Mihai Eminescu, Gheorghe and Raluca Eminovici’s seventh
\nof eleven children, was born in Botosani on January 15, 1850. He started school
\nin 1858 in Cernauti, in the Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Bukovina. Even though he
\nwas an outstanding student, in 1863 he dropped out, and joined the Fanny
\nTardini-Vladicescu theater troupe, which he developed a fascination for. He
\nworked for a while as a clerk in Botosani, at the court and city hall.<\/p>\n
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Eminescu made his debut in 1866. He was in Bukovina, as
\na tenant of his teacher Aron Pumnul, when the latter passed away. In memory of
\ntheir teacher of Romanian, a few students put out a brochure where we can find
\na poem entitled At Aron Pumnul’s Tomb, signed M. Eminovici. One month
\nlater, the magazine Family in Budapest, published his poem Were I to Have.
\nIosif Vulcan, the magazine director, changed his name from Eminovici to
\nEminescu, a name he kept for the rest of his life. This was only the beginning
\nof his collaboration with the magazine, which published five more of his poems
\nthat year. <\/p>\n
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In 1867 he joined Iorgu Caragiale’s theater troupe as a
\nprompter and copyist. That year the magazine Family published his poem What
\nI Wish for You, Sweet Romania’. <\/p>\n
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He moved as a prompter and copyist in Mihai Pascaly’s
\ntroupe. Pascaly was one of the most important promoters of theater in Romania,
\nas director of the National Theater in Bucharest. During his time with the
\ntroupe, Eminescu met I.L. Caragiale, who had not yet had his debut as a
\nplaywright. Between 1869 and 1872, upon advice from his father, he studied law
\nand philosophy in Vienna. He was active in student organizations, made friends
\nwith novelist Ioan Slavici, and debuted as a columnist at the Albina (The
\nBee) newspaper in Budapest. <\/p>\n
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He started contributing to the Convorbiri
\nLiterare magazine, the publication of the Junimea Literary Society of Iasi.
\nIn his study on the so-called New Direction, critic Titu Maiorescu praised
\nEminescu’s qualities as a poet, saying he was second only to Vasile Alecsandri.
\nIn 1872 he met poetess Veronica Micle, who would inspire him to write most of
\nhis romantic poetry. That same year Convorbiri Literare published one of his
\nmost important pieces of fiction, Poor Dionis, and started writing his major
\npoems Calin and The Morning Star. <\/p>\n
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He returned to his country, living in Iasi between 1874
\nand 1877, working as a director of the Central Library, a substitute teacher,
\nschool inspector for Iasi and Vaslui, as well as editor of the Iasi Courier
\nnewspaper. He continued publishing in Convorbiri Literare. He made good
\nfriends with writer Ion Creanga, whom he brought into Junimea. In 1877 he
\nmoved to Bucharest, where he worked for the Timpul newspaper, first as an
\neditor, then as an editor-in-chief. He was exceptionally active as a
\njournalist, and continued to work on some of his most important poems that
\nhighlight his mature stage as a writer, such as his Epistles and The Morning
\nStar. <\/p>\n
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However, due to health reasons, his literary activity
\nwent into decline. In June 1883, the poet fell gravely ill, was admitted into
\nSutu hospital, then into an institute near Vienna. His volume Poems was
\npublished in December, with a foreword by Titu Maiorescu, who had made the
\nselection. It was, in fact, the only volume of poetry he published during his
\nlifetime. He passed away on June 15, 1889, in the Sutu sanatorium, and was
\nburied in Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest. His pall bearers were four students from
\nthe Teaching College. (Translated by Calin Cotoiu)<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On January 15, Romanians celebrate the birthday anniversary of their national poet, Mihai Eminescu and, since 2010, Romanian Culture Day<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":135,"featured_media":76079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45210],"tags":[33023,33020,29787],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-168892","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rri-encyclopaedia","tag-january-15","tag-mihai-eminescu","tag-national-culture-day"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n