January 15 marks the celebration of the National Day of Culture (now in its 10th year), which coincides with the commemoration of Romania’s most celebrated poet, Mihai Eminescu.
Born on January 15, 1850, in Ipotești, then part of the Ottoman Empire, now a village in Suceava county, Mihai Eminescu was probably the most prolific and talented poet of his generation—he published his first poem at 16— and is revered by many critics and readers as the national poet, though, in all honesty his status has been questioned in the past years. He is considered to have changed both the form and the content of Romanian poetry, strongly influencing the following generations of poets.
Eminescu started his education in Cernăuți (then belonging to the Austrian Empire, now in Ukraine), and after a few years in which he roamed the country with different theatre companies, working as a prompter and a copyist, he continued his studies in Berlin and Vienna, reading Philosophy and Law.
During his university years, Mihai Eminescu became involved in the literary scene and was a frequent collaborator of various literary magazines and publications, being strongly influenced by the German philosophy and western literature. However, his most notable connection was with the literary society Junimea, founded in Iași in 1863, which is considered the most influential intellectual and political association of the 19th century, and which helped set up the basis of the modern Romanian culture.
After completing his education, he returned to Romania, having various jobs, from university librarian to journalist and editor-in-chief, while continuing to write and publish poetry. In 1883, the year his most famous poem, Luceafărul (The Evening Star) was published, he showed signs of mental instability and was admitted for the first time in a psychiatric sanatorium. Later he was diagnosed with manic-depressive psychosis, and for the next 6 years he moved from one mental institution to another, and died on June 15 1889, at only 39, leaving behind a huge conspiracy theory, which stated that he was deliberately poisoned with mercury for his sharp political articles which exposed and annoyed certain political figures of the era.
Eminescu’s poetry is imbued with mythology and philosophy, from Heraclit and Platon to Schopenhauer, Kant and Hegel, as well as Indian and Chinese thinking. At the same time, both his poetry and his prose are highly influenced by German Romanticism, most notably Novalis, Goethe or Lenau. But probably the most notable influence on Eminescu’s poetry remains folklore and the spiritual ancestry of the Romanian people. He capitalised folkloric themes and motifs, giving them a new poetic dimension in poems like Luceafărul, Călin (File din poveste), Strigoii, Scrisoarea III, Doina, Revedere, etc. while turning simple, peasant speech into poetic language, by using archaisms and regionalisms, masterfully handling rhyme and verse.
Although he is most known for his poetry, Eminescu left behind several works in prose (Sărmanul Dionis and Cezara being the most accomplished) and numerous political articles and essays.
Ode (in ancient meter)
Hardly had I thought I should learn to perish;
Ever young, enwrapped in my robe I wandered,
Raising dreamy eyes to the star styled often
All at once, however, you crossed my pathway –
Suffering – you, painfully sweet, yet torture…
To the lees I drank the delight of dying –
Sadly racked, I’m burning alive like Nessus,
Or like Hercules by his garment poisoned;
Nor can I extinguish my flames with every
Billow of oceans.
By my own illusion consumed I’m wailing
On my own grim pyre in flames I’m melting…
Can I hope to rise again like the Phoenix
Bird from the ashes?
May all tempting eyes vanish from my pathway
Come back to my breast, you indifferent sorrow!
So that I may quietly die, restore me
To my own being!
1883, translated by Andrei Bantaș
Featured image: Horia Varlan / flickr