Radio România Internațional

Tag: Romanian literature

  • Romania at the Paris and London book fairs

    Romania at the Paris and London book fairs

    Romanian
    literature as part of the wider family of European literature was the topic of
    a debate held on the first day of the London Book Fair held over March 12-14.
    Special guests were European Union Literature Prize recipients Ioana Parvulescu
    and Claudiu Florian. The attendance included translators, writers, journalists,
    academia, British officials and readers passionate about Romanian literature.
    Romanian-born American writer Andrei Codrescu was the protagonist of another
    event, the launch of his latest poetry volume, No Time Like Now. It was in
    fact a recital of poetry and music, with poetry readings intertwined with
    pieces performed by pianist Mina Beldimanescu.

    Romania’s participation in the
    London Book Fair has become a landmark, not just for Romanian culture
    consumers, but intellectuals interested in European culture in general.
    Evidence of that were the speeches of our British partners, literary critic
    Razvan Voncu said, himself a participant in the London Book Fair. Romania was
    well represented in the Paris Book Fair as well, held over March 15-18, bringing
    together 1,200 publishers, 35,000 authors from nearly 100 countries and
    totaling some 180,000 guests. The last edition slightly broke with the
    tradition of having one country as guest of honor to celebrate, instead, for
    the first time in the history of the fair, Europe as a whole. 35 Romanian
    publishers took part in the fair.

    The Romanian Cultural Institute played host
    to debates and book launches under the slogan 2019 – The Year of Romania in
    Europe. The excellent relations between Romania and France and Romania and
    Europe as a whole was the topic of a debate titled 30 years after Returning to
    Europe, devoted to the three decades free of communism. Another successful
    event hosted by Romania’s pavilion featured traveller and storyteller Estelle Cantala,
    who told the audience about her experience collecting folk tales in Maramures,
    Northwestern Romania. A round table was devoted to Panait Istrati, whose works
    in French are internationally acclaimed. An overt leftist advocate, Istrati
    travelled extensively to the Soviet Union accompanied by communist officials,
    which earned him the nickname Maxim Gorki of the Balkans. Istrati visited the
    USSR in the first years of Stalin’s dictatorship and became one of the first
    intellectuals to condemn the horrors of the Soviet regime. EU Commissioner for
    Economic and Financial Affairs, Pierre Moscovici, himself the son of a
    Romanian-born psychologist, visited the fair and held a press conference,
    reiterating the EU’s support for publishers and literature in general.

  • National Culture Day 2019

    National Culture Day 2019

    A bill passed in 2010 by the Chamber of Deputies established January 15, the birthday of the greatest Romanian poet, Mihai Eminescu, as the National Culture Day. Mihai Eminescu, born on January 15, 1850, left us an impressive literary heritage that includes poetry, translations from foreign languages, theatre plays and fiction. Part of the late Romantic movement, Eminescu’s poetry was influenced by the systems of thought specific to Romanticism and also by the philosophic currents of his time. According to the World Records Academy, the poem The Evening Star, by Mihai Eminescu, is the longest love poem. Here is how the World Records Academy presents it: The poem can be simply described (for today’s YouTube generation…) as a combination between Gone with the Wind (it is a romantic drama), Star Trek (it contains science fiction entertainment) and Love Story (the poem is one of the most romantic poems and it also ends in a drama)-all together, which means it is a romantic poem but also a third millennium modern poem.



    In an attempt to keep it in the attention of the young generation, in order to perpetuate its value, Eminescu’s work has become, as of today, an app for mobile phones, following a project conducted by the Romanian Academy and launched at the Romanian Athenaeum. Mihai Eminescu’s work will be available for free in a format compatible with smart phones, in the App Store and Google Play stores. The application Mihai Eminescu – the complete work for smart-phones is the second re-launch of Eminescu’s work after the printed edition released by the Romanian Academy in the last 100 years. Alongside a number of events marking on January 15 the birthday of Romania’s national poet at home and abroad, a number of events celebrating Romanian culture are also held.



    The Ion L. Caragiale National Theatre in Bucharest has scheduled three guided tours of the institution, free of charge. Thousands of kilometers away, in Madrid, a new Romanian-language lecturer’s department was set up, Spain being alongside Italy and Germany the country where the number of such departments is on the increase. Operating in universities abroad and financed by the Romanian state, the lecturer’s departments, through the Romanian language, literature, culture and civilization classes it offers, promotes the Romanian cultural heritage in the host countries. The interest of the universities abroad in the introduction of the Romanian-language courses has been on the increase after the country’s EU accession.


    (Translated by E. Enache)


  • Mircea Cartarescu’s Solenoid wins best novel of the year award

    Mircea Cartarescu’s Solenoid wins best novel of the year award

    The novel, which was published by Humanitas in 2015 and launched at the Gaudeamus Book Fair last November, has quickly become a cult book, enjoying an equally enthusiastic response from both the public and critics. “Solenoid is unique even among Mircea Cartarescu’s works”, wrote the literary critic Ioana Parvulescu in her review of the book. She adds: “It is a portrait of the artist as an adult man, when he questions everything, even art and writing, and when he struggles to solve the great riddle of the world. The beauty of his attempt is that he does so after having demonstrated to himself that this is an impossible task. In the novel, Morpheus, the god of dreams, appears to get some help from his father Hypnos, thus creating a truly special hypnotic, morphine-like effect in the reader as if the walls of our limiting world have cracked and a door to another world has opened.”



    Critic Ioana Parvulescu has more: “In my opinion, the most suitable key to understand this book, which may be seen as a poetic and aesthetic manifesto more than Cartarescu’s other works, is the oneiric element, the dreams. For the author of the diary, who is Mircea Cartarescu himself, as well as for all his fictional selves, dreams are the key opening the door to what lies beyond. This oneiric vein is extremely beautiful and appears to be inexhaustible. Sometimes it is terrible and frightening, while at other times it transports you to a world of fairytales or to a different historical era, such as for example to the time of the cave men. Some of the imagery found in Solenoid is truly stunning, and has to do with this oneiric element, which is the only way you can understand what lies ‘beyond’ or indeed, something of this world. Apart from its dream-like quality, Mircea Cartarescu’s book also contains the idea, which is implied here more than in any other of his books, that you can only look for answers within yourself. This book resembles a vast philosophical poem on a par with the great philosophical poems of the world, while at the same time providing a surprising novelty for Mircea Cartarescu, namely the book’s strong narrative structure.”



    Mircea Cartarescu is one of most acclaimed contemporary Romanian writers. His works have been translated into more than 14 languages, including English. This is how he describes his latest novel, Solenoid: “In this book, I focus on the reader more than in other of my previous books, the reader is central. The reader was always present in my mind as I wrote this book. As Ioana Parvulescu mentioned, this is a structured book, not one of loose memories, of vague hallucinations, although it does have its share of such things, too. It is, of course, an oneiric book, because for me there is no difference between dream and reality, between dream and hallucination, between dream and madness, between dream and poetry, between reality and poetry. In fact, we all live within this blessed reality both during the day and during the night. This is why I would say that reality is one of the key themes of this book. What it is, what this concept covers, what this word means. Usually, when we talk about reality, we imagine we deal with a very simple concept, but in fact it is one of the most complex structures built by our mind. Reality is in our mind.”



    Mircea Cartarescu’s novels were awarded by the Romanian Academy, the Romanian and the Moldovan Writers Association, the Bucharest Writers Association and the Romanian Editors Association. His novel Nostalgia won the 2005 Giuseppe Acerbi book award in Italy. Cartarescu also received the Vilenica International Literature Award in 2011, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt International Literature Award in Berlin in 2012, the Spycher — Literaturpreis Leuk Award in Switzerland in 2013, the Grand Prize of the Novi Sad International Poetry Festival in 2013, the Tormenta en un vaso award in Spain in Spain in 2014, the Euskadi de Plata, San Sebastian in 2014, the Leipzig Book Award for European Understanding in 2015, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 2015.

  • Romanian born-writer Anna de Noailles

    Romanian born-writer Anna de Noailles

    Ana Elisabeta Bibescu-Basarab of Brâncoveanu, later on known as a writer under the name of Anna de Noailles, was born in Paris, on December 15th, 1876. Her father, Grigore Brâncoveanu, was one of the sons of Walachias last ruling princes before the 1848 revolution, Gheorghe Bibescu. He was adopted by his godfather, the great governor Grigore Brancoveanu, the last male descendant of ruling prince Constantin Brancoveanus bloodline.



    When she was 19, Anna married Mathieu, count of Noailles. Thanks to her writings, her literary salon, her charm but also thanks to her high-level connections, Anna de Noailles was to become a personality of aristocratic Paris of the “belle époque age. A Romanian version of Anna de Noailless volume A New Hope is due out from the Polirom Publishers in Bucharest. Speaking now is the translator of the volume Ana Antonescu. She will be providing an outline of Anna de Noailles biography.



    She wrote her first poems at the tender age of 13. She lived in a cultural background, in an aristocratic family, in late 19th and early 20th century Paris, will all its flavor, in what is known as Belle-Epoque. In 1898, she made her debut with a series of poems brought together under the title ‘Lithanies and published by Revue de Paris. [Paris Review]. She got her first maiden volume published in 1901, with a collections of poems titles Le Coeur Innombrable. [The Countless Heart], at that time rated as a literary revelation. She even got a prize awarded by the French Academy. The same year she began her famous correspondence with Marcel Proust. Lots of other collections of poems would follow, as over and above anything else Anna de Noailles is a poet in her own right, and we can find evidence of that in her prose writings. She got 9 poetry volumes published and fewer prose volumes, three of which are novels, which make a sentimental trilogy of sorts: La Nouvelle Esperance [The New Hope], Le Visage Emerveille [The Enchanted Face] and La Domination [The Domination]. In the meantime she made a name for herself in the French literary milieus, being rewarded with all sorts of prizes and awards. For instance, in 1921 she became a member of the Belgian Royal Academy, while the French Academy, which at that time did not receive women among its members, granted her the Grand Prize for Literature. In 1925 she became an honorary member of the Romanian Academy, and in 1930 she was the first woman to have been awarded the Commander of the Legion of Honor title. She passed away with lots of praise heaped upon her, as she was highly influential as regards the Belle-Epoque being also a personality of French culture, and to a less extent one of Romanian culture, although Romanian historian Nicolae Iorga thought that in her work, the vibrations of Romanian soul could be felt, despite the fact that she wrote only in French.



    Anna de Noailles died in 1933. Although she wasnt born in Romania and nobody knows for sure if she spoke Romanian, the writer visited her fathers native country and apart from the kinship relations she had with members of Romanian aristocracy, she also had connections among the intellectual environments in Romania. Actually, even among her relatives from Romania there were such writers as Martha Bibescu, the wife of Ana de Noailles first cousin once removed George Valentin Bibescu, one of Romanias first airplane pilots. With Martha Bibescu, and not only with her, Anna de Noailles shared Marcel Prousts friendship. With details on that, here is Ana Antonescu once again.



    Anna de Noailles held a literary salon in Paris, which she hosted in her own house, where figureheads of that time would meet at her place, from Pierre Loti, Andre Gide to Jean Cocteau, who was influenced by her poetry. Paul Valery and Colette used to come there as well. The correspondence with Marcel Proust began in 1901 and lasted for about 18 years. Its interesting because, in a way, Proust encouraged her and highly praised Anna de Noailles for her writings, while he was extremely busy writing his famous work ‘In Search of Lost Time. The two appreciated one another, and after Prousts death, Anna De Noailles edited their correspondence.



    The novel, “A New Hope, translated by Anca Antonescu for the Polirom Publishers and published for the first time in 1903, posed a real challenge for the translator. Here is Ana Antonescu once again.



    Apart from being a romance novel, it is a poetic novel as well, this maiden volume authored by Anna de Noailles. All that verbal sensuality is what the reader may find most interesting in her work today. As a translator, I found it difficult to transpose myself in the characters state of mind, at once trying to re-create an age. We live in another time, in another reality, poetry is different for us today. “



    Despite all that, the reading public will by all means enjoy reading the Romanian version of a novel written by Anna de Noailles.


    (Translated by E. Nasta)

  • Romanian literature under the spotlight at the Istanbul Book Fair

    Romanian literature under the spotlight at the Istanbul Book Fair

    Held between
    November 7 and 10, the International Book Fair in Istanbul hosted Romania as
    its Guest of Honour. The motto of this year’s edition was We owe you a few
    words. Romania had a complex agenda, featuring well-established contemporary
    authors. Gabriela Adamesteanu, Matei Visniec, Dan Lungu, Octavian Soviany,
    Carmen Musat, Daniel Cristea-Enache, Florin Bican, Lucian Dan Teodorovici, Radu
    Vancu, Vasile Ernu and Alexandru Matei are some of the writers who presented
    their volumes and interacted with the reading public that visited Romania’s
    pavilion.




    Throughout the
    entire duration of the Istanbul Book Fair, Romania also hosted a series of
    debates featuring literary figures from Romania and Turkey and book launches,
    both at its pavilion and at the Romanian Cultural Institute in Istanbul. Among
    them were Dan Lungu’s I’m a Communist Biddy!, brought out in Turkish by
    Bence Kitap Publishers and Florin Irimia’s Dark Windows, published by
    Aylak Adam. Children’s events were also held. The Uskudar Tekel Stage and the
    Sainte Pulcherie French High School in Istanbul played host to two plays by
    Matei Visniec, attended by the playwright himself: The Chekhov Machine
    and The Word Progress on my Mother’s Lips doesn’t Ring True.




    The debate that
    stirred the public’s interest the most was entitled Children’s literature – a
    serious matter and was attended by Oana Ispir from the Illustrators’ Club and
    writers Florin Bican and Vasile Ernu. Asked what exactly prompted him to
    approach children’s literature, Vasile Ernu said he had always been a fan of
    children’s literature, and that there is an important moment in childhood when
    reading becomes paramount:




    I started looking
    into this phenomenon out of sheer interest. I wanted to understand why
    children’s books are so important. The idea that the 1990s brought about more
    openness in this respect was false, because the book market only felt more
    caged. Whatever was available in terms of children’s books were works by
    foreign authors translated into Romanian. People were deluded into thinking the
    market was very diverse, whereas in fact all you could find were Disney-like
    books. And don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Disney stories, I grew up
    with this kind of stories myself, but we’re left with only one choice. And the
    worst part is that books by Romanian authors started slowly disappearing. I
    think what’s important is that we tell our stories plainly, so children can
    understand them, and to share with them our opinions and concerns.




    Another question journalist Carmen Musat asked those who
    took part in the debate was if we could set up a hierarchy between image and
    text, to what extent the text can compel its illustration, and the other way
    round. Briefly, which of the two came first, the text or the image? Writer and
    translator Florin Bican believes that the text came first, unmistakably, but
    that things shouldn’t be like this any longer. In order to encourage communication
    between writers and illustrators, he came up with the idea that writers and
    graphic artists should work together. The outcome of that kind of joint work is
    entitled The Bookatteria of Texts and Images. An illustrated children’s
    stories anthology, brought out by the Pro Editura Print and Publishers. It is
    a book-manifesto, it is the proof that there still are fresh resources as
    regards Romanian original texts for children, but also the potential for
    quality books illustration. In the void created by the disappearance of
    Romanian books for children in the 1980s, Bookatteria demonstrates we can still
    bridge the gap between ourselves and an apparently lost generation. With
    details on that, here is writer Florin Bican again:




    At the suggestion
    of Oana Ispir, the one who initiated the Illustrators’ Club, we suggested
    writers that they should try their hand at writing texts for children as well,
    to be used by illustrators in their attempt to make the most of their talent
    and imagination. And I daresay it was a happy collaboration, illustrators were
    happy to illustrate texts at the suggestion of writers, while in turn, authors
    were delighted to see what kind of illustration their stories were capable of
    generating. Among the writers who this
    year took part in the Book Fair in Istanbul, three could also be found in this
    volume, as authors of children’s stories: Vasile Ernu, Doina Rusti and myself,
    Florin Bican. The idea of the book was to draw attention to the fact that in
    Romania, there are both publishers
    and illustrators for children. When
    asked if literature for children entailed a different kind of approach
    regarding the recipient, here is what Vasile Ernu answered:




    Indeed, when you are an author of literature and you also
    start writing for children you realize things tend to become even more
    intricate. Because in time I understood
    it was easy to lie to the grown-ups, but impossible to lie to children. If you
    succeed in writing a book children think is captivating, that is something
    really great. Because you need to surprise children, and children have not just
    as yet become altered by lies as we are.. And a book for children comes out as
    a whole, with the child still unable to tell the text from the image, like we
    do. That is why the word illustrator sounds a bit inappropriate when we speak
    about drawings for those books for children. The one who writes, as much as the
    one who does the drawings, both of them are authors.




    Romania’s participation as a guest of honour
    in the Istanbul International Book Fair was organised jointly by the Ministry
    of Culture and the Dimitrie Cantemir Cultural Institute in Istanbul.

    (Translated by: E. Nasta; edited by: M. Igantescu)