Singur printre poeți

by Marin Sorescu

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1964

About the author

In 1964 the Romanian Communist government relaxed its censorship policies, signaling a new openness to free expression. The nation's poets heeded that signal, and Romanian poetry experienced a striking revival. Poet and playwright Marin Sorescu is perhaps one of the most popular figures to emerge from Romanian literary culture in the years since.

Sorescu writes in a plainspoken, down-to-earth style spiced with sly humor. He responds to the hardships of Romanian life not with grand rhetoric or fire-and-brimstone sermons, but with what translator Michael Hamburger describes as "ironic verse fables," as quoted by Dennis Deletant in the Times Literary Supplement. Virgil Nemoianu, also writing in the Times Literary Supplement, comments that "[Sorescu's] reactions to an increasingly absurd political regime were always cleverly balanced: he never engaged in the servile praise of leader and party usually required of Romanian poets, but nor did he venture into dissidence. He was content to let irony do its job."

His choice of irony over confrontation has made it possible for Sorescu to publish freely and frequently. The journal he edited for years, Revista Ramuri, managed like his poetry to stay within the bounds expected by the Romanian regime. Sorescu's plays, however, have not always fared as well. Both Iona and Exista nervi played to packed houses in Bucharest, the former in 1969 and the latter in 1982. But both plays were quickly withdrawn, their content deemed too controversial. Nonetheless, notes Deletant, the success of these pieces during their brief runs solidified "Sorescu's status as one of the leading writers of his generation."

Sorescu's plays and poetry have earned him, Deletant further states, "an unequaled audience" at home in Romania. And translations of his work into English have helped him build a secure international reputation. The qualities that have allowed his writings to flourish on Romania's state-controlled literary scene may contribute to his popularity abroad as well. There is a universality to Sorescu's conversational tone and ironic perspective, what Nemoianu calls "his rueful jocularity and the good-natured cynicism." George Szirtes, writing in Times Literary Supplement, finds in Sorescu's voice "the wry wisdom that sees through everything and yet continues to hope and despair."

source: Poetry Foundation

Reviews

[Razvan Banciu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volumul de debut al maestrului, adorabil de curajos prin atitudinea față de poeții patentați ai momentului (1964 era un an în care încă mai dăinuiau relicvele proletcultismului) și viziunea umoristico-delăsătoare față de ceeea ce ne înconjoară, devenită apoi marcă înregistrată.

PS: Un sfat absolut prietenesc ar fi să citiți poeziile una câte una, mai ales în momente când simțiți nevoia să vi se descrețească frunțile. Metodă patentată...

[L.S. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cred ca are o singura poezie serioasa. Restul sunt ironii. Parodii. Reușite, unele.

[Alina Ancuţa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75 ⭐️

[Iulia Gheorghe]

"[...] Așa și eu acuma stăteam trăznit, năuc
Mă cuprinsese spaima... Și unde să ma duc!
Gîndiți și dumneavoastră: Să lași eternitate,
Să te întorci din moartea cea grea și fără glas
Și când ajungi acasă și vezi posteritatea
Că nu te mai cunoaște și-ți dă cu ușa-n nas!"

(Noapte de octombrie)

[Andràș-Florin Răducanu · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nu știu ce a fost volumul ăsta, a avut unele secvențe chiar bune dar per total a fost o mică tortură.

[sonia]

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