Tudor Arghezi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tudor Arghezi

Tudor Arghezi portrait on a Romanian postage stamp (1980)
Born 21 May 1880
Bucharest
Died 14 June 1967 (aged 87)
Bucharest
Pen name Ion Theo
Occupation Poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist,
essayist
Nationality Romanian
Period 18961967
Genres Lyric poetry, fiction, satire,children's literature
Literary Symbolism
movement Poporanism

Signature

Tudor Arghezi (Romanian pronunciation: [tudor arezi]; 21 May 1880 14 July 1967) was
a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N.
Theodorescu in Bucharest (where he also died), he explained that hispen name was related
to Argesis, the Latin name for the Arge River.
Contents
[hide]
1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life
o 1.2 Early 1910s
o 1.3 German occupation and Vcreti prison
o 1.4 Interwar literature
o 1.5 Interwar polemic
o 1.6 World War II
o 1.7 Arghezi and the Communist regime
2 Arghezi's work
3 In cultural reference
4 Notes
5 References
6 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life[edit]
He graduated from Saint Sava High School in October 1891, started working to pay for his
studies,
[1]
and made his debut in 1896, publishing verses in Alexandru Macedonski's
magazine Liga Ortodox under the name Ion Theo. Soon after, Macedonski, the herald
of Romanian Symbolism, publicized his praise for the young poet:
"This young man, at an age when I was still prattling verses, with an audacity that knows no
boundaries, but not yet crowned by the most glittering success, parts with the entire
old versification technique, with all banalities in images in ideas that have for long been judged,
here and elsewhere, as a summit of poetry and art."
[2]

He began stating his admiration for Symbolism and other trends pertaining to it (such as
the Vienna Secession) in his articles of the time, while polemicizing with Junimea's George
Panu over the latter's critique of modernist literature.
[3]
In 1904, he and Vasile
Demetrius published their own magazine, Linia Dreapt, which ceased to exist after only five
issues.
[4]
Arghezi, Gala Galaction, and Demetrius maintained a close friendship, as witnessed by
the latter's daughter, the actress and novelist Lucia Demetrius.
[5]

After a four year-long stint as an Orthodox monk at Cernica Monastery, he traveled abroad in
1905. He visited Paris and then moved to Fribourg, where he wrote poetry and attended courses
at the local University; dissatisfied with the Roman Catholic focus encouraged by the latter, he
moved to Geneva, where he was employed in a jeweler's workshop.
[6]
During the Romanian
Peasants' Revolt of 1907, the poet, known for his left-wing discourse and vocal criticism of the
violent repression of the peasant movement, was kept under surveillance by Swiss authorities; a
local newspaper claimed that Arghezi's mail had been tampered with, causing a scandal that led
to the resignation of several officials.
[7]
News he gathered of the revolt itself left a lasting
impression on Arghezi: much later, he was to dedicate an entire volume to the events (his 1907-
Peizaje, "Landscapes of 1907", which he described as "dealing with [...] the contrast between a
nation and an abusive, solitary, class").
[8]

Early 1910s[edit]
He returned to Romania in 1910, and published works in Viaa Romneasc, Teatru, Rampa,
and N. D. Cocea's Facla and Viaa Social, as well as editing the magazine Cronicain
collaboration with Galaction; his output was prolific, and a flurry of lyrics, political pamphlets and
polemical articles gained him a good measure of notoriety among the theatrical, political and
literary circles of the day.
[9]
Cocea contributed to his early fame by publishing one of Arghezi's
first influential poems, Rug de sear ("Evening Prayer").
[10]

During the period, Arghezi also became a prominent art critic, and engaged in the defense
of tefan Luchian, a painter who was suffering from multiple sclerosis and was facing charges
of fraud (based on the suspicion that he could no longer paint, and had allowed his name to be
signed to other people's works).
[11]

He became a regular presence at the Bucharest Kbler Caf, where a Bohemian circle of artists
and intellectuals was being formed it included the writers Ion Minulescu, Liviu
Rebreanu, Eugen Lovinescu, Victor Eftimiu, Mihail Sorbul and Corneliu Moldovanu, as well as the
painters Iosif Iser, Alexandru Satmari, Jean Alexandru Steriadi, the composerAlfons Castaldi, and
the art collector Krikor Zambaccian.
[12]
According to Zambaccian, Arghezi was more rarely seen
at Bucharest's other major literary venue, Casa Capa.
[12]
By that time, he was also an associate
of the controversial political figure and art patron Alexandru Bogdan-Piteti, and, with Galaction,
Cocea, Minulescu, Adrian Maniu and various visual artists, he regularly attended a circle hosted
by Bogdan-Piteti on tirbey-Vod, nearby the Cimigiu Gardens.
[13]
He authored a small poem
in honor of Bogdan-Piteti.
[13]

After the outbreak of World War I, Arghezi wrote against the political camp led by the National
Liberals and the group around Take Ionescu, both of whom aimed to have Romania enter the
conflict on the side of the Entente (as an attempt the conquer Transylvania from Austria-
Hungary); instead, he was a supporter of Bessarabia's union with the Romanian Old Kingdom,
and resented the implicit alliance with Imperial Russia.
[14]
In 1915, he wrote:
"A barbaric war. Once upon a time, we had pledged our duty to fight against the arming of
civilized states. With every newborn baby, the quantity of explosive matter destined to suppress
him was also being created. As progress and rational outlook were being viewed as calamities,
arms and ammunitions factories were increasing the shell storages, were fabricating the artillery
used in extermination."
[15]