A Collection of Poets

Collection “Poets Awarded the 'Mihai Eminescu' National Poetry Prize”, coordinator Gellu Dorian, Paralela 45 Publishing, 2010 (editions 1-16 and 18-20):

■ Mihai Ursachi, Marea înfăţişare, Anthology and biobibliographical notes by Daniel Corbu, Afterword by Mircea A. Diaconu, 288 pp. (no. 1)

■ Gellu Naum, Exactitatea umbrei, Anthology by Simona Popescu, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Vasile Spiridon, 256 pp. (no. 2)

■ Cezar Baltag, Odihnă în ţipăt, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 256 pp. (no. 3)

■ Petre Stoica, Polifonia nopţii, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Cornel Ungureanu, 296 pp. (no. 4)

■ Ileana Mălăncioiu, Ardere de tot, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Daniel Cristea-Enache, 144 pp. (no. 5)

■ Ana Blandiana, Pleoape de apă, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 272 pp. (no. 6)

■ Ştefan Augustin Doinaş, Jucătorul de şah, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Mircea A. Diaconu, 304 pp. (no. 7)

■ Mircea Ivănescu, Versuri alese, Anthology and biobibliographical notes by Ioan Radu Văcărescu, Afterword by Al. Cistelecan, 272 pp. (no. 8)

■ Cezar Ivănescu, Rod, Biobibliographical notes by Dumitru Ivănescu, Afterword by Ion Pop, 232 pp. (no. 9)

■ Constanţa Buzea, Roua plural, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Nicolae Manolescu, 304 pp. (no. 10)

■ Emil Brumaru, Versuri, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea A. Diaconu, 312 pp. (no. 11)

■ Ilie Constantin, Coline cu demoni, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Al. Călinescu, 272 pp. (no. 12)

■ Angela Marinescu, Probleme personale, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 280 pp. (no. 13)

■ Şerban Foarţă, Amor amoris, Biobibliographical notes by Aurel Sasu, Afterword by Mircea A. Diaconu, 272 pp. (no. 14)

■ Gabriela Melinescu, Stări de suflet, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea A. Diaconu, 272 pp. (no. 15)

■ Adrian Popescu, Ieşirea în larg, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Ion Pop, 272 pp. (no. 16)

■ Cristian Simionescu, Ţinutul bufonilor, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 304 pp. (no. 18)

■ Dorin Tudoran, Pisicuţ (Somnografii), Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 280 pp. (no. 19)

■ Dinu Flămând, Stive de tăcere, Biobibliographical notes by the author, Afterword by Mircea Martin, 232 pp. (no. 20)

A special book collection was launched on 15 January 2011 in Botoşani.

The date partly discloses what the story is: it must have had something to do with Eminescu. For 20 years, since 1991, in the assumed city of his birth, with the occasion of the anniversary “Days...”, a prize named after him is awarded.

A commendable initiative in itself, but actually quite embarrassing in placing the awarded poets under the sole patronage of Eminescu, and on top in full mise-en-scene of the celebratory “Days...”, which include on their agenda sermons and pilgrimages to places visited by the “national poet”...

Beyond such details, the editions piled up one after the other, and the series of awarded poets grew unrelentingly. As it is a “career” award, for “the entire activity”, the idea to include in the ceremonial a summarizing book was in the air. The coordinator of the collection now launched, Gellu Dorian, a poet from Botoşani, the main organiser of the mentioned “Days...”, indicated in a note that Ştefan Aug. Doinaş has agreed in 1998 to the editing of such anthology after his work (see Şt.Aug. Doinaş, Jucătorul de şah, no. 7in the collection, p. 6). Why only now? Maybe the needed budget could not be sooner made available for the editing of a series with all the authors, from the first award and up to the present. Eventually the contributors mentioned on each of the volumes were there: Botoşani Town Hall, Local Council and the Cultural Foundation Hyperion-C.B. One after the other, the 20 editions rounded up, the funds were collected and the “Eminescu Days” organisers addressed Paralela 45 Publishing for the editing of the collection. Put together in the summer-autumn of 2010, prepared one after the other for printing, the books were out before New Year's Eve and by the 15 of January were in Botoşani, together with the one drawn up at the last minute, hurriedly, after the jury transmitted – in big secrecy – who was going to be the poet awarded at the 2011 edition.

The 20 awarded poets are: Mihai Ursachi, Gellu Naum, Cezar Baltag, Petre Stoica, Ileana Mălăncioiu, Ana Blandiana, Ştefan Aug. Doinaş, M. Ivănescu, Cezar Ivănescu, Constanţa Buzea, Emil Brumaru, Ilie Constantin, Angela Marinescu, Şerban Foarţă, Gabriela Melinescu, Adrian Popescu, Mircea Dinescu, Cristian Simionescu, Dorin Tudoran and Dinu Flămând.

Until 2000, the jury was formed by Laurenţiu Ulici (president, originator – as it seems – of the idea of the award), Al. Călinescu, Mircea Martin, Ion Pop and Cornel Ungureanu. After the disappearance of the first, Nicolae Manolescu was also appointed.

As for the numbers: 20 editions means 20 awards, but the editorial collection – however – only includes 19 titles, as the 17^th was “skipped” (the books are numbered on the backbone)! The reason?: the anthology of the poet awarded in 2008 could no longer be printed because of the considered poet, Mircea Dinescu by his name, who initially agreed to the publication but changed his mind later and refused to give the copyright, keeping the “monopole” of his creations for his own publishing house. It is ironic that such an omission in numbers keeps up to date the phrases written for the back cover of all anthologies in the series by Nicolae Manolescu prior to the decision for 2011, when only 19 titles were ready for printing (as they included Dinescu's): “This collection was a must! And it only bears one fault: it is, by force of things, incomplete. The 20^th poet is still unknown to us and is waiting for his turn. We surely hope this award will be long lasting.” The small pun, referring – possibly – not only to the author at the time not selected as awarded for the 2011 edition, but also, ,symbolically, to Lovinescu's utopia of the “unknown genius”, perpetually expected at the Sburătorul Literary Club, remains valid at least until January 2012: although the 20^th name, Dinu Flămând's, is now public, the collection continues to include 19 volumes...

A few notes on the collection and its volumes, without getting here into an actual exegesis of each author's poetry.

The ensemble – I cannot fail saying it – is impressive: the poets collection fills an entire book shelf! Massive, elegant in their graphic austerity, the anthologies of the awarded poets provide a consistent – although partial – overview of the post-war evolution of the genre, actually with an older recall, for the beginning in mid 1930's of Gellu Naum, the eldest of the awarded (born in 1915, he was 77 when he was awarded for the second time the “Eminescu” Prize). Advancing on the lineage of literary history, the following prizes were awarded to Ştefan Aug. Doinaş, the „litterary clubber” in his youth in Sibiu (b. 1922), followed by the prose inclined “reformers” Petre Stoica and M. Ivănescu (b. 1931). Then come the “sixties” and “seventies” - or however they ended up being labelled – such as (according to their year of birth) Cezar Baltag, Ilie Constantin, Cristian Simionescu and Emil Brumaru (b. 1939), Ileana Mălăncioiu (b. 1940), Constanţa Buzea, Angela Marinescu, Mihai Ursachi and Cezar Ivănescu (b. 1941), Ana Blandiana, Gabriela Melinescu and Şerban Foarţă (b. 1942), Dorin Tudoran (b. 1945), Adrian Popescu and Dinu Flămând (b. 1947), Mircea Dinescu (b. 1950). Less long living, some of their colleagues in the same literary echelon, maybe equally worthy, never got the chance of being honoured by the “Eminescu” Prize, only awarded to living authors. Six of the awarded poets later departed to a better world: Naum, Doinaş, Stoica, Baltag, Ursachi, C. Ivănescu.

Although their nature is naturally retrospective, “revisiting” the career of each awarded poet, the anthologies the collection don't go by an unique recipe. The posthumous editions were prepared by either Gellu Dorian, on the basis of former anthumous editions, owed – therefore – to the authors themselves, either by testamentary legatees, as was the case with Naum and Ursachi, anthologised by Simona Popescu and  Daniel Corbu, respectively. Two other poets assigned the preparing of their “Eminescu awardees”  volumes to younger colleagues: they are M. Ivănescu and Angela Marinescu, selected by Ioan Radu Văcărescu, and Gellu Dorian, respectively, upon the agreement of the authors. Ileana Mălăncioiu's volume is not a selection from the corpus of her works, but only a reediting of the volume Ardere de tot (1976). The rest of the books in the collection are new or revised anthologies, some of the awarded poets following the chronology of the volumes they signed along years, others reorganising their writing without including their first volumes. Some added in the end recent, unpublished texts. Dorin Tudoran decided to the opposite: he places a group of his most recent poems in the first part of the volume, before the selection from his older volumes.

Şerban Foarţă, whose Amor amoris is a directorial rearrangement of his poems on the topic, after the smaller version in Ethernul pheminin stands out (2004; the editor's note in Amor..., p. 6, according to which “the present book includes unpublished poems”, is at least partly inaccurate), for the reason indicated in an introductory phrase: if the prize awarded is named after Eminescu, the author will “dedicate” to him the opening poem, which “could not be but an erotic one” (inevitably, I may say), for which reason, “This being the (musical) rhythm of the overture, I thought I must, for the sake of consistency, continue to the end, the score in the same key, tone and register”; because “this book is not a chrestomathy” (p. 7) – but a thematical collection of “love poems”: subtle, funny, delightful, on the so extended range of  Foarţă's stylistics, starting with the variation after So Vernal in the mentioned poem, an Eminescu Kissing Mite, with a motto from Veronica Micle!...

Worthy of note are also the biobibliographical notes made by the authors, editors or by Aurel Sasu (actually quotes from his Biographical Dictionary of Romanian Literature, published by Paralela 45, 2 volumes, 2006), just as the explicative afterwords signed by the members of the two jury boards in Botoşani (the one mentioned and a second jury board voting an yearly prize for poetry début volumes): six by Mircea Martin, five by Mircea A. Diaconu etc.

On short: a most beautiful collection of poets...[1]

[1] Two more critical paragraphs, one about the “Eminescu” Prize, the other on the book collection:

It is a completely unfortunate idea for the organisers to publicly announce before each edition the names of the five “nominated” poets, which, after the final decision, places the four unawarded in an embarrassing position. If the selection would depend on recently published books, it would be more justified to have “short lists”. Otherwise, for an award – as I said – for the “opera omnia”, it is absolutely futile to announce the four who “lost out”, as some of them will not be included again, after one year, in the following set of “candidates”, which rises a legitimate question related to the criteria of the award: why where they acknowledged as worthy enough to be able to win, for later to withdraw this acknowledgement?! Here are some unawarded “nominees”: Nora Iuga, Ovidiu Genaru, Nicolae Prelipceanu, Ion Mircea or Vasile Vlad – poets who definitely deserved the award just as well (I don't have a complete list at hand). Other poets seem to be also missing from the selection range: were Nina Cassian, Gheorghe Grigurcu, Constantin Abăluţă, Grete Tartler, Andrei Codrescu and others just as entitled to the award ever among the “nominees”?; or as long as were among us poets like Maria Banuş (d. 1999), un Geo Dumitrescu (d. 2004)?; or the most worthy Romanian poets writing in German or Hungarian?

And to conclude– two small onomastic mistakes: Doinaş always abbreviated his second pen first name as „Aug.”, and never wrote it in full, “Augustin”, as it is now mentioned; nor are we told whther the option for “Mircea” and not the usual “M.” Ivănescu was made by the author or the editor?...