"Eminescu" redirects here. For other uses, see Eminescu (disambiguation).

Mihai Eminescu

Portrait of Mihai Eminescu. Photograph taken by Jan Tomas

in Prague, 1869

Native name Mihail Eminovici

Born 15 January 1850

Botoșani, Principality of Moldavia

Died 15 June 1889 (aged 39)

Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania

Resting place Bellu cemetery, Bucharest

Occupation Poet, writer, journalist,

Language Romanian

Nationality Romanian
 Alma mater University of Vienna
Humboldt University of Berlin

Genres Poetry, short story

Subjects Condition of genius, death, love, history,

nature

Literary Romanticism
movement

Notable works Luceafărul, Scrisoarea I

Years active 1866–1888

Partner Veronica Micle

Relatives Gheorghe Eminovici (father)

Raluca Iurașcu (mother)[1]

Eight brothers[show]

Three sisters[show]

Signature

Mihai Eminescu (Romanian pronunciation: [miˈhaj emiˈnesku] ( listen); born Mihail Eminovici; 15
January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romantic poet, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as
the most famous and influential Romanian poet, as well as the first modern poet in Romanian
literature. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and worked as an editor
for the newspaper Timpul ("The Time"), the official newspaper of the Conservative Party (1880–
1918).[2] His poetry was first published when he was 16 and he went to Vienna to study when he was
19. The poet's manuscripts, containing 46 volumes and approximately 14,000 pages, were offered
by Titu Maiorescu as a gift to the Romanian Academy during the meeting that was held on 25
January 1902.[3]Notable works 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.
 His father was Gheorghe Eminovici from Călinești, a Moldavian village in Suceava county, Bucovina,
which was then part of the Austrian Empire (while his father came from Banat). He crossed the
border into Moldavia, settling in Ipotești, near the town of Botoșani. He married Raluca Iurașcu, an
heiress of an old aristocratic Moldavian family. In a Junimea register, Eminescu wrote down his
birthday date as 22 December 1849, while in the documents of Cernăuți Gymnasium, where
Eminescu studied, his birth date is 14 December 1849. Nevertheless, Titu Maiorescu, in his
work Eminescu and His Poems (1889) quoted N. D. Giurescu's research and adopted his conclusion
regarding the date and place of Mihai Eminescu's birth, as being 15 January 1850, in Botoșani. This
date resulted from several sources, among which there was a file of notes on christenings from the
archives of the Uspenia (Domnească) Church of Botoșani; inside this file, the date of birth was "15
January 1850" and the date of christening was the 21st of the same month. The date of his birth was
confirmed by the poet's elder sister, Aglae Drogli, who affirmed that the place of birth was the village
of Ipotești.[4]

Contents

 1Life
o 1.1Early years
o 1.21870s
o 1.3Later life and death
 2Works
o 2.1Poetry
o 2.2Presence in English language anthologies
 3Romanian culture
o 3.1National poet
o 3.2Iconography
o 3.3International legacy
 4Political views
 5References
o 5.1Footnotes
o 5.2Bibliography
 6External links

Life[edit]
Early years[edit]

Lui Mihai Eminescu, 1932 Oscar Han sculpture, Constanța

Mihail (as he appears in baptismal records) or Mihai (the more common form of the name that he
used) was born in Botoșani, Moldavia. [The last line of the preceding paragraph gives Ipotești.] He
spent his early childhood in Botoșani and Ipotești, in his parents' family home. From 1858 to 1866 he
attended school in Cernăuți. He finished 4th grade as the 5th of 82 students, after which he attended
two years of gymnasium.
The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is in 1866. In January of that year Romanian teacher Aron
Pumnul died and his students in Cernăuţi published a pamphlet, Lăcrămioarele învățăceilor
gimnaziaști (The Tears of the Gymnasium Students) in which a poem entitled La mormântul lui Aron
Pumnul (At the Grave of Aron Pumnul) appears, signed "M. Eminovici". On 25 February his
poem De-aș avea (If I Had) was published in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine Familia in Pest. This
began a steady series of published poems (and the occasional translation from German). Also, it was
Iosif Vulcan, who disliked the Slavic source suffix "-ici" of the young poet's last name, that chose for
him the more apparent Romanian "nom de plume" Mihai Eminescu.
In 1867, he joined Iorgu Caragiale's troupe as a clerk and prompter; the next year he transferred
to Mihai Pascaly's troupe. Both of these were among the leading Romanian theatrical troupes of their
day, the latter including Matei Millo and Fanny Tardini-Vlădicescu [ro]. He soon settled in Bucharest,
where at the end of November he became a clerk and copyist for the National Theater. Throughout
this period, he continued to write and publish poems. He also paid his rent by translating hundreds of
pages of a book by Heinrich Theodor Rotscher, although this never resulted in a completed work.
Also at this time he began his novel Geniu pustiu (Wasted Genius), published posthumously in 1904
in an unfinished form.
On April 1, 1869, he was one of the co-founders of the "Orient" literary circle, whose interests
included the gathering of Romanian folklore and documents relating to Romanian literary history. On
29 June, various members of the "Orient" group were commissioned to go to different provinces.
Eminescu was assigned Moldavia. That summer, he quite by chance ran into his brother Iorgu, a
military officer, in Cișmigiu Gardens, but firmly rebuffed Iorgu's attempt to get him to renew his ties to
his family.
Still in the summer of 1869, he left Pascaly's troupe and traveled to Cernăuţi and Iaşi. He renewed
ties to his family; his father promised him a regular allowance to pursue studies in Vienna in the fall.
As always, he continued to write and publish poetry; notably, on the occasion of the death of the
former ruler of Wallachia, Barbu Dimitrie Știrbei, he published a leaflet, La moartea principelui
Știrbei ("On the Death of Prince Știrbei").

1870s[edit]

The University's Central Library"Mihai Eminescu", Iași

From October 1869 to 1872 Eminescu studied in Vienna. Not fulfilling the requirements to become a
university student (as he did not have a baccalaureate degree), he attended lectures as a so-called
"extraordinary auditor" at the Faculty of Philosophy and Law. He was active in student life,
befriended Ioan Slavici, and came to know Vienna through Veronica Micle; he became a contributor
to Convorbiri Literare(Literary Conversations), edited by Junimea (The Youth). The leaders of this
cultural organisation, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti, Iacob Negruzzi and Titu
Maiorescu, exercised their political and cultural influence over Eminescu for the rest of his life.
Impressed by one of Eminescu's poems, Venere şi Madonă (Venus and Madonna), Iacob Negruzzi,
the editor of Convorbiri Literare, traveled to Vienna to meet him. Negruzzi would later write how he
could pick Eminescu out of a crowd of young people in a Viennese café by his "romantic"
appearance: long hair and gaze lost in thoughts.
In 1870 Eminescu wrote three articles under the pseudonym "Varro" in Federaţiunea in Pest, on the
situation of Romanians and other minorities in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He then became a
journalist for the newspaper Albina (The Bee) in Pest. From 1872 to 1874 he continued as a student
in Berlin, thanks to a stipend offered by Junimea.
From 1874 to 1877, he worked as director of the Central Library in Iași, substitute teacher, school
inspector for the counties of Iași and Vaslui, and editor of the newspaper Curierul de Iași (The
Courier of Iaşi), all thanks to his friendship with Titu Maiorescu, the leader of Junimea and rector of
the University of Iași. He continued to publish in Convorbiri Literare. He became a good friend of Ion
Creangă, a writer, whom he convinced to become a writer and introduced to the Junimea literary
club.
In 1877 he moved to Bucharest, where until 1883 he was first journalist, then (1880) editor-in-chief of
the newspaper Timpul (The Time). During this time he wrote Scrisorile, Luceafărul, Odă în metru
antic etc. Most of his notable editorial pieces belong to this period, when Romania was fighting the
Ottoman Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878and throughout the diplomatic race that
eventually brought about the international recognition of Romanian independence, but under the
condition of bestowing Romanian citizenship to all subjects of Jewish faith. Eminescu opposed this
and another clause of the Treaty of Berlin: Romania's having to give southern Bessarabia to Russia
in exchange for Northern Dobrudja, a former Ottoman province on the Black Sea.