Gellu Naum

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Gellu Naum (born August 1, 1915 in Bucharest , Romania; † September 29, 2001 ) was one of the most important Romanian writers and one of the last major surrealists in Europe.

Life

Gellu Naum was the son of the poet Andrei Naum , who was killed in the battle of Mărăşeşti . In 1926 he began writing at the Dimitrie Cantemir grammar school in Bucharest and composed verses for the first time after a losing bet. His debut as a writer came in the form of two poems published in the Cuvantul .

Between 1933 and 1937 studied Gellu Naum at the University of Bucharest philosophy . In 1938, on the advice of his friend Victor Brauner, he went to Paris , where he continued his studies in philosophy at the Sorbonne . His doctoral thesis dealt with Pierre Abélard . In France, animated by André Breton , he joined the circle of surrealists.

In 1939 he returned to Romania, where he was sent to the army. In 1944 he fell ill from the long-term effects of his stay in the army.

In 1941 the group of Surrealists in Romania was formed, consisting of Gellu Naum, Gherasim Luca , Dolfi Trost , Virgil Teodorescu and Paul Păun . Their activity was particularly intense in the years 1945–1947. Breton said: "The center of the world has moved to Bucharest".

At the beginning of 1948 the group of Surrealists in Romania was banned and disbanded. Between 1950 and 1953 Naum taught philosophy at the Agronomic Institute , later he earned his living translating mainly French literature, including Denis Diderot , Stendhal , Victor Hugo and Jules Verne , but also from German ( Franz Kafka ) and English ( Samuel Beckett ). His own texts - with the exception of a few children's books - were not allowed to appear for twenty years. Surrealist colleague Jules Perahim illustrated four of the books.

In 1968 the ban on publication was lifted and he published further volumes of his own poetry, for example Athanor (1968), My tired father (1972) Poeme Alese ( Selected Poems ) (1974). For health reasons, he withdrew to Comana , where he lived with his wife Lyggia (married since 1946). She became the main character in his book Zenobia , which appeared in 1985.

From 1990 he was frequently invited to Germany, France, Holland and Switzerland to read from his works there. Gellu Naum was a lifelong friend of the Romanian director David Esrig . His works have been translated into the most important languages ​​and have been awarded prizes, including a. 1999 with the Prize of the City of Münster for European Poetry .

Works (in German)

  • 1956: That's Sanda. Translated into German by Else Kornis. Jugendverlag, Bucharest 1956, DNB 577295292 .
  • The adventures of Matei Gulliver. Jugendverlag, Bucharest 1958, DNB 577295284 .
  • The book of Apollodorus. Translated by Franz Johannes Bulhardt, Jugendverlag, Bucharest 1963, DNB 453540333 .
  • The penguin Apollodor. Translated from Romanian by Rolf Bossert. Ion Creangă Publishing House, Bucharest 1982, DNB 880975733 .
  • Teeth crushed by words. Translated by Anemone Latzina. Kriterion-Verlag, Bucharest 1983, DNB 880036818 .
  • Zenobia. Translated by Georg Aescht , afterword by Max Blaeulich , Wieser, Klagenfurt / Salzburg 1990, ISBN 3-85129-024-0 .
  • Black box. Poemes. Translated by Oskar Pastior and Georg Aescht. Wieser, Klagenfurt and Salzburg 1993, ISBN 3-85129-102-6 .
  • Talk to the stones on the embankment. Faţa şi suprafaţ. Poems. (bilingual) Translated and with a comment by Oskar Pastior, with an afterword by Ernest Wichner . Ammann, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-250-10358-6 .
  • Pohesie. All the poems. (German-language Gellu-Naum-Werkausgabe, Volume 1). Translated by Oskar Pastior and Ernest Wichner. Engeler, Basel / Weil am Rhein 2006, ISBN 3-938767-10-3 .
  • In Streiflicht - A selection of contemporary Romanian poetry - translation by Christian W. Schenk , Dionysos Verlag 1994, ISBN 3-9803871-1-9 .

literature

  • Oskar Pastior discovers Gellu Naum. Europa-Verlag, Hamburg / Vienna 2001, ISBN 3-203-84302-1 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Well, Gellu
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 1, 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH Bucharest , Romania
DATE OF DEATH September 29, 2001