”.One Wish Alone Have I :

One wish alone have I:In some calm land

Beside the sea to die.5) The LOVEThe LOVE: “The Lake”, “Desire”, “How many times, my love”, “Angel and Demon”, “Down Where the Lonely Poplars Grow”.The Lake:

Water lilies load all overThe blue lake amid the woods,

That imparts, while in white circlesStartling, to a boat its moods.

Desire:Come now to the forest's spring

Running wrinkling over the stones,To where lush and grassy furrows

Hide away in curving boughs.

The "Lucifer"Lucifer"" is one of the cornerstones of European romanticism. It seems to us to be the sublime swansong of European Romanticism, a song expressing the regret for the breach between the man of the positivistic century, the man inclined towards realism and naturalism, and the mythic and poetic cradle of the man soul.The "Lucifer" remains the sad story of the inner splitting of modern man, cast in a misleading form owing to the apparent simplicity of the folk-like verse and to the deceiving traditionalism of its imagery.

LUCIFEROnce on a time, as poets singHigh tales with fancy laden,Born of a very noble king

There lived a wondrous maiden.

An only child, her kinsfolk boon,So fair, imagination faints;

As though amidst the stars the moon,Or Mary amidst the saints.

From `neath the castle’s dark retreat,Her silent way she wended

Each evening to the window-seatWhere Lucifer attended.

And secretly, with ne’er a fail,She watched his double race,

Where vessels drew their pathless trailAcross the ocean’s face.

And as intent she drank his light,Desire was quickly there;

While he who saw her every nightSoon fell in love with her.

As much as we can humanity predict, the Romanian poetic literature will continue, in the 21st century, under the influence of his genius, and the shape of the national language, which has been found through Eminescu the most beautiful achievement of the future Romanian reflection.

 

Tudor Tudor Arghezi Arghezi

Tudor Arghezi (1880- 1967)19271927 He publishes his first poetry volume Suitable Words (Cuvinte potrivite)19311931 He publishes Mildew Flowers (Flori de mucigai)1934 1934 He gets the National Prize for Poetry.

Literary criticism has started to distinguish in Tudor Arghezi's poetry fundamental themes. His wide literary production contains all the big themes of poetry.I Philosophical poems:I Philosophical poems:a) Poetic arts- poem about poetryb) Poem of knowledge- The Psalms- Arghezi's oscillation between yes and no, between faith and not.II Social poemsII Social poemsAesthetics of ugly- The volume Mildew Flowers (Flori de mucigai) has provoked great controversy. The poems express the experience from prison.III Poems of joyIII Poems of joyThe poems for his children. Poems full of fragility.As Baudelaire, Tudor Arghezi wishes to introduce a poem of literary plastic simultaneity, superior musicality. In Arghezi's vision, the universe is a sacred space full of signs by which the Divinity registers its messages: it is the responsibility of the poet to decode these messages, making them into his personal language form.Arghezi's poetry is a continuous hymn about the generosity of all the aspects of creation, a meditation on its deep meanings, an interrupted interrogation: the objective is the extraction of the sublime from the most simple fact of vulgarity.

Mildew FlowersI wrote them with my nail on walls

In the empty alcoves,In the dark and in solitude,

without the solicitudeof the bull, the lion or the eagle

that worked so eagerfor Luke, Mark and John.

These are verses without time,Verses of the dust,Of terrible thirst

And hunger for the ashes that burnt,Verses of this very moment.

When my celestial nail was worn blunt and lowI wanted to let it grow

And it never grew back in place -Or maybe I couldn’t recognize its face.

It was dark. In the distance, outside, I could hear the rain.And my hand felt like a claw through the pain,

Incapable to extend,So I forced myself to write with the nails of my left hand.

(Translation by Loredana Tiron-Pandit)

Psalm I could the eternity with comrade'sI could the eternity with comrade'sTo get accomplice to my thoughts;New violins to charm, new melodyTo find- and hard and rangy lines.

[...]A Woman's body to embrace

I will not bring to you, one soft and young; Only the suffer of the sky, a shame

It's not with her to upset the waters of Jordan.I want to die in dark and rottenness, 

Not touched of saints, dreadful and disgusted.And not known that you were loving me

And not know that you are living just for me.

(Personal adaptation)

Ion Barbu Ion Barbu

Ion Barbu ( 18 March 1895 – 11 August 1961) was a Romanian mathematician and poet. As mathematician, he was known as Dan Barbilian.19291929 - takes his doctorate in mathematics and in 19301930 he publishes his first volume of poetry called Joc secund (Mirrored Play).

King-fungus Crypto and Sami Enigel (Riga Crypto si Lapona Enigel) is a ballad written by Ion Barbu in which can be found figurative elements from nature. The unfortunate story of Crypto, King-fungus, is told with a tenderness full of gravity. Crypto falls in love with little Sami Enigel, stopped at night in his glade and he tries to convince her to remain there, but Enigel rejects his request because she aspires with her entire nature to solarity.The title of this ballad suggests the great love stories in literature: Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde.

King-fungus Crypto and Sami Enigel (Riga Crypto și Lapona Enigel)

The first phaseThe first phase of the activity of this poet is represented by a tough vocabulary, but new, with a serious tone. The material used was more cosmic : lava, mountains, basalt, granite. The second phaseThe second phase of activity of Ion Barbu is called SCENICAL AND SCENICAL AND ORIENTALORIENTAL. The lyricism of the poet is enriched by color. “His new inspirations have not come again from rock or classical mythology or Heredia, or Nietzsche, but from the native layer of a certain folklore.” The poet does not return to the folk poetry; he returns to the native layer of Danubian Plain, to the Bucharest slum muse and folklore. The cosmic verbal material is replaced by the scenical material.

It's given to these gloomy folksThe sterile egg for daily meal,But lively egg with seed on topIt's born in our sight as sunny seal!As ancient world, in crystal time,Is swimming in a thinly lime,The new and pure egg – a giftFor wedding, a palace or a crypt.Three sheets of silk coiled in a row,The white sleeps in such bed of snowSo languid, and enclosed, serene,Like loved-one tumbled in a dream.

The human seed?From very highFrom the plus pole of his own skyWhere lump of earthHas never touched a bit.He offers smoothlyHis bursting kissSo masculineTo the whiteWith its cold lips of hyaline. […]

(Translated by Liviu Georgescu)

The Dogmatic Egg - Ion Barbu

Lucian Blaga Lucian Blaga

Lucian Blaga ( 9 May 1895 – 6 May 1961) was a Romanian poet, philosopher, playwright. He was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the inter-war period. In 19561956, he was nominated to the Nobel Prize for Literature.Poetry : 1919 - Poems of Light ( Poemele Luminii ); 1921 - The Prophet's Footsteps ( Pașii Profetului ); 1924 - In the Great Passage ( În marea trecere ).Drama : 1927 - Manole the Craftsman ( Meșterul Manole ); 1930 - The Children's Crusade.Philosophical works : 1924 - "The Philosophy of Style“; 1925 - "The Original Phenomenon" and "The Facets of a Century“; 1937 - "The Genesis of Metaphor and the Meaning of Culture“.

Lucian Blaga’s poetry represents a moment of Romanian lyricism elevation.In Blaga’s spiritual formation played an important role the following factors :

Early contact with the rural world and folk spirituality : “I think the eternity was born in the village”

Contact with Indian philosophy. From here he remembered themes, motifs, ideas: theme of infinite time, the theme of the body as a prison of the soul, sleep and silence as ways of achieving absolute.

The light (Lumina)-Lucian BlagaThe light that I feel

flooding my chest when I see you,isn’t it, I wonder, a drop from the light

created on the first day,from that light so thirsty of life?

I will not crush the world’s corolla of wonders (Eu nu strivesc corola de minuni a lumii )

  

I will not crush the world’s corolla of wonders

and I will not killwith reason

the mysteries I meet along my wayin flowers, eyes, lips, and graves.

The light of othersdrowns the deep magic hidden

in the profound darkness.

I increase the world’s enigmawith my light

much as the moon with its white beams

does not diminish but increasesthe shimmering mysteries of night –

I enrich the darkening horizonwith chills of the great secret.

All that is hard to knowbecomes a greater riddle

under my very eyesbecause I love alike

flowers, lips, eyes, and graves.

Nichita Stănescu (1933-1983)19571957 He appears for the first time in Tribune (Tribuna) and in Literary Newspaper (Gazeta Literara) with the poems: There Were Many People(Au fost mulți oameni), Land (Pământ), The Hospital was Burning with the Patients (Ardea spitalul cu tot cu pacienți).19601960 he appears with the first volume of poems The Meaning of Love (Sensul iubirii)19661966 He publishes 11 Elegies (11 Elegii)19711971 In Yugoslavia appear the volumes: Belgrad in Five Friends (Belgradul în cinci prieteni) and Unwords (Necuvintele)19801980 Candidate at the Nobel prize for Literature. 19831983 Appears Ask the circle to forgive you (Cere-ți cercului iertare)- New York-Cleveland-London

Nichita Stănescu Nichita Stănescu

Literary productionAfter Mihai Eminescu and Tudor Arghezi, Nichita Stănescu is the third innovator of poetic language in Romanian literature.Particularities of neo-modernism poetry found in Nichita Stănescu's poems:- the poems is permanently vexing the readers expectations- the fight of self to self, the collation between creator and thinker- the reinterpretation of the myths- the subtlety of metaphors- the irony, the playful spirit- The philosophic reflection, the approaching big themes of literature: love, death, nature, time.Stages of creation:The fist stage- the exuberance, the first volumes. Themes like love, enthusiasmThe second stage- internalized lyricism. The ideas are more and more abstract. In this stage, the author starts the reinterpretation of the myths.The third stage- cold lyrical poetry, the stage of maturity. The meditation of death and time.

I amHere I am, stretched out over the stones, I moan,

the organs are broken, the maestro,oh, he is mad because he suffers

from the entire universe.I cannot bear what is not seen,what is not heard, not tasted.

I am not sick with songs,but with broken windows.

(Translated by Paul Doru Mugur)

The tenth elegy is similar to The Little Ewe because of this crying , similar to the melancholy Romanian folk songs, then the famous Crying of the Unicorn by Dimitrie Cantemir.

The LandOh, what I have more precious on this world,

your sweet, tremendous landand all your names you have

to apricot from apricot-Branch with apple flower

and a majestic bird.

(personal adaptation)

This is a poem from the volume A Land called Romania. Nichita Stănescu has several poems supporting the Romanian spirit through literature.

Mircea Cărtărescu (1956- still alive)19811981 He appears with the volume Beacons, cabinets, photographs...19901990 The Prize of Writer's Unions for The Levant.20032003 He publishes 50 Sonnets by Mircea Cărtărescu With Fifty Drawings by Tudor Jebeleanu.Since 2005Since 2005, Mircea Cărtărescu received numerous international prizes. 

Mircea Cărtărescu Mircea Cărtărescu

Mircea Cărtărescu wrote numerous books: Beautiful Strangers (Frumoasele străine- 2010), The Dream (Visul- 1989), Why We Love Women (De ce iubim femeile- 2004).Mircea Cărtărescu has changed radically Romanian literature, both prose and poetry, through the new themes which are representative for the literary flow called post-modernism. It is also considered that his literary flow is called neovanguardism.The most beautiful poems written by Mircea Cărtărescu can be found in volumes Poems of love, 1983 and Everything, 1985. They express the mood of a lover, even when they not refer explicitly to love.Most of his poems are statements of love and, at the same time, a comedy of the declaration of love. To stun his girlfriend, the poet stood up in front of her temples of words, which also him tears them apart, knowing that he might be able at any time of much more.

WHEN YOU NEED LOVE

when you want to hold someone, there’s no one to hold. when you want to make a phone call, everybody’s out. 

when you are down on your knees, who asks about you? who cares? who will ever care?

please stand by me, think of metreat me gently, don’t torture me, don’t make me jealous, 

don’t leave me, for I wouldn’t stand another break-upstand by my side, root for me.

(Translation from fantasticpieces.wordpress.com)

Folk Art and its influence on European Culture Folk Art and its influence on European Culture

Students:

Berindei AndreeaDoni Alina

Manolache Adina

Coordinating teachers:

Vlad Mihaela (English)

Dobre Florentina (French)