In Celebration of Mihai Eminescu

by Mihai Eminescu

In Celebration of Mihai Eminescu, by Mihai Eminescu; translated by Brenda Walker with Horia Florian Popescu. London / Forest Books, 1990. 2nd Edition, Hardbound, oblong 8.25 inches tall by 9.75 inches wide, 128 pages. The panoraic dust jacket art is taken from the mural Nunta Cosmica by Sabin Balasa; the interior illustrations are also by this artist. Mihai Eminescu (1850-1889) was a Romanian poet, novelist, and journalist. A romantic in love and a romantic in poetry, his short career ended in tragedy. Originallly published in 1989, this is the second edition.

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Mihai Eminescu (Romanian pronunciation: [miˈhaj emiˈnesku]; born Mihail Eminovici) was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet.

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 (1880–1918).

His first poems volume was 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 January 25, 1902.

Notable works include Luceafărul (Evening Star), Odă în 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.

Reviews

[Phillip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mihai Eminescu is a very good Romantic poet, utilizing a lot of the same techniques, themes, and approaches that the British Romantics (whom I'm more familiar with) utilize. So, for instance, he continually draws on nature imagery, both for love poems and for melancholic/death-oriented poems. He has a fascination with folklore and the supernatural, especially Romanian folklore and folk styles. His work shows nostalgia for an imagined past, in the case of a poem like "The Third Satire" looking back to a great era of Romanian military triumphs against invading Turkish Muslims--and in this sense, Eminescu also romanticizes/exoticizes/Orientalizes Eastern cultures, which is another characteristic of Romantic poetry.
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