Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu [ miˈhaj emiˈnesku ] ( ; actually Mihail Eminovici ; born January 15, 1850 in Ipoteşti , Botoşani district ; † June 15, 1889 in Bucharest ) is considered the most important Romanian poet of the 19th century. His work set the standard for the development of modern Romanian high-level language.
Life
Early years
Mihai was born the seventh child of the landowner Gheorghe Eminovici and his wife Raluca. He attended the German-language secondary school and later the German secondary school in the k. and k. Monarchy belonging to Chernivtsi , the capital of Bukovina . One of his teachers was Aron Pumnul , a Romanian linguist who had emigrated from Transylvania because of his revolutionary ideas and who was now trying to convince his students, including the young Eminescu, of the great importance of Romanian culture and language.
Although Eminescu devoured the library books, he had some difficulty adapting to the required academic discipline. At the age of just fourteen he joined a troupe of traveling actors (theater groups from Mihai Pascaly and Iorgu Caragiale), whose unconventional way of life he was enthusiastic about. He worked as a role writer and as a prompter in the national theater plays, or got by with odd jobs .
First works and studies
In 1866 he published the poem De-aş avea ("If I had") for the first time in the Romanian magazine Familia ("The Family"), which was published in Budapest by Iosif Vulcan . It was also he who did not like the Slavic suffix -ovici in his maiden name and therefore gave him the more Romanian -looking surname "Eminescu". In 1869 Eminescu founded the literary circle Orientul ("The Orient") with like-minded people . a. aimed to collect folk fairy tales and poems. In the same year, the father managed to track down his offspring - he sent him to Vienna to study philosophy . Eminescu was impressed by this, as he was now able to quench his thirst for knowledge unhindered and was supported financially by his father.
During this time he read many historical and philosophical texts, and Arthur Schopenhauer's Die Welt as Will and Idea particularly impressed him and inspired him to write a number of poems. The pessimism and the misogyny of Schopenhauer are fully present in Eminescu's poetic work, and the examination of Far Eastern religions (such as in Kamadeva , named after the Indian god of love of the same name ) has its origins in the Vienna student days.
He was only able to attend the lectures as a guest auditor, as he did not have a high school diploma , but experienced a very productive period from an artistic point of view. In 1870 he published the poem Venere și Madona ("Venus and Madonna" ) in the journal Convorbiri literare ("Literary Conversations"), which was published in Iași by the Junimea ("The Youth", from Romanian june- "young"). ) and received a lot of recognition from the participants of the Junimea circle, especially from the successful politician Titu Maiorescu , who attached great importance to the promotion of Romanian culture and especially literature in order to promote the consolidation of the young Romanian nation-state.
From then on, Maiorescu held his protective hand over Eminescu, who, due to his great linguistic talent , seemed to meet the requirements of a “ national poet ”. In all difficult or hopeless situations, Eminescu received lifelong support from Titu Maiorescu.
From 1871 to 1874 Eminescu studied in Berlin , and - after he had received a high school diploma from Titu Maiorescu from Botoșani - as a regular student, lectures in the fields of philosophy , history , economics and law . During these years, the influence of German culture on his mindset and artistic activity was enormous. In addition to philosophical and historical texts, he read German literature , especially German poetry . He dealt intensively with Arthur Schopenhauer and Immanuel Kant . He translated, for example, excerpts from Kant's Critique of Pure Reason or works by Friedrich Schiller . Sitting in street cafes, he copied poems from daily newspapers, translated them, retouched, edited and processed German texts and copied everything that seemed interesting to him into Romanian. Many of his poems are based on German original texts - the extent to which they are translations or adaptations in Romanian is still controversial in Romanian literary studies. What is certain is that the influence of German literature on Eminescu's work is of great importance.
more publishments
He continued to frequently publish poems in the journal Convorbiri literare and was in close contact with Junimea members, especially Titu Maiorescu. He had already planned a chair for him at the University of Iași, but Eminescu returned in 1874 without an exam, let alone an academic title, and refused to complete his studies in Berlin for allegedly family reasons. Maiorescu got him the position of director of the central library.
In 1875 Eminescu was in love with Veronica Micle , an extremely attractive but married young woman with literary ambitions. He made the acquaintance of the village teacher and storybook author Ion Creangă , with whom he had a lifelong friendship. He was now the school auditor for Iași and the neighboring Vaslui , but was soon relieved of this position and worked as an editor for the local newspaper Curierul de Iași ("Iașer Kurier"). In it he published the poems Melancolie ("Melancholie"), Lacul ("The Lake") and Dorința ("Wish"). On August 15, 1876, his mother Raluca died in Ipoteşti. In Bucharest he met Mite Kremnitz , a German confidante of Queen Elisabeth of Romania (Carmen Sylva), who was active as a writer and translator. Eminescu became friends with her but continued to adore Micle fiercely. In 1877 Eminescu moved to Bucharest and became involved in the Timpul newspaper ("Die Zeit") as an editor, writing almost all the articles himself, which in the long run was very exhausting and drained his strength.
During this period he stood out for his political articles that expressed his nationalist , xenophobic and anti-Jewish attitudes. This was influenced by anti-Semitic publications that he read while studying in Vienna. Many poems were also written. Eminescu was also very productive on an artistic level, only in the private sphere he was not lucky: Veronica Micle's husband had died in 1879, but Eminescu could not decide to marry Veronica; whether out of fear of the civil obligations a marriage would entail, or out of doubts about the durability of his relationship with Veronica, can only be guessed. The fact is that the pessimistic tone in his love poems increased sharply from then on, the sonnets that appeared at that time are filled with hopelessness and disappointment.
Likewise, the first four letters ( Scrisori , 1881) radiate a lot of sarcasm and pessimism , and the "Evening Star" ( Luceafărul ) (1882) also expresses a rather negative view of women as a love partner. It is difficult to say to what extent Eminescu's personal life experience matched Schopenhauer's read-out philosophical attitude in this aspect, and how far they overlapped each other. What is certain is that Eminescu suffered from an inner turmoil, wore himself out, with literary meticulousness , repeatedly revised his poems linguistically, discarded individual stanzas, added others, found it difficult to come to a definitive and, in the end, many manuscripts, which he wrote countless Times had changed, just lost sight of them, so that they were drowned in his mess. For this reason, there are several versions of most of the poems that are linguistically brilliantly polished, although Eminescus could not make a definitive decision for one or the other version, as the first symptoms of his mental illness appeared as early as 1883 . For the publications in the year 1883 in the magazine Familia - including Sa dus amorul ... (" Away is love ..."), Când amintirile ... ("Memories ..."), Adio ("Farewell" ), Pe lângă plopii fără soț ... (“On lonely poplars ...”), Și dacă ... (“And if ...”) - Eminescu received a modest fee; but the only one he ever got for his literature.
Bad health condition
He was interned in a clinic for some time, and Titu Maiorescu took care of the first edition of Eminescu's book with 26 previously unpublished poems, which finally appeared at the turn of the year 1883/1884 with its foreword. He managed to convince Eminescu that his hospital stay was financed with the proceeds from the poetry book so as not to hurt his pride. In 1884 the father died and one of his brothers died by suicide . Eminescu went on a convalescent trip to northern Italy in the company of a certain Chibici, after his return he worked briefly as an assistant librarian in the library of which he had once been director, after which he had to be interned again. The volume of poetry was published for the second time. In the following years, the library's auxiliary activity alternated with hospital stays.
In 1888, Eminescu received government support so that he could finish some manuscripts unhindered. Again and again he published new poems, which in most cases were revisions of earlier, previously unpublished poems and finally appeared in the third edition of his poetry volume. This edition, published in December, contains, in addition to the previously published works, the poems La steaua ("To the star"), De ce nu-mi vii ("Why are you not coming") and Kamadeva ("Kamadeva"). Also in that year Veronica Micle brought him back to Bucharest for some time, but in February 1889 he had to go to the hospital again. Whether his mental illness was hereditary (there were several cases of mental confusion in his family) or whether he suffered from the long-term effects of a syphilitic infection has not yet been clearly established.
Eminescu died on the night of June 15, 1889 in a Bucharest sanatorium. In the same year Veronica Micle and one of his best friends, Ion Creangă, also died . He was on friendly terms with Alexandru Vlahuță since 1879 . The latter dedicated the work "După Eminescu" to Mihai after his death.
On October 28, 1948, he was accepted post mortem as an honorary member of the Romanian Academy , along with other famous Romanian writers such as Ion Luca Caragiale , Ion Creangă and Alexandru Vlahuță .
legacy
Eminescu's poetic work set standards for the further development of the Romanian literary language. He wrote in a language that is still modern today, the spelling of which has changed several times in the meantime, but lexicologically it is by no means out of date. As already described, Eminescu usually created several versions of his poems, which he changed again and again and could rarely decide on a definitive one. After his death, many other previously unpublished poems came to light, each in different versions. Of course, with these poems in particular, the question arises whether and which ones the poet himself would have published and which ones he would never have released for publication.
In the course of time, many Romanian literary scholars, above all the famous Perpessicius , made some changes to the Eminescu language in order to adapt it to the current usage. As a recognized Eminescu researcher, Gheorghe Bulgăr set himself the task of reintroducing the spelling that Eminescu actually used in his poems in order to give them authenticity again.
Works
| plant | Initial release | Remarks |
|---|---|---|
| From 1870 | ||
| Venus and Madonna (Venere și Madonă) | April 15, 1870, "Convorbiri literare" | The poem is one of the first to be published in this magazine. |
| Mortua est! (Mortua est!) | March 1, 1871, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| At night ... (Noaptea) | June 15, 1871, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Blue flower (Floarea albastră) | April 1, 1873, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Emperors and proletarians (Împărat și proletar) | December 1, 1874, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Melancholy (melancolia) | September 1, 1876, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Fairytale Queen (Crăiasa din povești) | September 1, 1876, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| The lake (Lacul) | September 1, 1876, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Wish (dorința) | September 1, 1876, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Waldmärchen (Povestea Codrului) | March 1878, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Loneliness (Singurătate) | March 1878, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Far from you ... (Departe sunt de tine ...) | March 1878, "Convorbiri literare" | Published without a title |
| Page Cupid (Pajul Cupidon) | February 1, 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Stay here (O, rămâi) | February 1, 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| How often, beloved ... (De câte ori, iubito ...) | September 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| So tender ... (Atât de fragedã ...) | September 1879, “Convorbiri literare”. | |
| Autumn is here ... (Afară-i toamnã ...) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Since that hour ... (Sunt ani la mijloc ...) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| If even the voices ... (Când însuși glasul ...) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| The sound of the forest (Freamăt de codru) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Goodbye (Revedere) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Separation (despărțire) | October 1879, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| From 1880 | ||
| Oh, mother ... (O, mamă ...) | April 1, 1880, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Letter I (Scrisoarea I) | February 1, 1881, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Letter II (Scrisoarea II) | April 1, 1881, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Letter III (Scrisoarea III) | May 1, 1881, "Convorbiri literare" | In this letter, Eminescu's political stance becomes clear, in which his strong right-wing orientation can be felt. His overshadowing xenophobia and anti-Semitism are expressed here, as in Doină . |
| Letter IV (Scrisoarea IV) | September 1, 1881, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| The evening star (Luceafărul) | April 1883, "Almanac of the Academic Society România jună" | The poem is based on the German publication of a Romanian folk tale by Richard Kunisch , Bucharest and Stambul. Sketches from Hungary, Romania and Turkey, Berlin (1861). Eminescu came across this story in Berlin, where he began working on the subject under the title Fata-n grădina de aur as early as 1873/74 . In 1882, after Eminescu had read “Luceafãrul” to the Junimea Circle, Mite Kremnitz translated it into German. |
| Gone is love ... (Sa dus amorul ...) | April 24th / 6th May 1883, "Familia" No. 18 | |
| When the memory ... (Când amintirile ...) | 15./25. May 1883, "Familia" No. 20 | |
| Goodbye (adio) | 5th / 17th June 1883, "Familia" No. 33 | |
| Doina (Doină) | July 1, 1883, "Convorbiri literare" | The title Doina actually refers to an old Romanian folk song that creates a longing melancholy. The content of this doina is political; Eminescu expresses his conservative, traditionalist and xenophobic attitude. His strong right-wing orientation on political issues, which he outlined here bluntly, was one reason why the poem was rarely published under the communist regime. |
| On lonely poplars ... (Pe lângă plopii fără soț ...) | August 28th / 9th September 1883, "Familia" No. 35 | |
| And if ... (Și dacă ...) | 13./25. November 1883, "Familia" No. 46 | |
| My critics (Criticilor mei) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | It was written around 1876. |
| I only have one pursuit (May am un singur dor) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | It was written between 1881 and 1883. According to the latest findings from the Eminescu research carried out by Helmuth Frisch, the poem is based on the German model “Please” by Karl Woermann ; Eminescu had underlined the two most important stanzas in his documents and largely translated the ideas into Romanian. |
| Sleepy little bird ... (Somnoroase păsărele ...) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | |
| Venice (Veneția) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | Published by Titu Maiorescu in the Socec publishing house in Bucharest under the title “Sa stins viața” ( Eng . “Life is extinguished” ). This is actually a copy of the Venice Sonnet by the Italian-Austrian poet Gajetano Cerri , which Eminescu also noted in one of the manuscripts. Under the title Venice (Veneția) is the subtitle Sonett - Imitation ( Sonet - Imitație ). The original poem Venice was published in Vienna in 1864 in the volume “Aus einsamer Stube” . |
| In secret ... (Iubind în taină ...) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | |
| Gone are the years ... (Trecut-au anii ...) | 1883/84, 1st edition of the volume of poems | |
| From the night ... (Din Noaptea ...) | 12./24. February 1884, "Familia" No. 7 | |
| Evening on the hill (Sara pe deal) | July 1, 1885, "Convorbiri literare" | It was created much earlier (around 1872). |
| Letter V - Dalila (Scrisoarea V - Dalila) | January 1, 1886, "Epoca" | Published as a fragment with 54 lines of verse under the title Dalila; In this letter, too, the misogyny present in Eminescu's lyrical work becomes clear. It is not only based on the theoretical agreement with Schopenhauer's ideas, but also on Eminescu's practical life experience - the poem is based on the tragic contrast between wishful thinking and reality. |
| You don't understand me (Nu mă înțelegi) | March 15, 1886, "Album literar" by the student union Unirea | |
| To the star (La steaua) | October 25, 1886, "România liberă" | Was created in 1882/1883 and was therefore not, as Titu Maiorescu assumed, to be seen as a sign of Eminescu's recovery. It is an adaptation or adaptation of the poem "Do you see the star" by Gottfried Keller from Neuere Gedichte (1851) |
| What are you not coming (De ce nu-mi vii) | February 1887, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| Kamadeva (Kamadeva) | July 1, 1887, "Convorbiri literare" | It was written around 1876. |
| So many stars ... (Oricâte stele ...) | February 1, 1890, "Convorbiri literare" | |
| The album (Albumul) | July 1892, "Convorbiri literare" | |
literature
- Helmuth Frisch: Sursele germane ale creației eminesciene. Identificarea izvoarelor, comentarea lor şi introducere. 2 volumes. Saeculum IO, Bucharest 1999, ISBN 973-9399-37-1 .
- Klaus Heitmann : Eminescu - Gânditor politic. In: Sorin Chiţanu (ed.): Eminescu în critica germană. Junimea, Iași 1985, pp. 192-228 ( Eminesciana 38, ZDB -ID 754911-8 ).
- Mihai Eminescu: Poezii antume și postume. Edited by Gheorghe Bulgăr . Vol. I a. II. Vestala Publishing House, Bucharest 1999.
- Mihai Eminescu: Poezii. Ediție critică de D. Murărașu. Vol. I-III, Minerva Publishing House, Bucharest 1982.
- Dietmar Müller: Eminescu, Mihai , in: Handbuch des Antisemitismus , Volume 2/1, 2009, pp. 206-208
Web links
- Literature by and about Mihai Eminescu in the catalog of the German National Library
- Poems by Mihai Eminescu
Individual evidence
- ^ Jean Ancel : The History of the Holocaust in Romania. (The Comprehensive History of the Holocaust) University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, and Yad Vashem, Jerusalem 2011, p. 10.
- ↑ cf. biography.name
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Eminescu, Mihai |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Eminovici, Mihail (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Romanian poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 15, 1850 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Ipoteşti |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 15, 1889 |
| Place of death | Bucharest |