Mihai Eminescu

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Mihai Eminescu

Born Died Occupation Genres Notable work(s)

15 January 1850 Botoani, Moldavia 15 June 1889 (aged 39) Bucharest, Romania Poet Romanticism "Luceafrul", "Scrisoarea III", "FtFrumos din lacrim"

Mihai Eminescu (Romanian pronunciation: [mihaj eminesku]; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 15 June 1889) was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet.[1] Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul ("The Time"), the official newspaper of the Conservative Party (18801918).[2] His poetry was first published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna to study when he was 19. The poet's Manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, were offered by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on 25 January 1902.[3] Notable works include Luceafrul (The Vesper/The Evening Star/The Lucifer/The Daystar), Od n metru antic (Ode in Ancient Meter), and the five Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems he frequently used metaphysical, mythological and historical subjects. In general his work was influenced by the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer.[citation needed]

Contents

1 Life 1.1 Family 1.2 Early years 1.3 Junimea 1.4 Later life 2 Works o 2.1 Poetry o 2.2 Prose 3 Romanian culture o 3.1 Genius o 3.2 National poet o 3.3 Iconography o 3.4 International legacy 4 Political views 5 References o 5.1 Footnotes o 5.2 Notation 6 External links
o o o o

Life
Family

Family

Mihai Eminescu statue, Copou Park His father was Gheorghe Eminovici from Clineti, a Moldavian village in Suceava county, Bucovina, which was then part of the Austrian Empire (while his father came from Banat). He crossed the border into Moldavia, settling in Ipoteti, near the town of Botoani. He married Raluca Iuracu, an heiress of an old aristocratic Moldavian family. In a register of the members of Junimea, Eminescu himself wrote down the date of his birth as 22 December 1849 and in the documents of the Gymnasium from Cernui, where Eminescu studied, the date of 14 December 1849 is written down as his birthday. Nevertheless, Titu Maiorescu, in his work Eminescu and His Poems (1889) quoted N. D. Giurescu's researches and adopted his conclusion regarding the date and place of Mihai Eminescu's birth, as being 15 January 1850, in Botoani. This date resulted from several sources, amongst which there was a file of notes on christenings from the archives of the Uspenia (Domneasc) Church of Botoani; inside this file, the date of birth was 15 January 1850 and the date of christening was the 21st of the same month. The date of his birth was confirmed by the poet's elder sister, Aglae Drogli, who affirmed that the place of birth was the village of Ipoteti.[4]

Early years
Mihail (as he appears in baptismal records) or Mihai (the more common form that he used) was born in Botoani, Moldavia. He spent his early childhood in Botoani and Ipoteti, in his parents' family home. From 1858 to 1866 he attended school in Cernui. He finished 4th grade as the 5th of 82 students, after which he attended two years of gymnasium. The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is in 1866. In January of that year Romanian teacher Aron Pumnul died and his students in Cernui published a pamphlet, Lcrmioarele nvceilor gimnaziati (Tears of the Gymnasium Students) in which a poem entitled La mormntul lui Aron Pumnul (At the Grave of Aron Pumnul) appears, signed "M. Eminovici". On 25 February his poem De-a avea (If I were to have) was published in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine Familia in Pest. This began a steady series of published poems (and the occasional translation from German). Also, it was Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic source suffix "-ici"

of the young poet's last name, that chose for him the more apparent Romanian "nom de plume" Mihai Eminescu. In 1867 he joined the troupe of Iorgu Caragiale as clerk and prompter; the next year he transferred to the troupe of Mihai Pascaly. Both of these were among the leading Romanian theatrical troupes of their day, the latter including Matei Millo and Fanny Tardini-Vldicescu. He soon settled in Bucharest, where at the end of November he became a clerk and copyist for the National Theater. Through this period, he continued to write and publish poems. He also paid his rent by translating hundreds of pages of a book by Heinrich Theodor Rotscher, although this never resulted in a completed work. Also at this time he began his novel Geniu pustiu (Wasted Genius), published posthumously in 1904 in an unfinished form. On 1 April 1869 he was a co-founder of the "Orient" literary circle, whose interests included the gathering of Romanian folklore, and documents relating to Romanian literary history. On 29 June, various members of the "Orient" group were commissioned to go to different provinces. Eminescu was assigned Moldavia. That summer, he quite by chance ran into his brother Iorgu, a military officer, in Cimigiu Gardens, but firmly rebuffed Iorgu's attempt to get him to renew ties to his family. Still in summer 1869, he left Pascaly's troupe and traveled to Cernui and Iai. He renewed ties to his family; his father promised him a regular allowance to pursue studies in Vienna in the fall. As always, he continued to write and publish poetry; notably, on the occasion of the death of the former ruler of Wallachia, Barbu Dimitrie tirbei, he published a leaflet, La moartea principelui tirbei.

Junimea

The University's Central Library "Mihai Eminescu", Iai

Eminescu's signature

From October 1869 to 1872 he studied in Vienna. He was counted as an "extraordinary auditor" at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law. He was active in student life, befriended Ioan Slavici, and came to know Vienna through Veronica Micle; he became a contributor to Convorbiri literare (Literary Conversations), edited by Junimea (The Youth). The leaders of this cultural organisation, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti, Iacob Negruzzi and Titu Maiorescu, exercised their political and cultural influence over Eminescu for the rest of his life. Impressed by one of Eminescu's poems, Venere i Madon (Venus and Madonna), Iacob Negruzzi, the editor of Convorbiri literare, traveled to Vienna to meet him. Negruzzi would later write how he could pick Eminescu out of a crowd of young people in a Viennese caf by his "romantic" appearance: long hair and gaze lost in thoughts. In 1870 Eminescu wrote three articles under the pseudonym "Varro" in Federaiunea in Pest, on the situation of Romanians and other minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He then became a journalist for the newspaper Albina (The Bee) in Pest. From 1872 to 1874 he continued as a student in Berlin, thanks to a stipend offered by Junimea. From 1874 to 1877 he worked as director of the Central Library in Iai, substitute teacher, school inspector for the counties of Iai and Vaslui, and editor of the newspaper Curierul de Iai (The Courier of Iai), all thanks to his friendship with Titu Maiorescu, the leader of Junimea and rector of the University of Iai. He continued to publish in Convorbiri literare. He became a good friend of Ion Creang, whom he convinced to become a writer and introduced to the Junimea literary club. In 1877 he moved to Bucharest, where until 1883 he was first journalist, then (1880) editor-inchief of the newspaper Timpul (The Time). During this time he wrote Scrisorile, Luceafrul, Od n metru antic etc. Most of his notable editorial pieces belong to this period, when Romania was fighting the Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and throughout the diplomatic race that eventually brought about the international recognition of Romanian independence, but under the condition of bestowing Romanian citizenship to all subjects of Jewish faith. Eminescu opposed this and another clause of the Treaty of Berlin: Romania's having to give southern Bessarabia to Russia in exchange for Northern Dobrudja, a former Ottoman province on the Black Sea. In June 1883, the poet fell seriously ill, and was interned in the hospital of Dr. uu. In December 1883, his volume Poesii appeared, with selection of poems and with a preface by Titu Maiorescu.

Later life
In his last years (1883-1889), after seeing various doctors, Mihai Eminescu was diagnosed with differing disorders. Neghina R. and Neghina A. M. were taking into account that Mihai Eminescu may have suffered from bipolar disorder and may have been killed by iatrogenic mercury poisoning, erysipelas, head trauma, or endocarditis. After reviewing medical hypotheses, they conclude that "he suffered from bipolar disorder and died from mercury poisoning, an inadequate treatment administered as the result of an inaccurate diagnosis

(syphilis). Hospitalized in inappropriate places and treated by incompetent physicians, he suffered not only physical, but moral, distress and died prematurely".[5] The poet died at the Caritas Sanatorium on 15 June 1889.

Works
Nicolae Iorga, the Romanian historian, considers Eminescu the godfather of the modern Romanian language. He is unanimously celebrated as the greatest and most representative Romanian poet. Poems and Prose of Mihai Eminescu (editor: Kurt W. Treptow, publisher: The Center for Romanian Studies, Iai, Oxford, and Portland, 2000, ISBN 973-9432-10-7) contains a selection of English-language renditions of Eminescu's poems and prose.

Poetry
His poems span a large range of themes, from nature and love to hate and social commentary. His childhood years were evoked in his later poetry with deep nostalgia. Eminescu was influenced by the work of Arthur Schopenhauer, and some[who?] have suggested that his most notable poem, "Luceafrul", includes elements of Vedic cosmogony. Eminescu's poems have been translated in over 60 languages. His life, work and poetry strongly influenced the Romanian culture and his poems are widely studied in Romanian public schools. His most notable poems are:[6]

Doina (the name is a traditional type of Romanian song), 1884 Lacul (The Lake), 1876 Luceafrul (The Vesper), 1883 Floare albastr (Blue Flower), 1884 Dorina (Desire), 1884 Sara pe deal (Evening on the Hill), 1885 O, rmii (Oh, Linger On), 1884 Epigonii (Epigones), 1884 Scrisori (Letters or "Epistles-Satires") i dac (And if...), 1883 Od (n metru antic) (Ode (in Ancient Meter), 1883 Mai am un singur dor (I Have Yet One Desire),1883 La Steaua (At Star),1886

Prose

Ft-Frumos din lacrim (The Tear Drop Prince) Geniu pustiu (Empty Genius)

Srmanul Dionis (Wretched Dionis) Cezara (Caesara)

Romanian culture
Genius
Eminescu was only 20 when Titu Maiorescu, the top literary critic in 1870 Romania dubbed him "a real poet", in an essay where only a handful of the Romanian poets of the time were spared Maiorescu's harsh criticism. In the following decade, Eminescu's notability as a poet grew continually thanks to (1) the way he managed to enrich the literary language with words and phrases from all Romanian regions, from old texts, and with new words that he coined from his wide philosophical readings; (2) the use of bold metaphors, much too rare in earlier Romanian poetry; (3) last but not least, he was arguably the first Romanian writer who published in all Romanian provinces and was constantly interested in the problems of Romanians everywhere. He defined himself as a Romantic, in a poem addressed To My Critics (Criticilor mei), and this designation, his untimely death as well as his bohemian lifestyle (he never pursued a degree, a position, a wife or fortune) had him associated with the Romantic figure of the genius. As early as the late 1880s, Eminescu had a group of faithful followers. His 1883 poem Luceafrul was so notable that a new literary review took its name after it. The most realistic psychological analysis of Eminescu was written by I. L. Caragiale, who, after the poet's death published three short care articles on this subject: In Nirvana, Irony and Two notes. Caragiale stated that Eminescu's characteristic feature was the fact that he had an excessively unique nature.[7] Eminescu's life was a continuous oscillation between introvert and extrovert attitudes.[8] That's how I knew him back then, and that is how he remained until his last moments of wellbeing: cheerful and sad; sociable and crabbed; gentle and abrupt; he was thankful for everything and unhappy about some things; here he was as abstemious as a hermit, there he was ambitious to the pleasures of life; sometimes he ran away from people and then he looked for them; he was carefree as a Stoic and choleric as an edgy girl. Strange medley! happy for an artist, unhappy for a man! The portrait that Titu Maiorescu made in the study Eminescu and poems emphasizes Eminescu's introvert dominant traits. Titu Maiorescu promoted the image of a dreamer who was far away from reality, who did not suffer because of the material conditions that he lived in, regardless of all the ironies and eulogies of his neighbour, his main characteristic was "abstract serenity".[9] In reality, just as one can discover from his poems and letters and just as Caragiale remembered, Eminescu was seldom under the influence of boisterous subconscious motivations. Eminescu's life was but an overlap of different-sized cycles, made up of sudden bursts that were nurtured by dreams and crises due to the impact with reality. The cycles could last from a few hours or days to weeks or months, depending on the importance of events, or could even last longer, when they were linked to the events that significantly marked his life, as such was his relation with Veronica, his political activity during his years as a student, or the fact that he attended the

gatherings at the Junimea society or the articles he published in the newspaper Timpul. He used to have a unique manner of describing his own crisis of jealousy.[10] You must know, Veronica, that as much as I love you, I sometimes hate you; I hate you without a reason, without a word, only because I imagine you laughing with someone else, and your laughter doesn't mean to him what it means to me and I feel I grow mad at the thought of somebody else touching you, when your body is exclusively and without impartasion to anyone. I sometimes hate you because I know you own all these allures that you charmed me with, I hate you when I suspect you might give away my fortune, my only fortune. I could only be happy beside you if we were far away from all the other people, somewhere, so that I didn't have to show you to anybody and I could be relaxed only if I could keep you locked up in a bird house in which only I could enter.

National poet
He was soon proclaimed Romania's national poet, not because he wrote in an age of national revival, but rather because he was received as an author of paramount significance by Romanians in all provinces. Even today, he is considered the national poet of Romania, Moldova, and of the Romanians who live in the Ukrainian part of Bucovina.

Iconography

Former 1000 lei banknote

500 lei banknote Eminescu is omnipresent in present-day Romania. His statues are everywhere; his face was on the 1000-lei banknote issued in 1998 and is on the new 500-lei banknote issued in 2005 as the highest-denominated Romanian banknote (see Romanian leu); many schools and other institutions are named after him. The anniversaries of his birth and death are celebrated each year

in many Romanian cities, and they became national celebrations in 1989 (the centennial of his death) and 2000 (150 years after his birth, proclaimed Eminescu's Year in Romania). Several young Romanian writers provoked a huge scandal when they wrote about their demystified idea of Eminescu and went so far as to reject the "official" interpretation of his work.[11]

International legacy
A monument jointly dedicated to Eminescu and Allama Iqbal was erected in Islamabad, Pakistan on 15 January 2004, commemorating strong Pakistani-Romanian ties, as well as the dialogue between civilizations which is possible through the cross-cultural appreciation of their poetic legacies. In 2004, the Mihai Eminescu Statue was erected in Montral, Canada.[12]

Political views
Due to his conservative nationalistic views, Eminescu was easily adopted as an icon by the Romanian right. A major obstacle to their fully embracing him was the fact he never identified himself as a Christian and his poetry rather indiscriminately uses Buddhist, Christian, agnostic, and atheist themes. After a decade when Eminescu's works were criticized as "mystic" and "bourgeois", Romanian Communists ended up adopting Eminescu as the major Romanian poet. What opened the door for this thaw was the poem mprat i proletar (Emperor and proletarian) that Eminescu wrote under the influence of the 1870-1871 events in France, and which ended in a Schopenhauerian critique of human life. An expurgated version only showed the stanzas that could present Eminescu as a poet interested in the fate of proletarians.

References
Footnotes
1. Jump up ^ Mihai Eminescu - accesat 11.01.09 2. Jump up ^ Mircea Mciu dr., Nicolae C. Nicolescu, Valeriu uteu dr., Mic dicionar enciclopedic, Ed. Stiinific i enciclopedic, Bucureti, 1986 3. Jump up ^ Biblioteca Academiei - Program de accesare digitala a manuscriselor - Mihai Eminescu - accesat 11.01.09 4. Jump up ^ Titu Maiorescu, Eminescu i poeziile lui (1889) (seciunea Not asupra zilei i locului naterii lui Eminescu) 5. Jump up ^ (Neghina R, Neghina AM., Department of Parasitology, Victor Babes University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Timisoara, Romania, Medical controversies and dilemmas in discussions about the illness and death of Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889) Romania's national poet.) 6. Jump up ^ Mihai Eminescu

7. Jump up ^ I.L. Caragiale, n Nirvana, n Ei l-au vzut pe Eminescu, Antologie de texte de Cristina Crciun i Victor Crciun, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989, pag. 148 8. Jump up ^ I.L. Caragiale,n Nirvana, n Ei l-au vzut pe Eminescu, Antologie de texte de Cristina Crciun i Victor Crciun, Editura Dacia, Cluj-Napoca, 1989 pag. 147 9. Jump up ^ Titu Maiorescu, Critice, vol. II, Editura pentru literatur, Bucureti, 1967, pag. 333 10. Jump up ^ Dulcea mea Doamn / Eminul meu iubit. Coresponden inedit Mihai Eminescu Veronica Micle, Editura POLIROM, 2000 pag. 157 11. Jump up ^ "Scandalul" Eminescu - G. Pruteanu 12. Jump up ^ Allama Iqbal and Mihai Eminescu: Dialogue between Civilizatioins

Notation

George Clinescu, La vie d'Eminescu, Bucarest: Univers, 1989, 439 p. Marin Bucur (ed.), Caietele Mihai Eminescu, Bucureti, Editura Eminescu, 1972

External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mihai Eminescu. Romanian Wikisource has original text related to this article: Mihai Eminescu (original works in Romanian) Spanish Wikisource has original text related to this article: Mihai Eminescu (original works in Spanish) Wikisource has original works written by or about: Mihai Eminescu

Gabriel's Web Site - Works both in English and Original Translated poems by Peter Mamara Romanian Poetry - Mihai Eminescu (English) Romanian Poetry - Mihai Eminescu (Romanian) English translations by M.-M. Khesapeake Institute for Cultural Memory: Mihai Eminescu - Poetry Mihai Eminescu Poesii (bilingual pages English Romanian) Mihai Eminescu poetry (with English translations of some of his poems) MoldData Literature Year 2000: "Mihai Eminescu Year" (includes bio, poems, critiques, etc.) The Mihai Eminescu Trust The Nation's Poet: A recent collection sparks debate over Romania's "national poet" by Emilia Stere Eminescu - a political victim : An interview with Nicolae Georgescu in Jurnalul National (in Romanian) Mihai Eminescu: Complete works (in Romanian)

Mihai Eminescu : poezii biografie (in Romanian) The Mihai Eminescu Poems published in Revista Familia

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WorldCat VIAF: 27064042 LCCN: n80057213 GND: 118684493 [hide]

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