Mihai Eminescu

Background

He was born on the 15th of January 1850 in Ipateshti near Botoshani, in the north of Moldavia. He was of Turco-Tatar origin, and his surname was originally Emin; this was changed to Eminovich and finally to the Rumanian form Eminescu.

Education

He was educated for a time in Czernowitz, and then entered the civil service. In 1864 he resumed his studies in Transylvania, but soon joined a roving theatrical company where he played in turn the r61es of actor, prompter and stage-manager. After a few years he went to Vienna, Jena and Berlin, where he attended lectures, especially on philosophy.

Career

In 1874 he was appointed school inspector and librarian at the university of Jassy, but was soon turned out through the change of government, and took charge, as editor in chief, of the Conservative paper Timpul (Times).

In 1883he had the first attack of the insanity, hereditary in his family, and in 1889 he died in a private institution in Bucharest.

In 1870 his great poetical talent was revealed by two contributions to the Convorbiri literare, the organ of the Junimist party in Jassy; these were the poems "Venere şi Madonă" and "Epigonii. " Other poems followed and soon established his claim to be the first among the modern poets of his country.

Influenced by the studies and by the philosophy of Schopenhauer, he introduced a new spirit into Rumanian poetry.

Over all his poetry hangs a cloud of sadness, the sense of coming doom. Simplicity of language, masterly handling of rhyme and verse, deep thought and plastic expression made Eminescu the creator of a school of poetry which dominated the thought of Rumania and the expression of Rumanian writers and poets at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th.

Five editions of his collected poems appeared after 1890. Some of them were translated into German by "Carmen Sylva" and Mite Kremnitz, and others have also been translated into several other languages.

Eminescu also wrote two short novels, real poems in prose (Jassy, 1890).

Achievements

• Eminescu managed to transform both the form and content of Romanian poetry, creating a school of poetry that strongly influenced Romanian writers and poets in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
  
  He also was proclaimed Romania's national poet.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Poesii: Singura Editie De Poezii Publicata In Timpul Vietii Lui Eminescu (Romanian Edition)

    (Aceasta este singura editie de poezii publicate in timpul...)

  • Poezii de dragoste: Versuri nemuritoare (Romanian Edition)

    (Cele mai frumoase poezii de dragoste ale poetului Mihai E...)

  • Mihai Eminescu poems
  • The Last Romantic: Mihail Eminescu (Iowa Translations)

Politics

He followed the conservative nationalistic views, so was easily adopted as an icon by the Romanian right.

Views

Mystically inclined and himself of a melancholy disposition, he lived in the glory of the medieval Rumanian past; stifled by the artificiality of the world around him, he rebelled against the conventionality of society and his surroundings.

In inimitable language he denounced the vileness of the present and painted in glowing pictures the heroism of the past; he also surprised nature in its primitive beauty, and he gave expression to stirring emotions in lyrics couched in the language and metre of popular poetry. He further proved himself an unsurpassed master in satire.

Personality

He was thoroughly acquainted with the chronicles of the past, had a complete mastery of the Rumanian language, and was a lover and admirer of Rumanian popular poetry.

Interests

• Writers

  Schopenhauer

References

• Mihail Eminescu - 4 volume Publicistica - 1877-1889 (Mihai Eminescu - Opere Complete t. 5) (French Edition)
• Eminescu: Poezii Poems
• Mimesis in a Cognitive Perspective: Mallarme, Flaubert, and Eminescu