Eminescu translators Montri Umavijani and Sumya Haruya
Romania’s National Culture Day is closely linked to the birth date of national poet Mihai Eminescu, on 15th January. We go back today to June 1989, to another event linked to this poet, namely the centennial of his death.
Cristina Mateescu, 09.01.2026, 14:00
The extensive events held in June 1989 to celebrate the centennial of Mihai Eminescu’s death also featured an international symposium that brought together in Bucharest two foreign translators of his work: Sumya Haruya from Japan and Montri Umavijani from Thailand. In the archive interviews to RRI’s Ana Maria Palcu and Frederica Dochinoiu, respectively, Sumya Haruya and Montri Umavijani spoke about Eminescu’s poetry and their experience of translating from the Romanian language.
The Eminescu centennial celebrations of June 1989 took place against a grim period for ordinary Romanians, with the communist regime at its most oppressive, before collapsing only six months later in a violent uprising. Mihai Eminescu was also Romania’s national poet back then. His work is infused with a deep sense of patriotism that perfectly served the national-communist agenda of the then authorities, which turned him into a symbol of Romanian national identity and spirituality. The state actively encouraged foreign translations of his works, as part of efforts to showcase the universality of Romanian literature.
He is credited today with having modernised the use of the Romanian language in poetry, his works influencing entire future generations of writers and poets. While readers still resonate with favourite Eminescu themes like heartbreak, loneliness and the passing of time, in recent years, he has also been subject to criticism on account of his political views, which lend themselves to accusations of xenophobia.
