Nina Cassian

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Nina Cassian (real name Renée Annie Cassian-Mătăsaru ; born November 27, 1924 in Galați ; † April 14, 2014 in New York City ) was a Romanian poet, children's book author, translator, journalist, pianist, composer and film critic . She spent the first sixty years of her life in Romania before moving to the United States in 1985 for a visiting professorship . A few years later she was granted asylum and from then on lived in New York City. Many of her texts and poems have been published in both Romanian and English.

life and work

Childhood and youth

Nina Cassian was born into a Jewish family in Galați in 1924; she was the only child of Iosif Cassian-Mătăsaru, a translator, and a singer. In 1926 the family moved to Brașov . Cassian's enthusiasm for languages ​​is said to have originated here, as she spent a lot of time in Brașov with children from the German and Hungarian communities. In 1935 the family moved to Bucharest , where Cassian attended a girls' school in the Jewish ghetto.

Over the years she took drawing lessons from George Loewendal and MH Maxy , acting lessons from Beate Fredanov and Alexandru Finți, and piano and composition lessons from Theodor Fuchs , Paul Jelescu , Mihail Jora and Constantin Silvestri .

In 1944 she began studying literature at the University of Bucharest , but dropped out after only a year and left the university.

Life in communist Romania

In the mid-1940s, Cassian found her place on the Romanian literary scene. In 1943 she married the young poet Vladimir Colin; their marriage lasted until 1948. Cassian also had a close relationship with Ion Barbu and was close friends with the poet Paul Celan . The two had met when he was living in Bucharest between 1945 and 1947 . Together with other authors and artists, Celan and Cassian played surrealist games such as “Questions and Answers” ​​or “Ioachim” - the Bucharest variant of Breton's game Cadavre Exquis . Cassian and Celan shared a fascination for language; The letters from the two of them show that they used multilingualism as inspiration for their art.

In 1945 Cassian published her first poem Am fost un poet decadent (“I Used to Be a Decadent Poet”) in the daily România liberă and two years later, in 1947, her first collection of poems La scara 1/1 (“Scale 1: 1 "). These early publications were clearly under the influence of the French modernist poets, with whom she then spent much time; the surrealistic ways of thinking and ideas are said to have had a particularly great effect. In 1948, these first poems were referred to in a Scînteia article as "decadent poetry". Cassian was intimidated by this harsh criticism and decided to adapt her writing to the ideas of the socialist regime. This phase lasted eight years.

As part of this, Cassian also began writing children's books such as Copper Red and the Seven Dachsies (a bestseller in Romania, published in English in 1985) and shorter stories for children such as Pocestea A Doi Pui de Tigru, Numiti Ninigra Si Aligru (in verse form, 1986 under the Title Tigrino and Tigrene published in English). In a 1986 interview, Cassian explained why she chose to write children's books:

“It was in 1950, during the dogmatic period in Romania. Socialist realism is, unfortunately, characterized by the restraining of structures and styles and vocabulary. [...] So when I was asked to write in a rigid and simplified manner, I tried to do my best, but after awhile, I switched to literature for children because it was the only field where metaphors were still allowed, where imagination was tolerated and assonance was permitted. "

“It was 1950, during the dogmatic era in Romania. Unfortunately, socialist realism is characterized by the limitation of structures, styles and vocabulary. […] So when I was told to write in a rigid, simplified way, I tried my best. But after a while I switched to children's literature because it was the only area where metaphors were still allowed where imagination and assonance were tolerated. "

Some children's books and stories were translated into English but are no longer available today. There are currently no German translations.

Cassian later married Al in Romania . I. Ştefănescu .

Exile in the USA

In 1985, Cassian traveled to the United States for a position as visiting professor of creative writing at New York University. While she was in the United States, a friend of hers, Gheorghe Urzu , was arrested by the police and beaten to death for keeping a diary containing texts critical of the regime. Among them were some poems by Cassian in which she satirically wrote about communist Romania. The police found these poems inflammatory. Cassian then decided to stay in the US and apply for asylum, which she was granted soon after. She later even became an American citizen .

In the United States, Cassian began writing in English as well. Her poems have been published in The New Yorker and The Atlantic Monthly , among others . Some poems have also been published in poetry collections such as Life Sentence (1990) and Take My Word for It (1998).

Cassian married her third husband, Maurice Edwards, in the United States, with whom she remained married until her death.

Cassian died of cardiac arrest or a heart attack in New York on April 14, 2014 .

Publications

  • La scara 1/1 , Bucharest, 1947
  • Sufletul nostru , Bucharest, 1949
  • To viu nouă sute şaptesprezece , Bucharest, 1949
  • Nică fără frică , Bucharest, 1950
  • Ce-a văzut Oana , Bucharest, 1952
  • Horea nu mai este singur , Bucharest, 1952
  • Tinereţe , Bucharest, 1953
  • Florile patriei , Bucharest, 1954
  • Versuri alese , Bucharest, 1955
  • Vârstele anului , Bucharest, 1957
  • Dialogul vântului cu marea , Bucharest, 1957
  • Botgros, căţel fricos , Bucharest, 1957
  • Prinţul Miorlau , Bucharest, 1957
  • Chipuri hazlii pentru copii , Bucharest, 1958
  • Aventurile lui Trompişor , Bucharest, 1959
  • Încurcă-lume , Bucharest, 1961
  • Sărbătorile zilnice , Bucharest, 1961
  • Spectacol in aer liber. O monografie a dragostei , Bucharest, 1961
  • Curcubeu , Bucharest, 1962
  • Poezii , foreword by Ovid S. Crohmălniceanu , Bucharest, 1962
  • Să ne facem daruri , Bucharest, 1963
  • Disciplina harfei , Bucharest, 1965
  • Îl cunoaşteţi pe Tică? , Bucharest, 1966
  • Sângele , Bucharest, 1966
  • Destinele paralele. La scara 1/1 , 1967
  • Uite-l este… Uite-l nu e , Bucharest, 1967
  • Ambitus , Bucharest, 1969
  • Întâmplări cu haz , Bucharest, 1969
  • Povestea a doi pui de tigru numiţi Ninigra şi Aligru , Bucharest, 1969
  • Cronofagy. 1944-1969 , Bucharest, 1970
  • Recviem , Bucharest, 1971
  • Marea conjugare , Bucharest, 1971
  • Atât de grozavă şi adio. Confidenţe fictive , Bucharest, 1971; Second edition (Confidenţe fictive. Atât de grozavă şi adio şi old proze), Bucharest, 1976
  • Loto-Poeme , Bucharest, 1971
  • Spectacol in aer liber. O (altă) monografie a dragostei , foreword by Liviu Călin , Bucharest, 1974
  • Între noi, copii , Bucharest, 1974
  • O sută de poeme , Bucharest, 1975
  • Viraje-Virages , bilingual edition, translated by the author, Eugene Guillevic and Lily Denis, Bucharest, 1978
  • De îndurare , Bucharest, 1981
  • Blue Apple , translation by Eva Feiler, New York, 1981
  • Numărătoarea inversă , Bucharest, 1983
  • Jocuri de vacanţă , Bucharest, 1983
  • Roşcată ca arama şi cei şapte şoricei , Bucharest, 1985
  • Copper Red and the Seven Dachsies , 1985
  • Lady of Miracles , translation by Laura Schiff, Berkeley, 1988
  • Call Yourself Alive , translation by Brenda Walker and Andreea Deletant, London, 1988
  • Life Sentence , New York-London, 1990
  • Cheerleader for a Funeral , translation by the author and Brenda Walker, London-Boston, 1992
  • Desfacerea lumii , Bucharest, 1997
  • Take My Word for It , New York, 1997
  • Something Old, Something New: Poems and Drawings , Tuscaloosa, 2002
  • Memoria ca zestre. Cartea I (1948–1953, 1975–1979, 1987–2003), Bucharest, 2003

Publications in English-language anthologies

  • Born in Utopia - An anthology of Modern and Contemporary Romanian Poetry - Carmen Firan and Paul Doru Mugur (editors) with Edward Foster - Talisman House Publishers - 2006 - ISBN 1-58498-050-8
  • Testament - Anthology of Modern Romanian Verse / Testament - Antologie de Poezie Română Modernă - Bilingual edition English & Romanian - Daniel Ioniță (editor and translator) with Eva Foster, Daniel Reynaud and Rochelle Bews - Minerva Publishing - 2015 (second edition) - ISBN 978 -973-21-1006-5
  • Testament - Anthology of Romanian Verse - American Edition - monolingual English language edition - Daniel Ioniță (editor and principal translator) with Eva Foster, Daniel Reynaud and Rochelle Bews. Australian-Romanian Academy for Culture, 2017, ISBN 978-0-9953502-0-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Alex Ștefănescu: La o nouă lectură: Nina Cassian She also killed cats for a living because she hated her real name ( Romanian ) Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  2. ↑ (7 March 1999). Poetry in Brief , The Independent
  3. ↑ a b c d e Alan Brownjohn: Nina Cassian obituary . The Guardian . Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  4. ↑ a b c Larisa Ciuta: A MURIT NINA CASSIAN. Povestea scriitoarei de care sa indragostit Ion Barbu . Evenimentul zilei. April 16, 2014. Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ a b Giovanni Rotiroti: The Poem's Gift of Love And Friendship. The Letters Sent By Paul Celan To Nina Cassian . In: Studia Philologia . No. 2, June 2017.
  6. ↑ A murit poeta Nina Cassian. Cenușa sa va fi adusă în România ( Romanian ) Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved on April 17, 2014.
  7. ↑ cassian (Katz), NINA . Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  8. ↑ a b Geraldine DeLuca, Roni Natov: Writing Children's Literature in Romania: An Interview with Nina Cassian . In: The Lion and the Unicorn . 10, 1986. Retrieved July 5, 2020.
  9. ↑ NINA CASSIAN . Retrieved April 20, 2014.
  10. ^ Romanian Poet, Dissident Nina Cassian Dies . ABC News . April 16, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  11. ↑ Fabuloasele aventuri ale poetei Nina Cassian, "cea mai atrăgătoare femeie Urata din literatura română" ( Romanian ) Adevarul. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  12. ^ Romanian poet, dissident Nina Cassian dies . The Washington Post . Retrieved April 16, 2014.
  13. ^ Margalit Fox: Nina Cassian, Exiled Romanian Poet, Dies at 89 . The New York Times . April 18, 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Cassian, Nina
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cassian-Mătăsaru, Renée Annie (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Romanian poet, children's book author, translator, journalist, pianist, composer and film critic
DATE OF BIRTH November 27, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Galați
DATE OF DEATH April 14, 2014
Place of death New York City