A walk in Copou on the 15th of January 1999
awfully difficult
have I found it
difficult, difficult, difficult
to assume
even the slightest crack
of my soul
difficult, difficult do I find it
to appropriate
my unlikeness of the world
my likeness of the world
and my heart
today, for me, Copou
is the center of the Universe
I’m walking timidly and confidently
like in Heaven
I am even wholly inside myself
as you, yourself, used to be once
today it is Mihai Eminescu’s birthday
he didn’t turn 40 in the end
lately I’ve felt him closer and closer
it’s as if I understood him better
it’s as if I’d stopped understanding him
difficult, difficult do I find it
to appropriate
my unlikeness of the world
my likeness of the world
and my heart
I’m walking on a fresh
deep and tidy Copou
I am even wholly
inside myself
and I have much more
than I have even been given
awfully difficult
have I found it
difficult, difficult, difficult
to assume, humbly
my smouldering tears, all the tears
of my soul
Eminescu Onest, Onesti -- Eremia Costel Grigorescu
Development of Copou Park (Copou Gardens) began in 1834, making it the oldest public park in Iaşi amd one of the first public gardens in Romania. It contains Eminescu's Linden Tree (Teiul lui Eminescu), a 500-year-old silver lime (Tilia tomentosa Moench), under which Mihai Eminescu reportedly wrote some of his best works. Nearby is the 44-ft (13.5 m) Obeliscul cu lei (Obelisk of Lions), built betwen 1834 and 1841 by Gheorghe Asachi and dedicated to the Regulamentul Organic, a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia, the two Danubian principalities that became the Romanian state. This was their first common system of government. It set up a Russian protectorate which lasted until 1854, and the Regulament remained in force until 1858, when the two provinces united. Other landmarks include the Junimea Alley, namd in honor of the literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863 (given a slightly antiquated Romanian word for "Youth"), the country's most influential intellectual and political association in the 19th century, as well as the Mihai Eminescu Museum. In 1866 when Mihail Eminovici (1850-1889) published an early poem, "De-aș avea" (If I Had) in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine "Familia" in Pest; Vulcan changed his nom de plume to the more Romanian "Mihai Eminescu." A Romantic novelist and journalist, he was regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. He was an active member of Junimea and edited "Timpul" (The Time), the official newspaper of the Conservative Party which included many Junimea members. His manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, include Luceafărul (The Vesper/The Evening Star/The Lucifer/The Daystar), Odă în metru antic (Ode in Ancient Meter), and the five Letters (Epistles/Satires). In his poems he frequently used metaphysical, mythological, and historical subjects. In 1869 he co-founded the "Orient" literary circle to gather Romanian folklore and documents relating to Romanian literary history. Beginning in 1883 he began exhibiting deviant behaviors and was successfully treated in Austria and Italy until 1886, when he suffered a relapse. Romanian doctors falsely diagnosed him with syphilis, and their mercury treatment led to his death from cardio-respiratory arrest.
ReplyDeleteLONGING
Come to the forest spring where wavelets
Trembling o'er the pebbles glide
And the drooping willow branches
Its secluded threshold hide.
Eagerly your arms outstreching,
Hurry dear to my embrace,
That the breeze your hair will gather
And uplift it from your face.
On my knees you will be seated
Just we two alone, alone
While upon your curls disordered
Are the lime-tree's blossoms strown.
Forehead pale and tresses golden
On my shoulder you incline,
And your lip's delicious plunder
Raise up willingly to mine.
We will dream a dream of fairies
Rocked by secret lullaby,
Which the lovely spring is chanting
And the winds that wander by.
Midst that harmony thus sleeping
Woodland tales our thoughts enthrall,
And upon our bodies softly
Do the lime-trees petal fall.
--tr Corneliu M. Popescu