On January 15, Romanians celebrate the birthday anniversary of their national poet, Mihai Eminescu and, since 2010, Romanian Culture Day
Mihai Eminescu, Gheorghe and Raluca Eminovici's seventh of eleven children, was born in Botosani on January 15, 1850. He started school in 1858 in Cernauti, in the Austro-Hungarian Duchy of Bukovina. Even though he was an outstanding student, in 1863 he dropped out, and joined the Fanny Tardini-Vladicescu theater troupe, which he developed a fascination for. He worked for a while as a clerk in Botosani, at the court and city hall.
Eminescu made his debut in 1866. He was in Bukovina, as a tenant of his teacher Aron Pumnul, when the latter passed away. In memory of their teacher of Romanian, a few students put out a brochure where we can find a poem entitled "At Aron Pumnul's Tomb", signed "M. Eminovici". One month later, the magazine "Family" in Budapest, published his poem "Were I to Have". Iosif Vulcan, the magazine director, changed his name from Eminovici to Eminescu, a name he kept for the rest of his life. This was only the beginning of his collaboration with the magazine, which published five more of his poems that year.
In 1867 he joined Iorgu Caragiale's theater troupe as a prompter and copyist. That year the magazine "Family" published his poem "What I Wish for You, Sweet Romania"'.
He moved as a prompter and copyist in Mihai Pascaly's troupe. Pascaly was one of the most important promoters of theater in Romania, as director of the National Theater in Bucharest. During his time with the troupe, Eminescu met I.L. Caragiale, who had not yet had his debut as a playwright. Between 1869 and 1872, upon advice from his father, he studied law and philosophy in Vienna. He was active in student organizations, made friends with novelist Ioan Slavici, and debuted as a columnist at the "Albina" (The Bee) newspaper in Budapest.
He started contributing to the "Convorbiri Literare" magazine, the publication of the "Junimea Literary Society" of Iasi. In his study on the so-called "New Direction", critic Titu Maiorescu praised Eminescu's qualities as a poet, saying he was second only to Vasile Alecsandri. In 1872 he met poetess Veronica Micle, who would inspire him to write most of his romantic poetry. That same year "Convorbiri Literare" published one of his most important pieces of fiction, "Poor Dionis", and started writing his major poems "Calin" and "The Morning Star".
He returned to his country, living in Iasi between 1874 and 1877, working as a director of the Central Library, a substitute teacher, school inspector for Iasi and Vaslui, as well as editor of the "Iasi Courier" newspaper. He continued publishing in "Convorbiri Literare". He made good friends with writer Ion Creanga, whom he brought into "Junimea". In 1877 he moved to Bucharest, where he worked for the "Timpul" newspaper, first as an editor, then as an editor-in-chief. He was exceptionally active as a journalist, and continued to work on some of his most important poems that highlight his mature stage as a writer, such as his "Epistles" and "The Morning Star".
However, due to health reasons, his literary activity went into decline. In June 1883, the poet fell gravely ill, was admitted into Sutu hospital, then into an institute near Vienna. His volume "Poems" was published in December, with a foreword by Titu Maiorescu, who had made the selection. It was, in fact, the only volume of poetry he published during his lifetime. He passed away on June 15, 1889, in the Sutu sanatorium, and was buried in Bellu Cemetery in Bucharest. His pall bearers were four students from the Teaching College. (Translated by Calin Cotoiu)
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