Mihai Eminescu

Mihai Eminescu

15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889

 was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet.

Eminescu, the icon of the Romanian culture and the last romantic poet of Europe, is today celebrated in all corners of the world.

I am very fond of Eminescu’s work and it is hard to say which pieces would be my favourite. Apart from many, many others, the “Gloss” touches me differently every time I read it, perhaps because it goes and goes in circle with a mirror effect and symmetric style:

“Days go past and days come still
All is old and all is new,
What is well and what is ill,
You imagine and construe;
Do not hope and do not fear,
Waves that leap like waves must fall;
Should they praise or should they jeer,
Look but coldly on it all”.

…………………………………………

“Look but coldly on it all,
Should they praise or should they jeer;
Waves that leap like waves must fall,
Do not hope and do not fear.
You imagine and construe
What is well and what is ill;
All is old and all is new,
Days go past and days come still”.

(English version by Corneliu M. Popescu)