Mihai Eminescu 

(Romanian pronunciation: [miˈhaj emiˈnesku] ( listen); born Mihail Eminovici; 15

January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and
journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. 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, Austria 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, an aristocrat from Bukovina, 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 noble 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 15 January 1850.
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 (Princely) 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, Botoșani County.[4]

Contents

 1Life
o 1.1Early years
o 1.21870s
o 1.3Later life and death
 2Works
o 2.1Poetry
o 2.2Prose
o 2.3Presence 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
Early years
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. 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
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 also was 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 1877–1878 and 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.

Later life and death

Last photo of Eminescu taken by Jean Bieling in 1887–1888

The 1880s were a time of crisis and deterioration in the poet's life, culminating with his death in
1889. The details of this are still debated.
From 1883 – when Eminescu's personal crisis and his more problematic health issues became
evident – until 1886, the poet was treated in Austria and Italy, by specialists that managed to get him
on his feet, as testified by his good friend, writer Ioan Slavici.[5] In 1886, Eminescu suffered a nervous
breakdown and was treated by Romanian doctors, in particular Julian Bogdan and Panait Zosin.
Immediately diagnosed with syphilis, after being hospitalized in a nervous diseases hospice within
the Neamț Monastery,[6] the poet was treated with mercury. Firstly, massages in Botoșani, applied by
Dr. Itszak, and then in Bucharest at Dr. Alexandru A. Suțu's sanatorium, where between February–
June 1889 he was injected with mercuric chloride.[7] Professor Doctor Irinel Popescu, corresponding
member of the Romanian Academy and president of the Academy of Medical Sciences of Romania,
states that Eminescu died because of mercury poisoning. He also says that the poet was "treated"
by a group of incompetent doctors and held in misery, which also shortened his life.[8] Mercury was
prohibited as treatment of syphilis in Western Europe in the 19th century, because of its adverse
effects.
Mihai Eminescu died at 4 am, on 15 June 1889 at the Caritas Institute, a sanatorium run by Dr. Suțu
and located on Plantelor Street Sector 2, Bucharest.[7] Eminescu's last wish was a glass of milk,
which the attending doctor slipped through the metallic peephole of the "cell" where he spent the last
hours of his life. In response to this favor he was said to have whispered, "I'm crumbled". The next
day, on 16 June 1889 he was officially declared deceased and legal papers to that effect were
prepared by doctors Suțu and Petrescu, who submitted the official report. This paperwork is seen as
ambiguous, because the poet's cause of death is not clearly stated and there was no indication of
any other underlying condition that may have so suddenly resulted in his death.[9] In fact both the
poet's medical file and autopsy report indicate symptoms of a mental and not physical disorder.
Moreover, at the autopsy performed by Dr. Tomescu and then by Dr. Marinescu from the laboratory
at Babeș-Bolyai University, the brain could not be studied, because a nurse inadvertently forgot it on
an open window, where it quickly decomposed.[9]
One of the first hypotheses that disagreed with the post mort