Alexandru Macedonski
Encyclopedia
Alexandru Macedonski was a Wallachia
n-born Romania
n poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French
Symbolism
in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement
during its early decades. A forerunner of local modernist literature
, he is the first local author to have used free verse
, and claimed by some to have been the first in modern European literature
. Within the framework of Romanian literature
, Macedonski is seen by critics as second only to national poet Mihai Eminescu
; as leader of a cosmopolitan
and aestheticist
trend formed around his Literatorul journal, he was diametrically opposed to the inward-looking traditionalism of Eminescu and his school.
Debuting as a Neoromantic
in the Wallachian tradition, Macedonski went through the Realist
-Naturalist
stage deemed "social poetry", while progressively adapting his style to Symbolism and Parnassianism, and repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempting to impose himself in the Francophone
world. Despite having theorized "instrumentalism", which reacted against the traditional guidelines of poetry, he maintained a lifelong connection with Neoclassicism
and its ideal of purity. Macedonski's quest for excellence found its foremost expression in his recurring motif of life as a pilgrimage to Mecca
, notably used in his critically acclaimed Nights cycle. The stylistic stages of his career are reflected in the collections Prima verba, Poezii
, and Excelsior
, as well as in the fantasy novel
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu. In old age, he became the author of rondels
, noted for their detached and serene vision of life, in contrast with his earlier combativeness.
In parallel to his literary career, Macedonski was a civil servant, notably serving as prefect
in the Budjak
and Northern Dobruja
during the late 1870s. As journalist and militant, his allegiance fluctuated between the liberal current
and conservatism
, becoming involved in polemics and controversies of the day. Of the long series of publications he founded, Literatorul was the most influential, notably hosting his early conflicts with the Junimea
literary society. These targeted Vasile Alecsandri
and especially Eminescu, their context and tone becoming the cause of a major rift between Macedonski and his public. This situation repeated itself in later years, when Macedonski and his Forţa Morală magazine began campaigning against the Junimist dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
, whom they falsely accused of plagiarism
. During World War I
, the poet aggravated his critics by supporting the Central Powers
against Romania's alliance with the Entente side
. His biography was also marked by an enduring interest in esotericism
, numerous attempts to become recognized as an inventor, and an enthusiasm for cycling
.
The scion of a political and aristocratic family, the poet was the son of General Alexandru Macedonski, who served as Defense Minister, and the grandson of 1821 rebel
Dimitrie Macedonski
. Both his son Alexis and grandson Soare were known painters.
(Serb
or Bulgarian
) or Aromanian
origin, they claimed to have descended from Serb insurgents in Ottoman
-ruled Macedonia
. Alexandru's grandfather Dimitrie and Dimitrie's brother Pavel participated in the 1821 uprising against the Phanariote
administration, and in alliance with the Filiki Eteria
; Dimitrie made the object of controversy when, during the final stage of the revolt, he sided with the Eteria in its confrontation with Wallachian leader Tudor Vladimirescu
, taking an active part in the latter's killing. Both Macedonski brothers had careers in the Wallachian military forces, at a time when the country was governed by Imperial Russian
envoys, when the Regulamentul Organic
regime recognized the family as belonging to Wallachia's nobility. Dimitrie married Zoe, the daughter an ethnic Russian
or Polish
officer; their son, the Russian-educated Alexandru, climbed in the military and political hierarchy, joining the unified Land Forces
after his political ally, Alexander John Cuza
, was elected Domnitor
and the two Danubian Principalities
became united Romania
. Both the officer's uncle Pavel and brother Mihail were amateur poets.
Macedonski's mother, Maria Fisenţa (also Vicenţ or Vicenţa), was from an aristocratic environment, being the scion of Oltenia
n boyar
s. Through her father, she may have descended from Russian immigrants who had been absorbed into Oltenia's nobility. Maria had been adopted by the boyar Dumitrache Pârâianu, and the couple had inherited the Adâncata and Pometeşti estates in Goieşti, on the Amaradia Valley
.
Both the poet and his father were dissatisfied with accounts of their lineage, contradicting them with an account that researchers have come to consider spurious. Although adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church
, the Macedonskis traced their origin to Rogala
-bearing Lithuanian nobility from the defunct Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While the writer perpetuated his father's claim, it is possible that he also took pride in investigating his Balkan
roots: according to literary historian Tudor Vianu
, who, as a youth, was a member of his circle, this tendency is attested by two of Macedonski's poems from the 1880s, where the South Slavs appear as icons of freedom. Vianu's contemporary, literary historian George Călinescu
, postulated that, although the family had been absorbed into the ethnic and cultural majority, the poet's origin served to enrich local culture
by linking it to a "Thracian
" tradition and the spirit of "adventurers".
The family moved often, following General Macedonski's postings. Born in Bucharest
, Macedonski-son was the third of four siblings, the oldest of whom was a daughter, Caterina. Before the age of six, he was a sickly and nervous child, who is reported to have had regular tantrum
s. In 1862, his father sent him to school in Oltenia, and he spent most time in the Amaradia region. The nostalgia he felt for the landscape later made him consider writing an Amărăzene ("Amaradians") cycle, of which only one poem was ever completed. He was attending the Carol I High School in Craiova
and, according to his official record, graduated in 1867.
Macedonski's father had by then become known as an authoritarian commander, and, during his time in Târgu Ocna
, faced a mutiny
which only his wife could stop by pleading with the soldiers (an episode which made an impression on the future poet). A stern parent, he took an active part in educating his children. Having briefly served as Defense Minister, the general was mysteriously dismissed by Cuza in 1863, and his pension became the topic of a political scandal. It ended only under the rule of Carol I
, Cuza's Hohenzollern successor, when Parliament
voted against increasing the sum to the level demanded by its recipient. Having preserved a negative impression of the 1866 plebiscite, during which Cuza's dethronement had been confirmed, Macedonski remained a committed opponent of the new ruler. As a youth and adult, he sought to revive his father's cause, and included allusions to the perceived injustice in at least one poem. After spending the last months of his life protesting against the authorities, Macedonski-father fell ill and died in September 1869, leaving his family to speculate that he had been murdered by political rivals.
and spending time in Vienna
, before visiting Switzerland
and possibly other countries; according to one account, it was here that he may have first met (and disliked) his rival poet Mihai Eminescu
, at a time a Viennese student. Macedonski's visit was meant to be preparation for entering the University of Bucharest
, but he spent much of his time in the bohemian environment
, seeking entertainment and engaging in romantic escapades. He was however opposed to the lifestyle choices of people his age, claiming that they were engaged in "orgy after orgy". At around that date, the young author had begun to perfect a style heavily influenced by Romanticism
, and in particular by his Wallachian predecessors Dimitrie Bolintineanu
and Ion Heliade Rădulescu
. He was for a while in Styria, at Bad Gleichenberg
, a stay which, George Călinescu believes, may have been the result of a medical recommendation to help him counter excessive nervousness. The landscape there inspired him to write an ode
. Also in 1870, he published his first lyrics in George Bariţ
's Transylvania
n-based journal Telegraful Român.
The following year, he left for Italy
, where he visited Pisa
, Florence
, Venice
, and possibly other cities. His records of the journey indicate that he was faced with financial difficulties and plagued by disease. Macedonski also claimed to have attended college lectures in these cities, and to have spent significant time studying at Pisa University
, but this remains uncertain. He eventually returned to Bucharest, where he entered the Faculty of Letters (which he never attended regularly). According to Călinescu, Macedonski "did not feel the need" to attend classes, because "such a young man will expect society to render upon him its homages." He was again in Italy during spring 1872, soon after publishing his debut volume Prima verba (Latin
for "First Word"). Having also written an anti-Carol piece, published in Telegraful Român during 1873, Macedonski reportedly feared political reprisals, and decided to make another visit to Styria and Italy while his case was being assessed. It was in Italy that he met French musicologist
Jules Combarieu, with whom he corresponded sporadically over the following decades.
During that period, Macedonski became interested in the political scene and political journalism, first as a sympathizer of the liberal-radical current
—which, in 1875, organized itself around the National Liberal Party
. In 1874, back in Craiova, Macedonski founded a short-lived literary society known as Junimea, a title which purposefully or unwittingly copied that of the influential conservative association
with whom he would later quarrel. It was then that he met journalist and pedagogue Ştefan Velescu, a meeting witnessed by Velescu's pupil, the future liberal journalist Constantin Bacalbaşa, who recorded it in his memoir
s. Oltul magazine, which he had helped establish and which displayed a liberal agenda, continued to be published until July 1875, and featured Macedonski's translations from Pierre-Jean de Béranger
, Hector de Charlieu and Alphonse de Lamartine
, as well as his debut in travel writing
and short story. At age 22, he worked on his first play, a comedy
titled Gemenii ("The Twins"). In 1874 that he came to the attention of young journalist future dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
, who satirized
him in articles for the magazine Ghimpele, ridiculing his claim to Lithuanian descent, and eventually turning him into the character Aamsky, whose fictional career ends with his death from exhaustion caused by contributing to "for the country's political development". This was the first episode in a consuming polemic between the two figures. Reflecting back on this period in 1892, Macedonski described Caragiale as a "noisy young man" of "sophistic reasoning", whose target audience was to be found in "beer garden
s".
. For almost a year before, he and Oltul had taken an active part in the campaign against Conservative Party and its leader, Premier
Lascăr Catargiu
. In this context, he had demanded that the common man "rise up with weapons in their hands and break both the government agents and the government", following up with similar messages aimed at the Domnitor. He was taken to Bucharest's Văcăreşti prison and confined there for almost three months. Supported by the liberal press and defended by the most prestigious pro-liberal attorneys (Nicolae Fleva
among them), Macedonski faced a jury trial on June 7, being eventually cleared of the charges. Reportedly, the Bucharest populace organized a spontaneous celebration of the verdict.
In 1875, after the National Liberal Ion Emanuel Florescu
was assigned the post of Premier by Carol, Macedonski embarked on an administrative career. The poet was upset by not being included on the National Liberal list for the 1875 suffrage. This disenchantment led him into a brief conflict with the young liberal figure Bonifaciu Florescu, only to join him soon afterward in editing Stindardul journal, alongside Pantazi Ghica
and George Fălcoianu. The publication followed the line of Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, made notorious for his radical
and republican
agenda. Ghica and Macedonski remained close friends until Ghica's 1882 death.
The new cabinet eventually appointed him Prefect
of the Bolgrad
region in the Budjak
(at the time part of Romania). In parallel, he published his first translation, a version of Parisina
, an 1816 epic poem by Lord Byron
, and completed the original works Ithalo and Calul arabului ("The Arab's Horse"). He also spoke at the Romanian Atheneum, presenting his views on the state of Romanian literature
(1878). His time in office ended upon the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War. At the time, Russian volunteers were amassed on the Budjak border, requesting from the Romanian authorities the right of free passage into the Principality of Serbia. The National Liberal Premier Ion Brătianu
, who was negotiating an anti-Ottoman
alliance, sent Macedonski signals to let them pass, but the prefect, obeying the official recommendation of Internal Affairs Minister George D. Vernescu
, decided against it, and was consequently stripped of his office.
Still determined to pursue a career in the press, Macedonski founded a string of unsuccessful magazines with patriotic
content and titles such as Vestea ("The Announcement"), Dunărea ("The Danube
"), Fulgerul ("The Lightning") and, after 1880, Tarara (an onomatopoeia equivalent to "Toodoodoo"). Their history is connected with that of the Russo-Turkish War, at the end of which Romanian participation on the Russian side resulted in her independence. Macedonski remained committed to the anti-Ottoman cause, and, some thirty years later, stated: "We want no Turkey in Europe
!"
By 1879, the poet, who continued to voice criticism of Carol, had several times switched sides between the National Liberals and the opposition Conservatives. That year, while the Budjak was ceded to Russia and Northern Dobruja
was integrated into Romania, the Brătianu cabinet appointed him administrator of the Sulina
plasă
and the Danube Delta
. He had previously refused to be made comptroller
in Putna County
, believing such an appointment to be beneath his capacity, and had lost a National Liberal appointment in Silistra
when Southern Dobruja
was granted to the Principality of Bulgaria
. During this short interval in office, he traveled to the Snake Island
in the Black Sea
—his appreciation for the place later motivated him to write the fantasy novel
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu and the poem Lewki.
, theorized earlier by Paul Verlaine
. In this context, he had set his sight on promoting "social poetry", the merger between lyricism and political militantism. Meanwhile, according to Călinescu, his attacks on the liberals and the "daft insults he aimed at [Romania's] throne" had effectively ruined his own chance of political advancement.
In January 1880, he launched his most influential and long-lived publication, Literatorul, which was also the focal point of his eclectic
cultural circle, and, in later years, of the local Symbolist school
. In its first version, the magazine was co-edited by Macedonski, Bonifaciu Florescu and poet Th. M. Stoenescu. Florescu parted with the group soon after, due to a disagreement with Macedonski, and was later attacked by the latter for allegedly accumulating academic posts. Literatorul aimed to irritate Junimist sensibilities from its first issue, when it stated its dislike for "political prejudice in literature." This was most likely an allusion to the views of Junimist figure Titu Maiorescu
, being later accompanied by explicit attacks on him and his followers. An early success for the new journal was the warm reception it received from Vasile Alecsandri
, a Romantic poet and occasional Junimist whom Macedonski idolized at the time, and the collaboration of popular memoirist Gheorghe Sion. Another such figure was the intellectual V. A. Urechia
, whom Macedonski made president of the Literatorul Society. In 1881, Education Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the Bene-Merenti medal 1st class, although, Călinescu stresses, the poet had only totaled 18 months of public service. At around that time, Macedonski had allegedly begun courting actress Aristizza Romanescu, who rejected his advances, leaving him unenthusiastic about love matters and unwilling to seek female company.
In parallel, Macedonski used the magazine to publicize his disagreement with the main Junimist voice, Convorbiri Literare. Among the group of contributors, several had already been victims of Maiorescu's irony: Sion, Urechia, Pantazi Ghica and Petru Grădişteanu. While welcoming the debut of its contributor, Parnassian-Neoclassicist
novelist and poet Duiliu Zamfirescu
, Macedonski repeatedly attacked its main exponent, the conservative poet Eminescu, claiming not to understand his poetry. However, Literatorul was also open to contributions from some Convorbiri Literare affiliates (Zamfirescu, Matilda Cugler-Poni and Veronica Micle
).
In November 1880, Macedonski's plays Iadeş! ("Wishbone!", a comedy first printed in 1882) and Unchiaşul Sărăcie ("Old Man Poverty") premiered at the National Theater Bucharest. A sign of government approval, this was followed by Macedonski's appointment to a minor administrative office, as Historical Monuments Inspector. Nevertheless, both plays failed to impose themselves on public perception, and were withdrawn from the program by 1888. Călinescu asserts that, although Macedonski later claimed to have always been facing poverty, his job in the administration, coupled with other sources of revenue, ensured him a comfortable existence.
In 1881, Macedonski published a new collection of poetry. Titled Poezii
, it carries the year "1882" on its original cover. Again moving away from liberalism, Macedonski sought to make himself accepted by Junimea and Maiorescu. He consequently attended the Junimea sessions, and gave a public reading of Noaptea de noiembrie ("November Night"), the first publicized piece in his lifelong Nights cycle. It reportedly earned him the praise of historian and poet Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
, who, although an anti-Junimist, happened to be in the audience. Despite rumors according to which he had applauded Macedonski, Maiorescu himself was not impressed, and left an unenthusiastic account of the event in his private diary.
prizes despite being its member, and later involved Sion (whose replies on behalf of the Academy were derided by Macedonski). Macedonski also took distance from Alecsandri's style, publishing a "critical analysis" of his poetry in one issue of Literatorul. In turn, Alecsandri humiliated his young rival by portraying him as Zoilus
, the prototype of slanderers, and himself as the model poet Horace
in the 1883 play Fântâna Blanduziei. The two were eventually reconciled, and Macedonski again spoke of Alecsandri as his ideological and stylistic predecessor.
In April 1882, Eminescu had also replied to Macedonski in Timpul
journal, referring to an unnamed poet who "barely finishes high-school, comes over to Bucharest selling nick-nacks and makeup [and goes into] literary dealership". Reproaching Macedonski's attacks on Alecsandri, Eminescu makes a nationalist
comment about the young poet bearing "the bastard instincts of those foreigners who were Romanianized
only yesterday", and attributes him "the physiognomy of a hairdresser". Through the articles of Petru Th. Missir, Convorbiri Literare gave Poezii a negative review, deemed "malevolent" by literary historian Mircea Anghelescu. At the other end of the political and cultural spectrum, Macedonski faced opposition from the intellectuals attracted to socialism
, in particular Contemporanul
editors Constantin Mille
and Ioan Nădejde, with whom he was engaged in an extended polemic.
In the meantime, Macedonski published his own play, which had Cuza for its main character and was eponymously titled Cuza-Vodă, and completed translations for Literatorul—from Maurice Rollinat
, whom he helped impose as a main cultural reference in Romanian Symbolism, and from the Greek
poet Akhillefs Paraskhos. In 1883, he also contributed his first sketch story
, Casa cu nr. 10 ("The House at Number 10"). In early 1883, he married Ana Rallet-Slătineanu. Wealthy and supposedly related to Romanian aristocrats, she would bear him five children in all: the painter Alexis was the eldest, followed by Nikita; the three youngest were two sons (Panel and Constantin Macedonski) and a daughter, Anna (also known as Nina). His heterosexual lifestyle notwithstanding, Macedonski remained a self-avowed admirer of male beauties, and was rumored to be a closeted homosexual.
In July 1883, Macedonski undertook one of his most controversial anti-Junimist actions. That month, Literatorul published an epigram
signed with the pseudonym Duna, deriding an unnamed author who had lost his mind. Mihai Eminescu—whom many had already come to see as Romania's national poet—had by then developed a mental disorder which had become known to the general public. Ever since that moment, Macedonski has generally been believed to be Duna, and as a result, was faced with much criticism from both readers and commentators. The intense anti-Literatorul press campaign was initiated in August, when writer Grigore Ventura issued an article condemning Macedonski's attitude (published in the Bucharest-based newspaper L'Indépendance Roumaine), with Macedonski responding in the National Liberal organ Românul. During one evening, Macedonski is reported to have been assaulted by anonymous supporters of Eminescu. His previous conflict with Nădejde was also affected by this renewed controversy: while opposed to Junimist policies, the socialists at Contemporanul voiced their admiration for Eminescu's art.
Late in 1883, Macedonski and his friends unveiled Ion Georgescu's statue of their mentor Bolintineanu in the National Theater lobby. The circumstances in which this took place rose suspicion of foul play; on this grounds, Macedonski was ridiculed by his former friend Zamfirescu in the journal România Liberă
, which left him embittered. Călinescu proposes that, although such negative reactions were invoked by Macedonski's supporters as a sign of their mentor having been marginalized, Macedonski had expressed his dissatisfaction with the cultural environment long before that moment, and was still a respected figure even after the incidents took place.
claimed: "He did not shy away from sending emphatic notes to the potentates of his day [...], flattering some, threatening others. He would marry off or simply mate some of his disciples with aging and rich women, and then he would squeeze out their assets."
Macedonski eventually left Romania in 1884, visiting Paris
. On his way there, he passed through Craiova, where he met aspiring author Traian Demetrescu
, whose works he had already hosted in Literatorul and who was to become his friend and protégé. Demetrescu later recalled being gripped by "tremors of emotion" upon first catching sight of Macedonski. In France, Macedonski set up contacts within the French literary environment, and began contributing to French or Francophone
literary publications—including the Belgian
Symbolist platforms La Wallonie and L'Élan littéraire. His collaboration with La Wallonie alongside Albert Mockel
, Tudor Vianu believes, makes Alexandru Macedonski one in the original wave of European Symbolists. This adaptation to Symbolism also drew on his marked Francophilia
, which in turn complemented his tendencies toward cosmopolitanism
. He became opposed to Carol I, who, in 1881, had been granted the Crown
of the Romanian Kingdom
. In addition to his admiration for Cuza and the 1848 Wallachian revolutionaries
, the poet objected to the King's sympathy for France's main rival, the German Empire
. In January 1885, after having returned from the voyage, he announced his retirement from public life, claiming that German influence and its exponents at Junimea had "conquered" Romanian culture
, and repeating his claim that Eminescu lacked value.
In the meantime, Literatorul went out of print, although new series were still published at irregular intervals until 1904 (when it ceased being published altogether). The magazine was reportedly hated by the public, causing Macedonski, Stoenescu, Florescu, Urechia and educator Anghel Demetriescu
to try and revive it as Revista Literară ("The Literary Review", published for a few months in 1885). The poet attempted to establish other magazines, all of them short-lived, and, in 1887, handed for print his Naturalist
novella
Dramă banală ("Banal Drama") while completing one of the most revered episodes in the Nights series, Noaptea de mai ("May Night"). Also in 1886, he worked on his other Naturalist novellas: Zi de august ("August Day"), Pe drum de poştă ("On the Stagecoach Trail"), Din carnetul unui dezertor ("From the Notebook of a Deserter"), Între coteţe ("Amidst Hen Houses") and the eponymous Nicu Dereanu.
By 1888, he was again sympathetic toward Blaremberg, whose dissident National Liberal faction had formed an alliance with the Conservatives, editing Stindardul Ţărei (later Straja Ţărei) as his supporting journal. However, late in the same year, he returned to the liberal mainstream, being assigned a weekly column in Românul newspaper. Two years later, he attempted to relaunch Literatorul under the leadership of liberal figure Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
, but the latter eventually settled for founding his own Revista Nouă. Around 1891, he saluted Junimeas own break with the Conservatives and its entry into politics at the Conservative-Constitutional Party, before offering an enthusiastic welcome to the 1892 Junimist agitation among university students. In 1894, he would speak in front of student crowds gathered at a political rally in University Square
, and soon after made himself known for supporting the cause of ethnic Romanians
and other underrepresented groups of Austria-Hungary
.
His literary thesis of the time was titled Poezia viitorului ("The Poetry of the Future"). It upheld Symbolist authors as the models to follow, while Macedonski personally began producing what he referred to as "instrumentalist" poems, composed around musical and onomatopoeic elements, and showing a preference for internal rhyme
s. Such an experimental
approach was soon after parodied
and ridiculed by Ion Luca Caragiale, who had by then affiliated and parted with Junimea, in his new Moftul Român magazine. The poet sought to reconcile with his rival, publicizing a claim that Caragiale was being unjustly ignored by the cultural establishment, but this attempt failed to mend relations between them, and the conflict escalated further.
While, in 1893, Literatorul hosted fragments of Thalassa in its Romanian-language version, the author also launched a daily, Lumina ("The Light"). It was also at that stage that Alexandru Macedonski associated with Cincinat Pavelescu, the noted epigrammarian, who joined him in editing Literatorul, and with whom he co-authored the 1893 verse tragedy
depicting the Biblical
hero Saul
, and named after him. Although showcased by the National Theater with star actor Constantin Nottara in the title role, it failed to register success with the public. Two years later, the two Literatorul editors made headlines as pioneers of cycling
. An enthusiastic promoter of the sport, Macedonski joined fellow poet Constantin Cantilli on a marathon, pedaling from Bucharest across the border into Austria-Hungary, all the way down to Braşov
.
(consecutive editions in 1895 and 1896), and founded Liga Ortodoxă ("The Orthodox League"), a magazine noted for hosting the debut of Tudor Arghezi
, later one of the most celebrated figures in Romanian literature. Macedonski commended his new protégé for reaching "the summit of poetry and art" at "an age when I was still prattling verses". Liga Ortodoxă also hosted articles against Caragiale, which Macedonski signed with the pseudonym Sallustiu ("Sallustius
"). The magazine was additional proof of Macedonski's return to conservatism, and largely dedicated to defending the cause of Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan
Ghenadie
, deposed by the Romanian Synod following a political scandal. It defended Ghenadie up until he chose to resign, and subsequently went out of print. Macedonski was shocked to note that Ghenadie had given up his own defense.
In 1895, his Casa cu nr. 10 was translated into French by the Journal des Débats
, whose editors reportedly found it picturesque
. Two years later, Macedonski himself published French-language translations of his earlier poetry under the title Bronzes, a volume prefaced by his disciple, the critic and promoter Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
. Although it was positively reviewed by Mercure de France
magazine, Bronzes was largely unnoticed by the French audience, a fact which Tudor Vianu attributes to Bogdan-Piteşti's lack of qualification for the cultural mission Macedonski had trusted him with. By that time, his circle had come to be frequented with regularity by Bogdan-Piteşti's friend and collaborator, the celebrated painter Ştefan Luchian
, who was in the Symbolist and Art Nouveau
stage of his career.
By 1898, Macedonski was again facing financial difficulties, and his collaborators resorted to organizing a fundraiser
in his honor. His rejection of the Orthodox establishment was documented by his political tract, published that year as . Between that time and 1900, he focused on researching esoteric
, occult
and pseudoscientific
subjects. Traian Demetrescu
, who recorded his visits with Macedonski, recalled his former mentor being opposed to his positivist
take on science, claiming to explain the workings of the Universe in "a different way", through "imagination", but also taking an interest in Camille Flammarion
's astronomy
studies. Macedonski was determined to interpret death through parapsychological
means, and, in 1900, conferenced at the Atheneum on the subject Sufletul şi viaţa viitoare ("The Soul and the Coming Life"). The focal point of his vision was that man could voluntarily stave off death with words and gestures, a concept he elaborated upon in his later articles. In one such piece, Macedonski argued: "man has the power [...] to compact the energy currents known as thoughts to the point where he changes them, according to his own will, into objects or soul-bearing creatures." He also attempted to build a machine for extinguishing chimney fire
s. Later, Nikita Macedonski registered the invention of nacre
-treated paper, which is sometimes attributed to his father.
and novellas. In parallel, Macedonski returned to the public scene, founding Forţa Morală magazine. It was through this venue that he began responding to Ion Luca Caragiale's earlier attacks. This he did by hosting the articles of aspiring journalist Constantin Al. Ionescu-Caion, who accused Caragiale of having plagiarized
a Hungarian
author by the name of Kemény in his tragedy play Năpasta. Kemény turned out to be non-existent. According to Vianu, Macedonski had no prior knowledge of the fraud, but had also been "blinded" by his resentments instead of displaying "discernment", and had even showed evidence of "insanity". Most in Macedonski's own series of anti-Caragiale articles were unsigned, or signed with pseudonyms such as Luciliu ("Gaius Lucilius
").
Like in the case of Eminescu's conflict with Macedonski, the polemic enlisted a negative response from the public. The poet's associate Th. M. Stoenescu convinced himself that Caragiale was being framed, and refused to allow Revista Literară to be used for endorsing Caion, which caused Macedonski to shun him. Macedonski refused to withdraw his support for the cause even after Caragiale sued Caion, but Forţa Morală soon went out of print. Before it did so, the journal hosted some of Macedonski's most renowned poems, including Lewki and Noaptea de decemvrie ("December Night"), together with his article on Remy de Gourmont
's thoughts on poetics
.
In his article of 1903, titled ("Toward Occultism. Later Orientations toward Theosophy
and Social Philosophy
"), the poet envisaged making his interest in esoteric subjects the basis of a new literary movement. Also that year, poet George Bacovia
began attending the literary circle, and gave a reading of his celebrated Plumb poem, being welcomed by Macedonski with a flattering epigram. Macedonski's series of short-lived periodicals resumed in 1905, when he founded Le Beau Danube Bleu (French for "The Beautiful Blue Danube") and Liga Conservatoare ("The Conservative League"). He registered more success in 1906, when his Thalassa was published, as Le Calvaire de feu, by Edward Sansot's Paris-based publishing house. This followed intense self-promotion within the French literary environment, as well as advertisements in the French press. Part of this involved Macedonski sending his book to be reviewed by Émile Faguet
, Jean Mounet-Sully
, Joséphin Péladan
, Pierre Quillard
and Jean Richepin
, who replied with what Vianu deems "the politeness of circumstance." The volume was nonetheless favorably reviewed by the prestigious magazines Mercure de France and Gil Blas
.
Also in 1906, La Revue Musicale published his interview with Combarieu, through which the latter aimed to verify supposed connections between literary inspiration and musical sensitivity. By 1907, he was concentrating on experiments in physics, and eventually publicized his claim to have discovered that light does not travel through vacuum
. He sent a paper on astronomy subjects to be reviewed by the Société Astronomique de France
, of which he subsequently became a member. The same year, he drafted the plan for a world government
, announcing that he had found sympathy for the cause throughout Europe. Macedonski also introduced himself to an Italophone public, when two of his sonnet
s were published by Poesia, the magazine of Futurist
theorist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
.
Between 1910 and 1912, Macedonski was again in Paris. Seeking to withdraw himself from Romania's public life due to what he perceived as injustice, he had by then completed work on the French-language tragicomedy
Le Fou? ("The Madman?"), which was only published after his death. He was actively seeking to establish his reputation in French theater
, reading his new play to a circle which included Louis de Gonzague Frick and Florian-Parmentier, while, at home, newspapers reported rumors that his work was going to be staged by Sarah Bernhardt
's company. His efforts were largely fruitless, and, accompanied by his son Alexis, the poet left France, spent some time in Italy, and eventually returned to Romania. Passing through the German Empire
, he learned of Ion Luca Caragiale's sudden death, and wrote Adevărul
daily an open letter
, which showed that he had come to revise his stance, notably comparing the deceased author's style and legacy to those of Mark Twain
.
During Macedonski's absence, his style and work had come to be reviewed more positively, in particular by the young authors I. Dragoslav
, Horia Furtună, Ion Pillat
, Anastasie Mândru, Al. T. Stamatiad, as well as by post-Junimist critic Mihail Dragomirescu, who offered Macedonski a good reception in his Convorbiri Critice magazine. Tudor Vianu, who cites contemporary statements by Dragoslav, concludes that, upon arrival, Macedonski was enthusiastically received by a public who had missed him. Also in 1912, one of his poems was published as an homage by Simbolul
, a magazine published by the young and radical Symbolists Tristan Tzara
, Ion Vinea and Marcel Janco
. Around that time, Macedonski also collaborated with the Iaşi
-based moderate Symbolist magazine Versuri şi Proză. Polemics surrounding his case nevertheless continued: in late 1912, as part of a National Theater adaptation of Alphonse Daudet
's Sapho, actor Cazimir Belcot borrowed from Macedonski's appearance and mannerisms to portray a failure.
quarter, had come to resemble a mystical
circle, over which he held magisterial command. Vianu, who visited the poet together with Pillat, compares this atmosphere with those created by other "mystics and magi of poetry" (citing as examples Joséphin Péladan
, Louis-Nicolas Ménard
, Stéphane Mallarmé
and Stefan George
). The hall where seances were hosted was only lit by candles, and the tables were covered in red fabric. Macedonski himself was seated on a throne designed by Alexis, and adopted a dominant pose. The apparent secrecy and the initiation rites performed on new members were purportedly inspired by Rosicrucianism and the Freemasonry
. By then, Macedonski was rewarding his followers' poems with false gemstone
s.
The poet founded Revista Critică ("The Critical Review"), which again closed after a short while, and issued the poetry volume Flori sacre ("Sacred Flowers"). Grouping his Forţa Morală poems and older pieces, it was dedicated to his new generation of followers, whom Macedonski's preface referred to as "the new Romania." He continued to hope that Le Fou? was going to be staged in France, especially after he received some encouragement in the form of articles in Mercure de France and Journal des Débats, but was confronted with the general public's indifference. In 1914, Thalassa was published in a non-definitive version by Constantin Banu's magazine Flacăra
, which sought to revive overall interest in his work. At a French Red Cross conference in September, Macedonski paid his final public homage to France, which had just become entangled in World War I
. It was also in 1914 that Macedonski commissioned for print his very first rondels
and completed work on a tragedy play about Renaissance
poet Dante Aligheri—known as La Mort de Dante in its French original, and Moartea lui Dante in the secondary Romanian version (both meaning "Dante's Death"). The aging poet was by then building connections with the local art scene
: together with artist Alexandru Severin, he created (and probably presided over) Cenaclul idealist ("The Idealist
Club"), which included Symbolist artists and was placed under the honorary patronage of King Carol.
1916 was also the year when Romania abandoned her neutrality and, under a National Liberal government, rallied with the Entente Powers
. During the neutrality period, Macedonski had abandoned his lifelong Francophilia to join the Germanophile
s, who wanted to see Romanian participation on the Central Powers
' side. In 1915, he issued the journal Cuvântul Meu ("My Word"). Entirely written by him, it published ten consecutive issues before going bankrupt, and notably lashed out against France for being "bourgeois
" and "lawyer-filled", demanding from Romania not to get involved in the conflict. Commentators and researchers of his work have declared themselves puzzled by this change in allegiance.
Macedonski further alienated public opinion during the Romanian Campaign
, when the Central Powers armies entered southern Romania and occupied Bucharest. The poet, who received formal protection from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest
, chose to stay behind while the authorities and many ordinary citizens relocated to Iaşi
, where resistance was still being organized. His stance was interpreted as collaborationism
by his critics. However, Macedonski reportedly faced extreme poverty throughout the occupation. Having by then begun to attend the circle of Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
, his promoter and fellow Germanophile, he was once rewarded by the latter with a turkey filled with gold coins.
, who was about to lead his troops out of Romania, was presented in a positive light. In a manner deemed "excessive" by historian Lucian Boia
, the Romanian writer was paying homage not just to Mackensen, but also, indirectly, to German Emperor
Wilhelm II and the Reichsheer
. Soon after reading the piece, Romanian Academy
member and fellow Symbolist promoter Ovid Densusianu
withdrew his own nomination of Macedonski for an Academy seat. During summer, Macedonski also joined the group of public figures who saluted the senior Conservative Germanophile Petre P. Carp
(deeming Carp "the veteran of character, honesty and Romanianism"), and, in September, joined Ioan Slavici
and Gala Galaction
as a contributor to the occupation magazine Rumänien in Wort und Bild, where he prophesied an anti-French
"political renaissance" of Romania.
Alexandru Macedonski faced problems after the Romanian government resumed its control over Bucharest, and during the early years of Greater Romania
. What followed the Mackensen article, Vianu claims, was Macedonski's bellum contra omnes ("war against all"). However, the poet made efforts to accommodate himself with the triumphal return of the Iaşi authorities: in December 1918, Literatorul celebrated the extension of Romanian rule "from the Tisza
to the Dniester
" as a success of the National Liberals, paying homage to Francophile political leaders Ion I. C. Brătianu
and Take Ionescu
. Macedonski also envisaged running in the 1918 election for a seat in the new Parliament
(which was supposed to vote a document to replace the 1866 Constitution
as the organic law), but never registered his candidature. According to Vianu, he had intended to create a joke political party
, the "intellectual group", whose other member was an unnamed coffeehouse acquaintance of his. Literatorul was revived for a final time in 1919.
His health deteriorated from heart disease
, which is described by Vianu as an effect of constant smoking. By that stage, Vianu recalls, Macedonski also had problems coming to terms with his age. His last anthumous work was the pamphlet Zaherlina (named after the Romanian version of "Zacherlin"; also known as Zacherlina or Zacherlina în continuare, "Zacherlin Contd."), completed in 1919 and published the following year. It notably attacked Densusianu, who had become Macedonski's personal enemy. Some other polemical texts he had authored late in life saw print only after his death, under the title Mustrări postume către o generaţie neînţelegătoare ("Posthumous Reprimands for an Obtuse Generation").
1920 was also the year when the People's Party cabinet attempted to pension him off from his office at the Historical Monuments Commission, but the publicized protest of Macedonski's fellow writers in Bucharest made it reconsider. Confined to his home by illness and old age, Macedonski was still writing poems, some of which later known as his Ultima verba ("Last Words"). The writer died on November 24, at three o'clock in the afternoon. Having come to develop an addiction to floral fragrances, he was inhaling a rose petal extract during his last hours. He was buried in Bucharest's Bellu
.
too recalled that his mentor had been dreaming of becoming a visual artist, and had eventually settled for turning his son Alexis into one. This pictorial approach to writing created parallels between Macedonski and his traditionalist contemporaries Vasile Alecsandri
and Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea
.
Following the tenets of Dimitrie Bolintineanu
and Théophile Gautier
, the writer repeatedly called for purity in versification
, and upheld it as an essential requirement, while progressively seeking to verify the quality of his poetry through phonoaesthetics. A characteristic of Macedonski's style is his inventive use of Romanian
. Initially influenced by Ion Heliade Rădulescu
's introduction of Italian
-based words to the Romanian lexis
, Macedonski himself later infused poetic language with a large array of neologisms from several Romance
sources. Likewise, Vianu notes, Macedonski had a tendency for comparing nature with the artificial, the result of this being a "document" of his values. Macedonski's language alternated neologisms with barbarisms, many of which were coined by him personally. They include claviculat ("clavicle
d", applied to a shoulder), împălăriată ("enhatted", used to define a crowd of hat-wearing tourists), and ureichii (instead of urechii, "to the ear" or "of the ear"). His narratives nevertheless take an interest in recording direct speech, used as a method of characterization. However, Călinescu criticizes Macedonski for using a language which, "although grammatically correct [...], seems to have been learned only recently", as well as for not following other Romanian writers in creating a lasting poetic style.
The writer's belief in the effects of sheer willpower, notably present in his comments on esoteric
subjects, was itself a defining characteristic of his perspective on literature. In 1882, he wrote about progression in one's career: "We are all poets at birth, but only those who shape themselves through study will become poets." Vianu, who notes Macedonski's "exclusivity" and "fanaticism", places such statements in connection with Macedonski's personal ambition, "pride" and "the willingness to carry out ventured actions [...], in stated opposition with the entire surrounding and with contempt for the foreseeable reaction."
Almost all periods of Macedonski's work reflect, in whole or in part, his public persona and the polemics he was involved in. George Călinescu's emits a verdict on the relation between his lifetime notoriety and the public's actual awareness of his work: "Macedonski [was] a poet well-known for being an unknown poet." According to literary critic Matei Călinescu
, the innovative aspects of his impact on Romanian literature
were not as much related to his "literary ideology", as much as to his "contradictory spirit" and "essential nonconformism". However, literary researcher Adrian Marino proposes that Macedonski was one of the first modern authors to illustrate the importance of "dialectic
unity" through his views on art, in particular by having argued that poetry needed to be driven by "an idea". Having theorized once, while questioning Junimist rigor, that "the logic of poetry is absurdity itself [italics in the original]", the poet also said: "Poetry is the chaos of spirit and matter, of the cries of distress and mad laughter. From the sublime to the trivial, that is what it should be." He later revised part of this verdict, and, making explicit his adoption of aestheticism
, spoke against trivial subjects and in favor of the sublime.
While Macedonski also discarded the concept of "social poetry" not long after postulating it, its spirit, Tudor Vianu believes, can still be found in his later contributions. This, the critic notes, was owed to his "social temperament", whose "fundamental experience is that of the social." Discussing this sociable and extrovert character, other critics see in the poet's life and work the imprint of "quixotism
". Also according to Vianu, this contrasted with Macedonski's failures in communicating with the public, an experience which made him "misanthropic
" and contributed to his ultimate vision of death as freedom. Literary historian Pompiliu Constantinescu
concluded: "Macedonski could not resign; his one martyrdom was for Art, as the sole liberation from a tormented life." Other commentators have defined the poet's perspective on life as a result of "neurosis
".
In Vianu's perspective, Macedonski's stance is dominated by a mixture of nostalgia
, sensuality, lugubrious-grotesque imagery, and "the lack of bashfulness for antisocial sentiments" which compliments his sarcasm
. In respect to the latter characteristic, Vianu notes "no one in Romanian literature has laughed the same way as Macedonski", whereas critic Ştefan Cazimir argues: "[Macedonski was] lacking the sense of relativity in principles, and implicitly a sense of humor." Cazimir adds: "Only when he aged did [Macedonski] learn to smile". George Călinescu himself believes Macedonski to have been "fundamentally a spiritual man with lots of humor", speculating that he was able to see the "uselessness" of his own scientific ventures.
Critics note that, while Macedonski progressed from one stage to the other, his work fluctuated between artistic accomplishment and mediocrity. Tudor Vianu believes "failure in reaching originality" and reliance on "soppy-conventional attributes of the day" to be especially evident wherever Macedonski tried to emulate epic poetry
. He also notes that Macedonski's love-themed pieces "cannot be listed among [his] most fortunate". At his best, commentators note, he was one of the Romanian literature's classics. Macedonski is thus perceived as the author second only to Eminescu, and as his ideal counterpart—a relation Vianu describes as "the internal dualism
[confronting] two familiar gods
". Various critics have compared Eminescu's poetic discourse with that of the Symbolist leader, concluding that the two poets often display very similar attitudes. Călinescu writes that, while Macedonski's work is largely inferior to that of his Junimist rival, it forms the best "reply" ever conceived within their common setting.
The only English language translation of Macedonski's work is "If I knew/De as stii" a bilingual edition of 50 selected poems in English and Romanian. Also coming in 2012 the English translation of the novel Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu.
, part of a Neoromantic
generation which had for its mentors Heliade Rădulescu and Bolintineanu. Other early influences were Pierre-Jean de Béranger
and Gottfried August Bürger
, together with Romanian folklore, motifs from them being adapted by Macedonski into pastoral
s and ballade
s of ca. 1870-1880. The imprint of Romanticism and such other sources was evident in Prima verba, which groups pieces that Macedonski authored in his early youth, the earliest of them being written when he was just twelve. Critics generally argue that the volume is without value. The poems display his rebellious attitude, self-victimization and strong reliance on autobiographical elements, centering on such episodes as the death of his father. In one piece inspired by the ideology of Heliade Rădulescu, Vianu notes, Macedonski sings "the French Revolution
's love for freedom and equality, otherwise proclaimed from his nobleman's perspective." It reads:
In parallel, Macedonski used erotic themes
, completing a series which, although written on the model of idylls, is noted for its brute details of sexual exploits. The poet probably acknowledged that posterity would reject them, and did not republish them in any of his collected poetry volumes.
During his time at Oltul (1873–1875), Macedonski published a series of poems, most of which were not featured in definitive editions of his work. In addition to ode
s written in the Italian
-based version of Romanian
, it includes lyrics which satirize Carol I
without mentioning his name. Following his arrest, Macedonski also completed Celula mea de la Văcăreşti ("My Cell in Văcăreşti"), which shows his attempt to joke about the situation. In contrast to this series, some of the pieces written during Macedonski's time in the Budjak
and Northern Dobruja
display a detachment from contemporary themes. At that stage, he was especially inspired by Lord Byron
, whom Vianu calls "the sovereign poet of [Macedonski's] youth." In Calul arabului, Macedonski explores exotic
and Levant
ine settings, using symbols which announce George Coşbuc
's El-Zorab, and the Venetian
-themed Ithalo, which centers on episodes of betrayal and murder. Others were epic and patriotic
in tone, with subjects such as Romanian victories in the Russo-Turkish War or the Imperial Roman
sites along the Danube
. One of these pieces, titled Hinov after the village and stone quarry in Rasova
, gives Macedonski a claim to being the first modern European poet to have used free verse
, ahead of the French Symbolist Gustave Kahn
. Macedonski himself later voiced the claim, and referred to such a technique as "symphonic verse", "proteic verse", or, in honor of composer Richard Wagner
, "Wagnerian verse".
While editing Oltul, Macedonski also completed his first prose writings. These were the travel account
Pompeia şi Sorento ("Pompeia and Sorento", 1874) and a prison-themed story described by Vianu as "a tearjerker", titled Câinele din Văcăreşti ("The Dog in Văcăreşti", 1875). These were later complemented by other travel works, which critic Mihai Zamfir likens to the verbal experiments of Impressionist literature, pioneering in the Romanian prose poetry
genre. The short comedy Gemenii was his debut work for the stage, but, according to Vianu, failed to show any merit other than a "logical construction" and a preview into Macedonski's use of sarcasm. These writings were followed in 1876 by a concise biography of Cârjaliul, an early 19th century hajduk
. In line with his first Levant-themed poems, Macedonski authored the 1877 story Aşa se fac banii ("This Is How Money Is Made", later retold in French as Comment on devient riche et puissant, "How to Become Rich and Powerful"), a fable
of fatalism
and the Muslim world
—it dealt with two brothers, one hard-working and one indolent, the latter of whom earns his money through a series of serendipitous events. Likewise, his verse comedy
Iadeş! borrowed its theme from the widely circulated collection of Persian literature
known as Sindipa. The setting was however modern, and, as noted by French-born critic Frédéric Damé, the plot also borrowed much from Émile Augier
's Gabrielle and from other morality play
s of the period. Part of the text was an ironic treatment of youth in liberal professions, an attitude which Macedonski fitted in his emerging anti-bourgeois discourse.
With the first poems in his Nights cycle, Macedonski still showed his allegiance to Romanticism, and in particular to Alphonse de Lamartine
, and the supposed inventor of this theme, Alfred de Musset
. Noaptea de noiembrie opens with a violent condemnation of his adversaries, and sees Macedonski depicting his own funeral. The poem is commended by Călinescu, who notes that, in contrast to the "apparently trivial beginning", the main part, where Macedonski depicts himself in flight over the Danube
, brings the Romanian writer close to the accomplishments of Dante Aligheri. The writer himself claimed that the piece evidenced "the uttermost breath of inspiration I have ever felt in my life." Another poem, Noaptea de aprilie ("April Night"), was probably his testimony of unrequited love
for Aristizza Romanescu.
. Explained by the writer himself as a reaction against the legacy of Lamartine, it also signified his brief affiliation with the Naturalist
current, a radical segment of the Realist movement. Traian Demetrescu
thus noted that Macedonski cherished the works of French Naturalists and Realists such as Gustave Flaubert
and Émile Zola
. During this phase, Macedonski made known his sympathy for the disinherited, from girls forced into prostitution to convicts sentenced to penal labor on salt mines, and also spoke out against the conventionalism of civil marriage
s. His Ocnele ("The Salt Mines") includes the verdict:
Naturalist depiction was also the main element in his prose pieces of the early 1880s. Among them was the first of several sketch stories
using still life
techniques, Casa cu nr. 10 (according to Zamfir, a prime sample of Macedonski's "ornamental" genre). With Între coteţe, Dramă banală and later Cometa lui Odorescu ("Odorescu's Comet"), Macedonski speaks about his own biography. The former has for a protagonist Pandele Vergea, a thirty-five year old man who is consumed by an avicultural
obsession, who dreams of turning into a bird, and who is eventually maimed by his overcrowded fowls. In contrast, Dereanu is a bohemian
university student, possessed by dreams of military and political glory, and who meditates about his future in front of Heliade Rădulescu's statue or in Bucharest cafés. Also a bohemian, Odorescu announces his discovery of a comet, before being proved wrong by his aunt, an ordinary woman. Some pieces also double as memoir
s: in Dramă banală, the plot revolves around Macedonski's recollection of the 1866 plebiscite. Vianu draws attention to the picturesque
depiction of historic Bucharest
, a contributing element in Cometa..., Casa cu nr. 10 and Între coteţe.
With Unchiaşul Sărăcie (also written in verse), Macedonski took Naturalist tenets into the field of drama. Frédéric Damé believed it an imitation of a play by Ernest d'Hervilly and Alfred Grévin
, but, Vianu argues, the Romanian text was only loosely based on theirs: in Macedonski's adaptation, the theme became fairy tale
-like, and used a speech style based on Romanian folklore. Around the time of its completion, Macedonski was also working on a similarly loose adaptation of William Shakespeare
's Romeo and Juliet
, which notably had the two protagonists die in each other's arms. Another such play is 3 decemvrie ("December 3"), which partly retells Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner
's Der 24 Februar using Naturalist devices. By contrast, the homage-play Cuza-Vodă is mainly a Romantic piece, where Alexander John Cuza
finds his political mission validated by legendary figures in Romanian history.
In parallel, Macedonski was using poetry to carry out his polemics. In an 1884 epigram
, he reacted against Alecsandri's Fântâna Blanduziei, but, in Vianu's definition, "his regular causticity seems to be restrained." The piece he had earlier written, presumably against Eminescu, scandalized the public by mocking the rival's mental ruin:
According to Tudor Vianu, Macedonski was mostly motivated by his disappointment in Junimea, and in particular by Eminescu's response to his public persona. Vianu contends that, although Macedonski "never was familiar with the resigned and patient attitudes", he was "by no means an evil man." On one occasion, the poet defended himself against criticism, noting that the epigram had not been specifically addressed to Eminescu, but had been labeled as such by the press, and claiming to have authored it years before its Literatorul edition. However, the later piece Viaţa de apoi ("The Afterlife") still displays resentments he harbored toward Eminescu.
By 1880-1884, particularly after the Eminescu scandal, Macedonski envisaged prioritizing French as his language of expression. According to Vianu, Macedonski had traversed "the lowest point" of his existence, and had been subject to "one of the most delicate mysteries of poetic creation." Among his pieces of the period is the French-language sonnet
Pârle, il me dit alors ("Speak, He Then Said to Me"), where, Vianu notes, "one discovers the state of mind of a poet who decides to expatriate himself."
and other Symbolists from Wallachia
as distinct from their Moldavia
n counterparts in both style and themes. Endorsing the theory and practice of Symbolism for much of his life, Macedonski retrospectively claimed to have been one of its first exponents. His version of Symbolism, critic Paul Cernat notes, clashed with that advocated by many of his contemporaries in that it rejected merit to the Decadent movement
, and represented the "decorative" aestheticist
trend of Paranassian spirit within the Romanian Symbolist current
.
Within Poezia viitorului, Macedonski invoked as his models to follow some important or secondary Symbolist and Parnassian figures: Charles Baudelaire
, Joséphin Péladan
, Maurice Maeterlinck
, Stéphane Mallarmé
and Jean Moréas
. In his review of Bronzes for Mercure de France
, Pierre Quillard
remarked the "irreproachable" technique, but criticized the poet for being too indebted to both Baudelaire and Leconte de Lisle; other Symbolist figures whom Macedonski is known to have borrowed from are José María de Heredia
and Iwan Gilkin
. While undergoing this transition, to what linguist Manuela-Delia Suciu argues is a mostly Parnassian phase, Macedonski was still referencing Naturalism, and considered it compatible with Symbolism.
With the adoption of such tenets came a succession of Symbolist poems, where the focus is on minutely-observed objects, usually items of luxury, partly reflecting themes he had explored in the Naturalist stage. Commenting on them, Tudor Vianu argues that no such works had ever been produced in Romanian literature up until that moment. In his Ospăţul lui Pentaur ("The Feast of Pentaur"), the poet reflected on civilization itself, as reflected in inanimate opulence. The motif was also developed in descriptive prose fragments later grouped in Cartea de aur, collectively titled nuvele fără oameni ("novellas without people") and compared by Călinescu with the paintings of Theodor Aman
.
Also during that stage, Macedonski was exploring the numerous links between Symbolism, mysticism
and esotericism
. Earlier pieces had already come to explore macabre
themes characteristic for an early branch of Symbolism. Influenced by Maurice Rollinat
, they include the somber Vaporul morţii ("The Ship of Death") and Visul fatal ("The Fatal Dream"). Likewise, the piece titled Imnul lui Satan ("Satan's Hymn") was placed by critics in connection with Les Litanies de Satan
(part of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal
), but, Vianu argues, the source of Macedonski's satanic themes may have been lodged in his own vision of the world. This interest also reflected in his 1893 Saul, where Cincinat Pavelescu's contribution is supposedly minimal. Echoing satanic themes, Ernest Legouvé
's dramatic version of the Medea
myth (which Macedonski translated at some point in his life) and the classical work of Jean Racine
, it shows the dark powers of political conflict intervening between the eponymous king and his ephebos
-like protégé David
, the latter of whom turns out to be the agent of spiritual revolution.
("August Night"), outlines a monistic
belief probably inspired by Rosicrucianism, stressing the unity between soul and matter and depicting Macedonski's own journey into a transcendental space. Following the examples of Baudelaire's Les paradis artificiels
, but also echoing his readings from Paul Verlaine
and Théophile Gautier
, Macedonski left poems dealing with narcotic
s and substance abuse
, at least some of which reflected his personal experience with nicotine
and possibly other unnamed drugs. Also at that stage, Macedonski also began publishing the "instrumentalist" series of his Symbolist poems. This form of experimental poem
was influenced by the theories of René Ghil and verified through his encounter with Remy de Gourmont
's views. In parallel, it reaffirmed Macedonski's personal view that music and the spoken word were intimately related (a perspective notably attested by his 1906 interview with Jules Combarieu). Romanian critic Petre Răileanu theorized that such elements evidenced Macedonski's transition to "metaliterature". On a different level, they echoed an older influence, that of Gottfried August Bürger
.
volume. It included Noaptea de mai, which Vianu sees as "one of the [vernacular's] most beautiful poems" and as evidence of "a clear joy, without any torment whatsoever". A celebration of spring partly evoking folkloric themes, it was made famous by the recurring refrain
, Veniţi: privighetoarea cântă şi liliacul e-nflorit ("Come along: the nightingale is singing and the lilac is in blossom"). Like Noaptea de mai, Lewki (named after and dedicated to the Snake Island
), depicts intense joy, completed in this case by what Vianu calls "the restorative touch of nature." The series also returned to Levant
settings and Islam
ic imagery, particularly in Acşam dovalar (named after the Turkish
version of Witr
). Also noted within the volume is his short "Modern Psalms
" series, including the piece Iertare ("Forgiveness"), which is addressed to God:
Excelsior also included Noaptea de ianuarie ("January Night"), which encapsulates one of his best-known political statements. Anghelescu reads it as a "meditation on disillusionment that culminates in a vitality-laden exhortation of action." Its anti-bourgeois attitude, literary historian Z. Ornea argues, was one of the meeting points between Macedonski and Junimism. In what is seen as its most acid section, the text notably reads:
At the same time as being engaged in his most violent polemics, Macedonski produced meditative and serene poems, which were later judged to be among his best. Noaptea de decemvrie is the synthesis of his main themes and influences, rated by commentators as his "masterpiece". Partly based on an earlier poem (Meka, named after the Arab city
), it tells the story of an emir
, who, left unsatisfied by the shallow and opulent life he leads in Baghdad
, decides to leave on pilgrimage
. While critics agree that it is to be read as an allegory
of Macedonski's biography, the ironic text does not make it clear whether the emir actually reaches his target, nor if the central metaphor
of Mecca as a mirage
means that the goal is not worth sacrificing for. While Mircea Anghelescu comments that Macedonski illustrates "unusual tension" by rigorously amplifying references to the color red, seen as a symbol of suffering, Călinescu notes that the sequence of lyrics has a studied "delirious" element, and illustrates this with the quote:
. These stories, most of which were eventually collected in Cartea de aur, include memoirs of his childhood in the Amaradia
region, nostalgic portrayals of the Oltenia
n boyar
environment, idealized depictions of Cuza's reign, as well as a retrospective view on the end of Rom slavery
(found in his piece Verigă ţiganul, "Verigă the Gypsy"). The best-known among them is Pe drum de poştă, a third-person narrative and thinly disguised memoir, where the characters are an adolescent Alexandru Macedonski and his father, General Macedonski. The idyllic outlook present in such stories is one of the common meeting points between his version of Symbolism and traditionalist authors such as Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea
. Vianu indicates the connection, but adds: "Macedonski descended, through memory, in the world of the village, with the tremor of regret for the peace and plenty of the old settlements, so well polished that each person, landowner as well as peasant, lived within a framework that nature itself seemed to have granted. [...] in depicting rural environments, Macedonski presents the point of view of a conservative
."
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu, a fantasy novel and extended prose poem
, was celebrated by Macedonski's disciple Oreste Georgescu as "the new religion of humanity". The volume carried the mocking dedication "To France, this Chaldea
" (thought by Vianu to reference Péladan's views on the decay of civilization). It has affinities with writings by the Italian Decadent
author Gabriele d'Annunzio
, as well as echoes from Anatole France
. The hero Thalassa, an Greek boy, works as a lighthouse
-keeper on Snake Island, fantasizing about the golden age
of mankind. His fate is changed by a shipwreck, during which a girl, Caliope, reaches the island's shore. Thalassa and Caliope fall in love, but are mysteriously unable to seal their union through sexual intercourse: the boy attributes this failure to the "curse" of human individuality. Seeking to achieve a perfect union with his lover, he eventually kills her and drowns himself in the Black Sea
.
In her review for Mercure de France
, novelist Rachilde
argued: "Very difficult to read, entirely developed in Symbolist manner [and] almost impossible to recount, obviously written in French but nevertheless obviously conceived by a Romanian (and what a spirited Romanian!)." Rachilde believed the work to display "the fragrance of Oriental spices [...] rose marmalade and a slice of bear meat." According to Vianu, the book builds on Macedonski's earlier themes, replacing Naturalist observation with a metaphysical
speculation about idealism
. One other aspect of Macedonski's stylistic exploration took him to attempt recording synesthesia
. His manuscript is written in ink of several colors, which, he believed, was to help readers get a full sense of its meaning. Like other synesthetic aspects of his novel, this is believed to have been inspired by the techniques of Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud
.
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu is noted for its numerous cultural references, and especially for using a wide range of metaphors. Such aspects have been reviewed negatively by modern critics. Tudor Vianu writes: "the poet makes such waste of gemstones that we feel like saying some of them must be false", while Călinescu, who notes that some fragments reveal "an incomparable artist" and "a professional metaphorist", notes that "in the end, such virtuosities become a bore." According to Manuela-Delia Suciu, Thalassa is "polix" and "too polished", traits believed by Zamfir to be less irritating in the Romanian version. Critic Cornel Moraru found that, in the background, Thalassa, a "great Symbolist novel", confronts Ancient Greek
and Christian mythology
, but "abuses" the religious vocabulary. Another part of the novel's imagery is erotic
, and includes an elaborate and aestheticized description of male genitalia.
The four-act tragicomedy
Le Fou? is seen by Vianu as comparable in subject matter and depth to Enrico IV
, a celebrated 1922 play by Luigi Pirandello
. The plot reflects Macedonski's confrontation with his critics, and his acceptance of the fact that people saw in him an eccentric. The central figure is a banker, Dorval, who identifies himself with Napoleon Bonaparte
to the point where he sees episodes in his biography as mirrors of early 19th-century battles. Unlike patients with dissociative identity disorder
, Dorval does not actually imagine his life has become Napoleon's, but rather joins with him on an intellectual level. Witnesses of this disorder are divided into family, who seek to have Dorval committed, and close friends, who come to see his take on life as a manifestation of genius. The spectator is led to believe that the latter interpretation is the correct one. At a larger level, Vianu indicates, the play is also Macedonski's critique of capitalism
, and, using Parisian argot
, makes allusive references to famous people of the day.
Particularly during the 1890s, Macedonski was a follower of Edgar Allan Poe
and of Gothic fiction
in general, producing a Romanian version of Poe's Metzengerstein
story, urging his own disciples to translate other such pieces, and adopting "Gothic" themes in his original prose. Indebted to Jules Verne
and H. G. Wells
, Macedonski also wrote a number of science fiction
stories, including the 1913 Oceania-Pacific-Dreadnought, which depicts civilization on the verge of a crisis. The gigantic commercial ship is maintained by a banker's union, and designed to grant travelers access to every pleasure imaginable; this causes the working-class inhabited cities on the continent to fall into a state of neglect and permanent violence, the climax of the story occurring with the bankers' decision to destroy their creation. Oceania-Pacific-Dreadnought is noted for anticipating television
, the ship being equipped with electrically-operated "large and clear mirrors" that display "images from various parts of the Earth". Macedonski was by then interested in the development of cinema, and authored a silent film
screenplay based on Comment on devient riche et puissant.
written at this stage, known collectively as Poema rondelurilor
, are one of the first instances where the technique is used locally. Like those written previously by Literatoruls Pavelescu and Alexandru Obedenaru, they are based on an earlier motif present in Macedonski's work, that of recurring refrains. Many of the pieces document the poet's final discoveries. One of them is Rondelul crinilor ("The Rondel of the Lilies"), which proclaims fragrances as the source of beatitude: În crini e beţia cea rară, "In lilies one finds that exceptional drunkenness". According to Ştefan Cazimir, Rondelul oraşului mic ("The Rondel of the Small Town") shows a "likable wave of irony and self-irony", and the poet himself coming to terms with "the existence of a world who ignores him." Proof of his combativeness was still to be found in Rondelul contimporanilor ("The Rondel of the Contemporaries").
The poet's take on life is also outlined in his final play, Moartea lui Dante. Călinescu writes that, by then, Macedonski was "obsessed" with the Divine Comedy. Macedonski identifies with his hero, Dante Aligheri, and formulates his own poetic testament while identifying World War I
Romania with the medieval Republic of Florence
. Tudor Vianu remarks: "In Dante's great self-pride, Macedonski found his own." He sees the play as the best such work to have been produced by Macedonski, whereas Călinescu deems it "puerile". Zamfir believes Moartea... to be a significant text in Macedonski's bibliography, "one of the first samples of Romanian Symbolist theater", and as such indebted mainly to Maeterlinck. Vianu argues that the play may document the Romanian writer's late rejection of France, through the protagonist's statement: "the French are a gentle people, but their soul is different from mine."
A number of rondels show Macedonski's late fascination with the Far East
, China
and Japan
. George Călinescu believes that this is to be understood as one item in a large antithesis
, the other being Decadent Paris, which one rondel describes as "hell". The Orient, viewed as the space of serenity, is believed by Macedonski to be peopled by toy-like women and absent opium
-smokers, and to be kept orderly by a stable meritocracy
. The Chinese-themed poem Tsing-Ly-Tsi, which Cazimir notes for its discreet, "almost imperceptible", humor, reads:
, who believed him to be a minor author, referring to him only a couple of times in his books and usually ridiculing him in his articles. One of these texts, the 1886 essay Poeţi şi critici ("Poets and Critics"), spoke of Macedonski as having "vitiated" poetry, a notion he also applied to Constantin D. Aricescu and Aron Densuşianu. Especially radical pronouncements were left by the traditionalist authors Ilarie Chendi and Nicolae Iorga
. Chendi wrote of Macedonski being "the caricature of a man", having "a feverish mind" and being motivated by "the brutal instinct of revenge". Iorga, who became better known as a historian, later retracted some of the statements he had made against the poet during the 1890s. Among the younger prominent traditionalist writers was the Transylvania
n-born Lucian Blaga
, who may have purposefully avoided Macedonski during his first visit to Bucharest in 1920. Although more sympathetic to the Symbolist author, both Dragomirescu and Gheorghe Adamescu tended to describe him as exclusively the product of French and Decadent literature, while Dragomirescu's disciple Ion Trivale denied all merit to Macedonski's literature.
According to Tudor Vianu, Macedonski's intellectual friends (among them Anghel Demetriescu
, George Ionescu-Gion, Bonifaciu Florescu, Grigore Tocilescu
and V. A. Urechia
) were largely responsible for passing down "a better and truer image of the abused poet." It was also due to Dragomirescu that Noaptea de decemvrie was included in a literature textbook for final grade high school students, which some argue is the poet's first-ever presence in the Romanian curriculum
. According to historian Lucian Nastasă, the poet's wife Ana Rallet behaved like an "excellent secretary" while Macedonski was still alive, and thereafter helped sort and edit his manuscript while maintaining "an actual cult" for her husband.
Macedonski's cosmopolitan
circle was the center of a literary alternative to the prevailing conservatism and Eminescu-like traditionalism of the day, the latter tendency being grouped around Sămănătorul
magazine for part of Macedonski's lifetime. While Macedonski himself maintained his links with Romanticism and Classicism, commentators have retrospectively recognized in him the main person who announced Romania's first wave in modernist literature
. Many first-generation disciples were to part with his guidelines early on, either by radicalizing their Symbolism or by stepping out of its confines. Traian Demetrescu
was one of the first to do so, focusing on his commitment to socialism
—Vianu notes that the split took place "without coldness and the heart's versatility" on Macedonski's part. Literary researcher Lidia Bote argues that it was Petică who first illustrated mature Symbolism, emancipating himself from Macedonski's eclectic
tendencies after 1902. By that time, the Symbolist authors Dimitrie Anghel
and N. D. Cocea
used Macedonski's fantasy prose as an inspiration for their own, and N. Davidescu was borrowing from his mystical discourse. The pictorial and joyous elements in Macedonski's poems were also serving to inspire Stamatiad, Eugeniu Ştefănescu-Est and Horia Furtună. In the early stages of his career, Ion Pillat
wrote pieces which echo his master's choice of exotic
themes. A more discreet legacy of Macedonski's ideas was also preserved inside the conservative and traditionalist camps. Although his separation from Literatorul was drastic, and led him to rally with Junimea, Duiliu Zamfirescu
built on some elements borrowed from the magazine's ideology, incorporating them into his literary vision.
Many of Macedonski's most devoted disciples, whom he himself had encouraged, have been rated by various critics as secondary or mediocre. This is the case of Theodor Cornel (who made his name as an art critic), Mircea Demetriade, Oreste Georgescu, Alexandru Obedenaru, Stoenescu, Stamatiad, Carol Scrob, Dumitru Karnabatt and Donar Munteanu. Another such minor author was the self-styled "hermeticist" Al. Petroff, who expanded on Macedonski's ideas about esoteric knowledge.
Macedonski's eldest son Alexis continued to pursue a career as a painter. His son Soare followed in his footsteps, receiving acclaim from art critics of the period. Soare's short career ended in 1928, before he turned nineteen, but his works have been featured in several retrospective exhibitions, including one organized by Alexis. Alexis later experimented with scenic design
as an assistant to French filmmaker René Clair
; his later life, shrouded in mystery and intrigue, led him to a career in Fascist Italy
and Francoist Spain. Another of Alexandru Macedonski's sons, Nikita, was also a poet and painter. For a while in the 1920s, he edited the literary supplement of Universul
newspaper. Two years after her father's death, Anna Macedonski married poet Mihail Celerianu.
In addition to his polemical portrayals in works by Alecsandri, Eminescu and Caragiale, Macedonski's career was an inspiration for various authors. His image acquired mythical proportions for his followers. Like Demetrescu, many of them left memoirs on Macedonski which were published before or after his death. His admirers were writing poetry about him as early as 1874, and, in 1892, Cincinat Pavelescu published a rhapsodizing portrait of Macedonski as "the Artist". Pavelescu, Dragoslav and Petică paid homage to the writer by leaving recollections which describe him as a devoted and considerate friend. In contrast, traditionalist poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
authored an 1889 sketch story
in which Macedonski (referred to as Polidor) is the object of derision.
. A final volume of never before published poems, Poema rondelurilor
, saw print in 1927. Macedonski's work was analyzed and popularized by a new generation of critics, among them Vianu and George Călinescu. The post-Junimist modernist critic Eugen Lovinescu
also commented favorably on Macedonski's work, but overall, Călinescu asserts, his opinions on the subject gave little insight into what he actually thought about the poet. He also recounts that Macedonski himself treated Lovinescu with disdain, and once called him "a canary".
The emerging avant-garde
, although originating from Symbolism, progressively took its distance from Literatoruls legacy. Initially, Macedonski's contribution to experimental literature
was continued within formal Symbolism by his disciples Demetriade, Iuliu Cezar Săvescu and Ion Minulescu
. The latter was particularly indebted to Macedonski in matters of vision and language. In 1904, Tudor Arghezi
also left behind the Literatorul circle and its tenets, eventually arriving to the fusion of modernist, traditionalist and avant-garde
elements. However, he remained indebted to Macedonski's example in his descriptive prose. The 1912 Simbolul
magazine, which moved between conventional Symbolism and the emerging avant-garde, also published an Imagist
-inspired parody
of Noaptea de mai, signed by Adrian Maniu. A co-founder of Dada
ism during the late 1910s, Tristan Tzara
is believed by Swedish
researcher Tom Sandqvist to have been inspired more or less directly by Macedonski, and in particular by the latter's thoughts on the relation between absurdity and poetry. In his debut poems, Benjamin Fondane-Barbu Fundoianu
occasionally followed Macedonski, but, by 1920, stated that the Symbolist doyen merely imitated French models to the point of "parasitism".
Several avant-garde authors returned to Macedonski's literary guidelines by the late 1920s, as they themselves grew more moderate. This was the case of Maniu and Ion Vinea, both of whom published prose works in the line of Thalassa. The same work also is also believed to have influenced two non-avant-garde authors, Davidescu and Mateiu Caragiale
, who remained close to the tenets Symbolism. Mateiu was the illegitimate son of Ion Luca Caragiale, but, Vianu notes, could withstand comparisons with his father's rival: the eccentricities were complementary, although Mateiu Caragiale shied away from public affairs. In the same post-Symbolist generation, Celerianu (Macedonski's posthumous son-in-law), George Bacovia
and Păstorel Teodoreanu also built on Macedonski's legacy, being later joined in this by the Bessarabia
n linguist Eugenio Coşeriu
(who, in his early poetic career, imitated Macedonski's rondel style). In the late 1920s, when their form of modern psalms
inspired Albanian-Romanian
poet Aleksander Stavre Drenova
, Macedonski and Arghezi both made an indirect impact on Albanian literature
.
Macedonski's status as one of Romanian literature's greats was consolidated later in the 20th century. By this time, Noaptea de decemvrie had become one of the most recognizable literary works to be taught in Romanian schools. During the first years of Communist Romania
, the Socialist Realist current
condemned Symbolism (see Censorship in Communist Romania
), but spoke favorably of Macedonski's critique of the bourgeoisie
. A while after this episode, Marin Sorescu
, one of the best-known modernist poets of his generation, wrote a homage-parody of the Nights cycle. Included in the volume Singur între poeţi ("Alone among Poets"), it is seen by critic Mircea Scarlat as Sorescu's most representative such pieces. Also then, Noaptea de decemvrie partly inspired Ştefan Augustin Doinaş
' ballad
Mistreţul cu colţi de argint.
In the 1990s, Ştefan Agopian took the Nights cycle as inspiration for an erotic
short story, while Pavel Şuşară adapted his rondels to a modernized setting. Macedonski's prose also influenced younger writers such as Angelo Mitchievici and Anca Maria Mosora. In neighboring Moldova
, Macedonski influenced the Neosymbolism
of Aureliu Busuioc. A magazine by the name of Literatorul, which claims to represent the legacy of Macedonski's publication, was founded in Romania in 1991, being edited by writers Sorescu, Fănuş Neagu and Mircea Micu. In 2006, the Romanian Academy
granted posthumous membership to Alexandru Macedonski.
Macedonski's poems had a sizable impact on Romania's popular culture
. During communism, Noaptea de mai was the basis for a successful musical adaptation, composed by Marian Nistor and sung by Mirabela Dauer. Tudor Gheorghe
, a singer-songwriter inspired by American folk revival
, also used some of Macedonski's texts as lyrics to his melodies. In the 2000s, the refrain of Noaptea de mai was mixed into a manea
parody by Adrian Copilul Minune
.
, Macedonski captured the interest of several modern artists. Alongside other writers who visited Terasa Oteteleşanu, Macedonski was notably portrayed the drawings of celebrated Romanian artist Iosif Iser
. He is also depicted in a 1918 lithograph by Jean Alexandru Steriadi
, purportedly Steriadi's only Symbolist work. Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu inspired a series of relief
s, designed by Alexis Macedonski and hosted in his father's house in Dorobanţi
. During the 1910s, busts of him were completed by two sculptors, Alexandru Severin and Friedrich Storck, one of Storck's variants being hosted by the Ioan Cantacuzino
collection. In 1919, Theodor Burcă was also inspired to complete another bust, and, during World War II
, was commissioned by Mayor of Bucharest
Ion Răşcanu to build a Macedonski Monument in the Grădina Icoanei
park, but this was never completed. Constantin Piliuţă, a painter active in the second half of the 20th century, made Macedonski the subject of a portrait in series dedicated to Romanian cultural figures (also depicted were Nicolae Iorga
, Ştefan Luchian
and Vianu). In 1975, a bust of Macedonski, the work of Constantin Foamete, was unveiled in Craiova
.
Of Macedonski's numerous residences, the one in Dorobanţi was demolished when the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) was expanded. A commemorative plaque was later put up near the spot. Macedonski's childhood home in Goieşti passed into state property under communism, and was in turn a school, a community home and a Macedonski Museum, before falling into neglect after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
. Several streets named in honor of Alexandru Macedonski, notably in Bucharest (by the ASE), Craiova, Cluj-Napoca
and Timişoara
.
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
n-born Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n poet, novelist, dramatist and literary critic, known especially for having promoted French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
Symbolism
Symbolism (arts)
Symbolism was a late nineteenth-century art movement of French, Russian and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts. In literature, the style had its beginnings with the publication Les Fleurs du mal by Charles Baudelaire...
in his native country, and for leading the Romanian Symbolist movement
Symbolist movement in Romania
The Symbolist movement in Romania, active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked the development of Romanian culture in both literature and visual arts...
during its early decades. A forerunner of local modernist literature
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
, he is the first local author to have used free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, and claimed by some to have been the first in modern European literature
European literature
European literature refers to the literature of Europe.European literature includes literature in many languages; among the most important of the modern written works are those in English, Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish, German, Italian, Modern Greek, Czech and Russian and works by the...
. Within the framework of Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
, Macedonski is seen by critics as second only to national poet Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
; as leader of a cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
and aestheticist
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
trend formed around his Literatorul journal, he was diametrically opposed to the inward-looking traditionalism of Eminescu and his school.
Debuting as a Neoromantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
in the Wallachian tradition, Macedonski went through the Realist
Literary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
-Naturalist
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
stage deemed "social poetry", while progressively adapting his style to Symbolism and Parnassianism, and repeatedly but unsuccessfully attempting to impose himself in the Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
world. Despite having theorized "instrumentalism", which reacted against the traditional guidelines of poetry, he maintained a lifelong connection with Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
and its ideal of purity. Macedonski's quest for excellence found its foremost expression in his recurring motif of life as a pilgrimage to Mecca
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
, notably used in his critically acclaimed Nights cycle. The stylistic stages of his career are reflected in the collections Prima verba, Poezii
Poezii (Macedonski)
Poezii is an 1882 collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Ocnele, "The Salt Mines"*Formele , "The Forms "*Noaptea de aprilie, "April Night"...
, and Excelsior
Excelsior (Macedonski)
Excelsior is the title of a collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Valţul rozelor*Excelsior*Stepa*Cu morţii*Vis de mai*Psalmi moderni*Noaptea de noiembrie*Sub stele*Acşam dovalar...
, as well as in the fantasy novel
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu. In old age, he became the author of rondels
Rondel (poem)
A rondel is a verse form originating in French lyrical poetry, later used in the verse of other languages as well, such as English and Romanian. It is a variation of the rondeau consisting of two quatrains followed by a quintet or a sestet...
, noted for their detached and serene vision of life, in contrast with his earlier combativeness.
In parallel to his literary career, Macedonski was a civil servant, notably serving as prefect
Prefect (Romania)
A prefect in Romania represents the Government in each of the country's 41 counties, as well as the Municipality of Bucharest.-Attributes:The main attributes of prefects are defined at Article 123 of the Constitution of Romania:...
in the Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
and Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in south by Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.-Geography:...
during the late 1870s. As journalist and militant, his allegiance fluctuated between the liberal current
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
and conservatism
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
, becoming involved in polemics and controversies of the day. Of the long series of publications he founded, Literatorul was the most influential, notably hosting his early conflicts with the Junimea
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
literary society. These targeted Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
and especially Eminescu, their context and tone becoming the cause of a major rift between Macedonski and his public. This situation repeated itself in later years, when Macedonski and his Forţa Morală magazine began campaigning against the Junimist dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, whom they falsely accused of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the poet aggravated his critics by supporting the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
against Romania's alliance with the Entente side
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. His biography was also marked by an enduring interest in esotericism
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
, numerous attempts to become recognized as an inventor, and an enthusiasm for cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
.
The scion of a political and aristocratic family, the poet was the son of General Alexandru Macedonski, who served as Defense Minister, and the grandson of 1821 rebel
Wallachian uprising of 1821
The Wallachian uprising of 1821 was an uprising in Wallachia against Ottoman rule which took place during 1821.-Background:...
Dimitrie Macedonski
Dimitrie Macedonski
Dimitrie Macedonski was a Wallachian Pandur captain and revolutionary leader. Taking part in the Wallachian uprising of 1821, he was appointed Tudor Vladimirescu's lieutenant by boyar allies of the revolutionaries, on January 15...
. Both his son Alexis and grandson Soare were known painters.
Early life and family
The poet's paternal family had arrived in Wallachia during the early 19th century. Of South SlavSouth Slavs
The South Slavs are the southern branch of the Slavic peoples and speak South Slavic languages. Geographically, the South Slavs are native to the Balkan peninsula, the southern Pannonian Plain and the eastern Alps...
(Serb
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
or Bulgarian
Bulgarians
The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:...
) or Aromanian
Aromanians
Aromanians are a Latin people native throughout the southern Balkans, especially in northern Greece, Albania, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, and as an emigrant community in Serbia and Romania . An older term is Macedo-Romanians...
origin, they claimed to have descended from Serb insurgents in Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
-ruled Macedonia
Macedonia (region)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of the Balkan peninsula in southeastern Europe. Its boundaries have changed considerably over time, but nowadays the region is considered to include parts of five Balkan countries: Greece, the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania, Serbia, as...
. Alexandru's grandfather Dimitrie and Dimitrie's brother Pavel participated in the 1821 uprising against the Phanariote
Phanariotes
Phanariots, Phanariotes, or Phanariote Greeks were members of those prominent Greek families residing in Phanar , the chief Greek quarter of Constantinople, where the Ecumenical Patriarchate is situated.For all their cosmopolitanism and often Western education, the Phanariots were...
administration, and in alliance with the Filiki Eteria
Filiki Eteria
thumb|right|200px|The flag of the Filiki Eteria.Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends was a secret 19th century organization, whose purpose was to overthrow Ottoman rule over Greece and to establish an independent Greek state. Society members were mainly young Phanariot Greeks from Russia and local...
; Dimitrie made the object of controversy when, during the final stage of the revolt, he sided with the Eteria in its confrontation with Wallachian leader Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu
Tudor Vladimirescu was a Wallachian Romanian revolutionary hero, the leader of the Wallachian uprising of 1821 and of the Pandur militia. He is also known as Tudor din Vladimiri or — occasionally — as Domnul Tudor .-Background:Tudor was born in Vladimiri, Gorj County in a family of landed peasants...
, taking an active part in the latter's killing. Both Macedonski brothers had careers in the Wallachian military forces, at a time when the country was governed by Imperial Russian
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
envoys, when the Regulamentul Organic
Regulamentul Organic
Regulamentul Organic was a quasi-constitutional organic law enforced in 1834–1835 by the Imperial Russian authorities in Moldavia and Wallachia...
regime recognized the family as belonging to Wallachia's nobility. Dimitrie married Zoe, the daughter an ethnic Russian
Russians
The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
or Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
officer; their son, the Russian-educated Alexandru, climbed in the military and political hierarchy, joining the unified Land Forces
Romanian Land Forces
The Romanian Land Forces is the army of Romania, and the main component of the Romanian Armed Forces. In recent years, full professionalisation and a major equipment overhaul have transformed the nature of the force.The Romanian Land Forces were founded on...
after his political ally, Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
, was elected Domnitor
Domnitor
Domnitor was the official title of the ruler of the United Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia between 1859 and 1866....
and the two Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities
Danubian Principalities was a conventional name given to the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, which emerged in the early 14th century. The term was coined in the Habsburg Monarchy after the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca in order to designate an area on the lower Danube with a common...
became united Romania
United Principalities
The United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, also known as the Romanian Principalities, was the official name of Romania following the 1859 election of Alexandru Ioan Cuza as prince or domnitor of both territories...
. Both the officer's uncle Pavel and brother Mihail were amateur poets.
Macedonski's mother, Maria Fisenţa (also Vicenţ or Vicenţa), was from an aristocratic environment, being the scion of Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
n boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
s. Through her father, she may have descended from Russian immigrants who had been absorbed into Oltenia's nobility. Maria had been adopted by the boyar Dumitrache Pârâianu, and the couple had inherited the Adâncata and Pometeşti estates in Goieşti, on the Amaradia Valley
Amaradia River (Dolj)
The Amaradia River is a tributary of the Jiu River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971...
.
Both the poet and his father were dissatisfied with accounts of their lineage, contradicting them with an account that researchers have come to consider spurious. Although adherents of the Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
, the Macedonskis traced their origin to Rogala
Rogala coat of arms
Rogala - is a Polish Coat of Arms. It was used by several szlachta families in the times of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.-History:-See also:* Polish heraldry* Heraldry* Coat of Arms* List of Polish nobility coats of arms...
-bearing Lithuanian nobility from the defunct Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. While the writer perpetuated his father's claim, it is possible that he also took pride in investigating his Balkan
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
roots: according to literary historian Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu
Tudor Vianu was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. Known for his left-wing and anti-fascist convictions, he had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art...
, who, as a youth, was a member of his circle, this tendency is attested by two of Macedonski's poems from the 1880s, where the South Slavs appear as icons of freedom. Vianu's contemporary, literary historian George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
, postulated that, although the family had been absorbed into the ethnic and cultural majority, the poet's origin served to enrich local culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
by linking it to a "Thracian
Thracians
The ancient Thracians were a group of Indo-European tribes inhabiting areas including Thrace in Southeastern Europe. They spoke the Thracian language – a scarcely attested branch of the Indo-European language family...
" tradition and the spirit of "adventurers".
The family moved often, following General Macedonski's postings. Born in Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
, Macedonski-son was the third of four siblings, the oldest of whom was a daughter, Caterina. Before the age of six, he was a sickly and nervous child, who is reported to have had regular tantrum
Tantrum
A tantrum is an emotional outburst, usually associated with children or those in emotional distress, that is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, yelling, shrieking, defiance, angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification and, in some cases, violence...
s. In 1862, his father sent him to school in Oltenia, and he spent most time in the Amaradia region. The nostalgia he felt for the landscape later made him consider writing an Amărăzene ("Amaradians") cycle, of which only one poem was ever completed. He was attending the Carol I High School in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
and, according to his official record, graduated in 1867.
Macedonski's father had by then become known as an authoritarian commander, and, during his time in Târgu Ocna
Târgu Ocna
Târgu Ocna is a town in Bacău County, Romania, situated on the left bank of the Trotuş River, an affluent of the Siret, and on a branch railway which crosses the Ghimeş Pass from Moldavia into Transylvania. Târgu Ocna is built among the Carpathian Mountains on bare hills formed of rock salt...
, faced a mutiny
Mutiny
Mutiny is a conspiracy among members of a group of similarly situated individuals to openly oppose, change or overthrow an authority to which they are subject...
which only his wife could stop by pleading with the soldiers (an episode which made an impression on the future poet). A stern parent, he took an active part in educating his children. Having briefly served as Defense Minister, the general was mysteriously dismissed by Cuza in 1863, and his pension became the topic of a political scandal. It ended only under the rule of Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
, Cuza's Hohenzollern successor, when Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
voted against increasing the sum to the level demanded by its recipient. Having preserved a negative impression of the 1866 plebiscite, during which Cuza's dethronement had been confirmed, Macedonski remained a committed opponent of the new ruler. As a youth and adult, he sought to revive his father's cause, and included allusions to the perceived injustice in at least one poem. After spending the last months of his life protesting against the authorities, Macedonski-father fell ill and died in September 1869, leaving his family to speculate that he had been murdered by political rivals.
Debut years
Macedonski left Romania in 1870, traveling through Austria-HungaryAustria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
and spending time in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, before visiting Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
and possibly other countries; according to one account, it was here that he may have first met (and disliked) his rival poet Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu
Mihai Eminescu was a Romantic poet, novelist and journalist, often regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active member of the Junimea literary society and he worked as an editor for the newspaper Timpul , the official newspaper of the Conservative Party...
, at a time a Viennese student. Macedonski's visit was meant to be preparation for entering the University of Bucharest
University of Bucharest
The University of Bucharest , in Romania, is a university founded in 1864 by decree of Prince Alexander John Cuza to convert the former Saint Sava Academy into the current University of Bucharest.-Presentation:...
, but he spent much of his time in the bohemian environment
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
, seeking entertainment and engaging in romantic escapades. He was however opposed to the lifestyle choices of people his age, claiming that they were engaged in "orgy after orgy". At around that date, the young author had begun to perfect a style heavily influenced by Romanticism
Romanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, and in particular by his Wallachian predecessors Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu was a Romanian poet , diplomat, politician, and a participant in the revolution of 1848. He was of Macedonian Aromanian origins...
and Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Radulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade was a Wallachian-born Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician...
. He was for a while in Styria, at Bad Gleichenberg
Bad Gleichenberg
Bad Gleichenberg is a municipality in the district of Feldbach in Styria, Austria....
, a stay which, George Călinescu believes, may have been the result of a medical recommendation to help him counter excessive nervousness. The landscape there inspired him to write an ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
. Also in 1870, he published his first lyrics in George Bariţ
George Barit
George Bariţ , often rendered as George Bariţiu, was a Romanian historian, philologist, playwright, politician, businessman and journalist, the founder of the Romanian language press in Transylvania.- Biography :...
's Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n-based journal Telegraful Român.
The following year, he left for Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where he visited Pisa
Pisa
Pisa is a city in Tuscany, Central Italy, on the right bank of the mouth of the River Arno on the Tyrrhenian Sea. It is the capital city of the Province of Pisa...
, Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, and possibly other cities. His records of the journey indicate that he was faced with financial difficulties and plagued by disease. Macedonski also claimed to have attended college lectures in these cities, and to have spent significant time studying at Pisa University
University of Pisa
The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...
, but this remains uncertain. He eventually returned to Bucharest, where he entered the Faculty of Letters (which he never attended regularly). According to Călinescu, Macedonski "did not feel the need" to attend classes, because "such a young man will expect society to render upon him its homages." He was again in Italy during spring 1872, soon after publishing his debut volume Prima verba (Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
for "First Word"). Having also written an anti-Carol piece, published in Telegraful Român during 1873, Macedonski reportedly feared political reprisals, and decided to make another visit to Styria and Italy while his case was being assessed. It was in Italy that he met French musicologist
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
Jules Combarieu, with whom he corresponded sporadically over the following decades.
During that period, Macedonski became interested in the political scene and political journalism, first as a sympathizer of the liberal-radical current
Liberalism and radicalism in Romania
This article gives an overview of Liberalism and Radicalism in Romania. It is limited to liberal parties with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in this scheme...
—which, in 1875, organized itself around the National Liberal Party
National Liberal Party (Romania)
The National Liberal Party , abbreviated to PNL, is a centre-right liberal party in Romania. It is the third-largest party in the Romanian Parliament, with 53 seats in the Chamber of Deputies and 22 in the Senate: behind the centre-right Democratic Liberal Party and the centre-left Social...
. In 1874, back in Craiova, Macedonski founded a short-lived literary society known as Junimea, a title which purposefully or unwittingly copied that of the influential conservative association
Junimea
Junimea was a Romanian literary society founded in Iaşi in 1863, through the initiative of several foreign-educated personalities led by Titu Maiorescu, Petre P. Carp, Vasile Pogor, Theodor Rosetti and Iacob Negruzzi...
with whom he would later quarrel. It was then that he met journalist and pedagogue Ştefan Velescu, a meeting witnessed by Velescu's pupil, the future liberal journalist Constantin Bacalbaşa, who recorded it in his memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s. Oltul magazine, which he had helped establish and which displayed a liberal agenda, continued to be published until July 1875, and featured Macedonski's translations from Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger was a prolific French poet and chansonnier , who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades following his death...
, Hector de Charlieu and Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
, as well as his debut in travel writing
Travel writing
Travel writing is a genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. The genre encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from the humorous to the serious....
and short story. At age 22, he worked on his first play, a comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
titled Gemenii ("The Twins"). In 1874 that he came to the attention of young journalist future dramatist Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale
Ion Luca Caragiale was a Wallachian-born Romanian playwright, short story writer, poet, theater manager, political commentator and journalist...
, who satirized
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
him in articles for the magazine Ghimpele, ridiculing his claim to Lithuanian descent, and eventually turning him into the character Aamsky, whose fictional career ends with his death from exhaustion caused by contributing to "for the country's political development". This was the first episode in a consuming polemic between the two figures. Reflecting back on this period in 1892, Macedonski described Caragiale as a "noisy young man" of "sophistic reasoning", whose target audience was to be found in "beer garden
Beer garden
Beer garden is an open-air area where beer, other drinks and local food are served. The concept originates from and is most common in Southern Germany...
s".
1875 trial and office as prefect
In March 1875, Macedonski was arrested on charges of defamation or seditionSedition
In law, sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organization, that is deemed by the legal authority to tend toward insurrection against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent to lawful authority. Sedition may include any...
. For almost a year before, he and Oltul had taken an active part in the campaign against Conservative Party and its leader, Premier
Prime Minister of Romania
The Prime Minister of Romania is the head of the Government of Romania. Initially, the office was styled President of the Council of Ministers , when the term "Government" included more than the Cabinet, and the Cabinet was called The Council of Ministers...
Lascăr Catargiu
Lascar Catargiu
Lascăr Catargiu was a Romanian conservative statesman born in Moldavia. He belonged to an ancient Wallachian family, one of whose members had been banished in the 17th century by Prince Matei Basarab, and had settled in Moldavia.-Biography:...
. In this context, he had demanded that the common man "rise up with weapons in their hands and break both the government agents and the government", following up with similar messages aimed at the Domnitor. He was taken to Bucharest's Văcăreşti prison and confined there for almost three months. Supported by the liberal press and defended by the most prestigious pro-liberal attorneys (Nicolae Fleva
Nicolae Fleva
Nicolae Fleva was a Wallachian-born Romanian politician, political journalist and lawyer. Known especially for his involvement in political incidents, and for a stated patriotism bordering on demagogy, he tested all political formulas that Romania's two-party system would allow...
among them), Macedonski faced a jury trial on June 7, being eventually cleared of the charges. Reportedly, the Bucharest populace organized a spontaneous celebration of the verdict.
In 1875, after the National Liberal Ion Emanuel Florescu
Ion Emanuel Florescu
Ion Emanuel Florescu was a Romanian army general who served as Prime Minister of Romania for a short time in a provisional government in 1876 and then in 1891 ....
was assigned the post of Premier by Carol, Macedonski embarked on an administrative career. The poet was upset by not being included on the National Liberal list for the 1875 suffrage. This disenchantment led him into a brief conflict with the young liberal figure Bonifaciu Florescu, only to join him soon afterward in editing Stindardul journal, alongside Pantazi Ghica
Pantazi Ghica
Pantazi Ghica was a Wallachian-born Romanian politician and lawyer, also known as a dramatist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic. A prominent representative of the liberal current, he was the younger brother and lifelong collaborator of Ion Ghica, who served as Prime Minister of the...
and George Fălcoianu. The publication followed the line of Nicolae Moret Blaremberg, made notorious for his radical
Radicalism (historical)
The term Radical was used during the late 18th century for proponents of the Radical Movement. It later became a general pejorative term for those favoring or seeking political reforms which include dramatic changes to the social order...
and republican
Republicanism
Republicanism is the ideology of governing a nation as a republic, where the head of state is appointed by means other than heredity, often elections. The exact meaning of republicanism varies depending on the cultural and historical context...
agenda. Ghica and Macedonski remained close friends until Ghica's 1882 death.
The new cabinet eventually appointed him Prefect
Prefect (Romania)
A prefect in Romania represents the Government in each of the country's 41 counties, as well as the Municipality of Bucharest.-Attributes:The main attributes of prefects are defined at Article 123 of the Constitution of Romania:...
of the Bolgrad
Bolhrad
Bolhrad sometimes known as Bolgrad is a small city in Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Bolhrad Raion , and is located at around ....
region in the Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
(at the time part of Romania). In parallel, he published his first translation, a version of Parisina
Parisina
Parisina is a poem written by Byron. It was published on 13 February 1816 and probably written between 1812 and 1815.It is based on a story related by Edward Gibbon in his Miscellaneous Works about Niccolò III d'Este, one of the dukes of Ferrara who lived in the fifteenth century...
, an 1816 epic poem by Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
, and completed the original works Ithalo and Calul arabului ("The Arab's Horse"). He also spoke at the Romanian Atheneum, presenting his views on the state of Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
(1878). His time in office ended upon the outbreak of the Russo-Turkish War. At the time, Russian volunteers were amassed on the Budjak border, requesting from the Romanian authorities the right of free passage into the Principality of Serbia. The National Liberal Premier Ion Brătianu
Ion Bratianu
Ion C. Brătianu was one of the major political figures of 19th century Romania. He was the younger brother of Dimitrie, as well as the father of Ionel, Dinu, and Vintilă Brătianu...
, who was negotiating an anti-Ottoman
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
alliance, sent Macedonski signals to let them pass, but the prefect, obeying the official recommendation of Internal Affairs Minister George D. Vernescu
George D. Vernescu
George D. Vernescu was a Romanian politician and jurist who served as the Minister of Administration and Interior from April 27, 1876 until January 27, 1876, Minister of Justice from November 12, 1888 until March 22, 1889, as the Minister of Finance from March 29, 1889 until November 3, 1889 and...
, decided against it, and was consequently stripped of his office.
Still determined to pursue a career in the press, Macedonski founded a string of unsuccessful magazines with patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
content and titles such as Vestea ("The Announcement"), Dunărea ("The Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
"), Fulgerul ("The Lightning") and, after 1880, Tarara (an onomatopoeia equivalent to "Toodoodoo"). Their history is connected with that of the Russo-Turkish War, at the end of which Romanian participation on the Russian side resulted in her independence. Macedonski remained committed to the anti-Ottoman cause, and, some thirty years later, stated: "We want no Turkey in Europe
Rumelia
Rumelia was an historical region comprising the territories of the Ottoman Empire in Europe...
!"
By 1879, the poet, who continued to voice criticism of Carol, had several times switched sides between the National Liberals and the opposition Conservatives. That year, while the Budjak was ceded to Russia and Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in south by Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.-Geography:...
was integrated into Romania, the Brătianu cabinet appointed him administrator of the Sulina
Sulina
Sulina is a town and free port in Tulcea County, Romania, at the mouth of the Sulina branch of the Danube. It is the easternmost point of Romania and of the continental European Union.-History:...
plasă
Plasa
The Professional Lighting And Sound Association or PLASA is a UK-based trade organisation representing over 500 members worldwide.In addition to providing members with expert advice on a wide range of business and technical issues, PLASA also monitors legislative developments, alerting members to...
and the Danube Delta
Danube Delta
The Danube Delta is the second largest river delta in Europe, after the Volga Delta, and is the best preserved on the continent. The greater part of the Danube Delta lies in Romania , while its northern part, on the left bank of the Chilia arm, is situated in Ukraine . The approximate surface is...
. He had previously refused to be made comptroller
Comptroller
A comptroller is a management level position responsible for supervising the quality of accounting and financial reporting of an organization.In British government, the Comptroller General or Comptroller and Auditor General is in most countries the external auditor of the budget execution of the...
in Putna County
Putna County
Putna was a county in the Kingdom of Romania, in southern Moldavia. The county seat was Focṣani.-Administrative organization:Administratively, Putna County was divided into six districts :# Plasa Bilieşti# Plasa Gârlele...
, believing such an appointment to be beneath his capacity, and had lost a National Liberal appointment in Silistra
Silistra
Silistra is a port city of northeastern Bulgaria, lying on the southern bank of the lower Danube at the country's border with Romania. Silistra is the administrative centre of Silistra Province and one of the important cities of the historical region of Southern Dobrudzha...
when Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja
Southern Dobruja is an area of north-eastern Bulgaria comprising the administrative districts named for its two principal cities of Dobrich and Silistra...
was granted to the Principality of Bulgaria
Principality of Bulgaria
The Principality of Bulgaria was a self-governing entity created as a vassal of the Ottoman Empire by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878. The preliminary treaty of San Stefano between the Russian Empire and the Porte , on March 3, had originally proposed a significantly larger Bulgarian territory: its...
. During this short interval in office, he traveled to the Snake Island
Snake Island (Black Sea)
Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, , is a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta.The island is populated. A rural settlement of Bile was established in February 2007, which is part of the Vylkove city, Kiliya Raion, Odessa Oblast...
in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
—his appreciation for the place later motivated him to write the fantasy novel
Fantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu and the poem Lewki.
Early Literatorul years
With the 1880s came a turning point in Alexandru Macedonski's career. Vianu notes that changes took place in the poet's relationship with his public: "Society recognizes in him the nonconformist. [...] The man becomes singular; people start talking about his oddities." Macedonski's presumed frustration at being perceived in this way, Vianu notes, may have led him closer to the idea of poète mauditPoète maudit
A poète maudit is a poet living a life outside or against society. Abuse of drugs and alcohol, insanity, crime, violence, and in general any societal sin, often resulting in an early death are typical elements of the biography of a poète maudit....
, theorized earlier by Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
. In this context, he had set his sight on promoting "social poetry", the merger between lyricism and political militantism. Meanwhile, according to Călinescu, his attacks on the liberals and the "daft insults he aimed at [Romania's] throne" had effectively ruined his own chance of political advancement.
In January 1880, he launched his most influential and long-lived publication, Literatorul, which was also the focal point of his eclectic
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
cultural circle, and, in later years, of the local Symbolist school
Symbolist movement in Romania
The Symbolist movement in Romania, active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked the development of Romanian culture in both literature and visual arts...
. In its first version, the magazine was co-edited by Macedonski, Bonifaciu Florescu and poet Th. M. Stoenescu. Florescu parted with the group soon after, due to a disagreement with Macedonski, and was later attacked by the latter for allegedly accumulating academic posts. Literatorul aimed to irritate Junimist sensibilities from its first issue, when it stated its dislike for "political prejudice in literature." This was most likely an allusion to the views of Junimist figure Titu Maiorescu
Titu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, being later accompanied by explicit attacks on him and his followers. An early success for the new journal was the warm reception it received from Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
, a Romantic poet and occasional Junimist whom Macedonski idolized at the time, and the collaboration of popular memoirist Gheorghe Sion. Another such figure was the intellectual V. A. Urechia
V. A. Urechia
V. A. Urechia was a Moldavian-born Romanian historian, Romantic author of historical fiction and plays, academic and politician...
, whom Macedonski made president of the Literatorul Society. In 1881, Education Minister Urechia granted Macedonski the Bene-Merenti medal 1st class, although, Călinescu stresses, the poet had only totaled 18 months of public service. At around that time, Macedonski had allegedly begun courting actress Aristizza Romanescu, who rejected his advances, leaving him unenthusiastic about love matters and unwilling to seek female company.
In parallel, Macedonski used the magazine to publicize his disagreement with the main Junimist voice, Convorbiri Literare. Among the group of contributors, several had already been victims of Maiorescu's irony: Sion, Urechia, Pantazi Ghica and Petru Grădişteanu. While welcoming the debut of its contributor, Parnassian-Neoclassicist
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...
novelist and poet Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while in 1920, he was Foreign Minister of Romania...
, Macedonski repeatedly attacked its main exponent, the conservative poet Eminescu, claiming not to understand his poetry. However, Literatorul was also open to contributions from some Convorbiri Literare affiliates (Zamfirescu, Matilda Cugler-Poni and Veronica Micle
Veronica Micle
Veronica Micle was an Imperial Austrian-born Romanian poet, whose work was influenced by Romanticism. She is best known for her love affair with the poet Mihai Eminescu, one of the most important Romanian writers.-Biography:Born in Năsăud, Micle was the second child of the shoemaker Ilie Câmpeanu...
).
In November 1880, Macedonski's plays Iadeş! ("Wishbone!", a comedy first printed in 1882) and Unchiaşul Sărăcie ("Old Man Poverty") premiered at the National Theater Bucharest. A sign of government approval, this was followed by Macedonski's appointment to a minor administrative office, as Historical Monuments Inspector. Nevertheless, both plays failed to impose themselves on public perception, and were withdrawn from the program by 1888. Călinescu asserts that, although Macedonski later claimed to have always been facing poverty, his job in the administration, coupled with other sources of revenue, ensured him a comfortable existence.
In 1881, Macedonski published a new collection of poetry. Titled Poezii
Poezii (Macedonski)
Poezii is an 1882 collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Ocnele, "The Salt Mines"*Formele , "The Forms "*Noaptea de aprilie, "April Night"...
, it carries the year "1882" on its original cover. Again moving away from liberalism, Macedonski sought to make himself accepted by Junimea and Maiorescu. He consequently attended the Junimea sessions, and gave a public reading of Noaptea de noiembrie ("November Night"), the first publicized piece in his lifelong Nights cycle. It reportedly earned him the praise of historian and poet Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
, who, although an anti-Junimist, happened to be in the audience. Despite rumors according to which he had applauded Macedonski, Maiorescu himself was not impressed, and left an unenthusiastic account of the event in his private diary.
Against Alecsandri and Eminescu
Macedonski's open conflict with Junimea began in 1882, when he engaged in a publicized polemic with Alecsandri. It was ignited when, through Macedonski's articles, Literatorul criticized Alecsandri for accepting Romanian AcademyRomanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
prizes despite being its member, and later involved Sion (whose replies on behalf of the Academy were derided by Macedonski). Macedonski also took distance from Alecsandri's style, publishing a "critical analysis" of his poetry in one issue of Literatorul. In turn, Alecsandri humiliated his young rival by portraying him as Zoilus
Zoilus
Zoilus or Zoilos was a Greek grammarian, Cynic philosopher, and literary critic from Amphipolis in East Macedonia, then known as Thrace...
, the prototype of slanderers, and himself as the model poet Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
in the 1883 play Fântâna Blanduziei. The two were eventually reconciled, and Macedonski again spoke of Alecsandri as his ideological and stylistic predecessor.
In April 1882, Eminescu had also replied to Macedonski in Timpul
Timpul
Timpul is a newspaper published in Romania, originally published as the official platform of the defunct Conservative Party....
journal, referring to an unnamed poet who "barely finishes high-school, comes over to Bucharest selling nick-nacks and makeup [and goes into] literary dealership". Reproaching Macedonski's attacks on Alecsandri, Eminescu makes a nationalist
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
comment about the young poet bearing "the bastard instincts of those foreigners who were Romanianized
Romanianization
Romanianization or Rumanization is the term used to describe a number of ethnic assimilation policies implemented by the Romanian authorities during the 20th century...
only yesterday", and attributes him "the physiognomy of a hairdresser". Through the articles of Petru Th. Missir, Convorbiri Literare gave Poezii a negative review, deemed "malevolent" by literary historian Mircea Anghelescu. At the other end of the political and cultural spectrum, Macedonski faced opposition from the intellectuals attracted to socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, in particular Contemporanul
Contemporanul
Contemporanul is a Romanian literary magazine published in Iaşi, Romania from 1881 to 1891 being sponsored by the socialist circle of the city....
editors Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille
Constantin Mille was a Romanian journalist, novelist, poet, lawyer, and socialist militant, as well as a prominent human rights activist...
and Ioan Nădejde, with whom he was engaged in an extended polemic.
In the meantime, Macedonski published his own play, which had Cuza for its main character and was eponymously titled Cuza-Vodă, and completed translations for Literatorul—from Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat was a French poet.-Early works:His father represented Indre in the National Assembly of 1848, and was a friend of George Sand, whose influence is very marked in young Rollinat's first volume, Dans les brandes , and to whom it was dedicated.-Brief fame:After its publication, he...
, whom he helped impose as a main cultural reference in Romanian Symbolism, and from the Greek
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
poet Akhillefs Paraskhos. In 1883, he also contributed his first sketch story
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
, Casa cu nr. 10 ("The House at Number 10"). In early 1883, he married Ana Rallet-Slătineanu. Wealthy and supposedly related to Romanian aristocrats, she would bear him five children in all: the painter Alexis was the eldest, followed by Nikita; the three youngest were two sons (Panel and Constantin Macedonski) and a daughter, Anna (also known as Nina). His heterosexual lifestyle notwithstanding, Macedonski remained a self-avowed admirer of male beauties, and was rumored to be a closeted homosexual.
In July 1883, Macedonski undertook one of his most controversial anti-Junimist actions. That month, Literatorul published an epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
signed with the pseudonym Duna, deriding an unnamed author who had lost his mind. Mihai Eminescu—whom many had already come to see as Romania's national poet—had by then developed a mental disorder which had become known to the general public. Ever since that moment, Macedonski has generally been believed to be Duna, and as a result, was faced with much criticism from both readers and commentators. The intense anti-Literatorul press campaign was initiated in August, when writer Grigore Ventura issued an article condemning Macedonski's attitude (published in the Bucharest-based newspaper L'Indépendance Roumaine), with Macedonski responding in the National Liberal organ Românul. During one evening, Macedonski is reported to have been assaulted by anonymous supporters of Eminescu. His previous conflict with Nădejde was also affected by this renewed controversy: while opposed to Junimist policies, the socialists at Contemporanul voiced their admiration for Eminescu's art.
Late in 1883, Macedonski and his friends unveiled Ion Georgescu's statue of their mentor Bolintineanu in the National Theater lobby. The circumstances in which this took place rose suspicion of foul play; on this grounds, Macedonski was ridiculed by his former friend Zamfirescu in the journal România Liberă
România Libera
România Liberă is one of the leading newspapers in Romania. Based in Bucharest, the Romanian-language daily has a paid daily circulation of 40,000....
, which left him embittered. Călinescu proposes that, although such negative reactions were invoked by Macedonski's supporters as a sign of their mentor having been marginalized, Macedonski had expressed his dissatisfaction with the cultural environment long before that moment, and was still a respected figure even after the incidents took place.
First Paris sojourn and Poezia viitorului
Having been stripped of his administrative office by the new Brătianu cabinet, Macedonski faced financial difficulties, and was forced to move into a house on the outskirts of Bucharest, and later moved between houses in northern Bucharest. According to Călinescu, the poet continued to cultivate luxury and passionately invested in the decorative arts, although his source of income, other than the supposed assistance "of [European] ruling houses", remains a mystery. Arguing that Macedonski was "always in need of money" to use on his luxury items, poet Victor EftimiuVictor Eftimiu
Victor Eftimiu was an Albanian-Romanian poet, playwright, and a contributor to Sburătorul, a Romanian literary magazine. His works have been performed in the State Jewish Theater of Romania....
claimed: "He did not shy away from sending emphatic notes to the potentates of his day [...], flattering some, threatening others. He would marry off or simply mate some of his disciples with aging and rich women, and then he would squeeze out their assets."
Macedonski eventually left Romania in 1884, visiting Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. On his way there, he passed through Craiova, where he met aspiring author Traian Demetrescu
Traian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
, whose works he had already hosted in Literatorul and who was to become his friend and protégé. Demetrescu later recalled being gripped by "tremors of emotion" upon first catching sight of Macedonski. In France, Macedonski set up contacts within the French literary environment, and began contributing to French or Francophone
Francophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
literary publications—including the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
Symbolist platforms La Wallonie and L'Élan littéraire. His collaboration with La Wallonie alongside Albert Mockel
Albert Mockel
Albert Mockel was a Belgian Symbolist poet. Born in Ougrée, he was the editor of La Wallonie, an influential journal of Belgian Symbolism...
, Tudor Vianu believes, makes Alexandru Macedonski one in the original wave of European Symbolists. This adaptation to Symbolism also drew on his marked Francophilia
Francophile
Is a person with a positive predisposition or interest toward the government, culture, history, or people of France. This could include France itself and its history, the French language, French cuisine, literature, etc...
, which in turn complemented his tendencies toward cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
. He became opposed to Carol I, who, in 1881, had been granted the Crown
King of Romania
King of the Romanians , rather than King of Romania , was the official title of the ruler of the Kingdom of Romania from 1881 until 1947, when Romania was proclaimed a republic....
of the Romanian Kingdom
Kingdom of Romania
The Kingdom of Romania was the Romanian state based on a form of parliamentary monarchy between 13 March 1881 and 30 December 1947, specified by the first three Constitutions of Romania...
. In addition to his admiration for Cuza and the 1848 Wallachian revolutionaries
Wallachian Revolution of 1848
The Wallachian Revolution of 1848 was a Romanian liberal and Romantic nationalist uprising in the Principality of Wallachia. Part of the Revolutions of 1848, and closely connected with the unsuccessful revolt in the Principality of Moldavia, it sought to overturn the administration imposed by...
, the poet objected to the King's sympathy for France's main rival, the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
. In January 1885, after having returned from the voyage, he announced his retirement from public life, claiming that German influence and its exponents at Junimea had "conquered" Romanian culture
Culture of Romania
Romania has a unique culture, which is the product of its geography and of its distinct historical evolution. Like Romanians themselves, it is defined as the meeting point of three regions: Central Europe, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, but cannot be truly included in any of them...
, and repeating his claim that Eminescu lacked value.
In the meantime, Literatorul went out of print, although new series were still published at irregular intervals until 1904 (when it ceased being published altogether). The magazine was reportedly hated by the public, causing Macedonski, Stoenescu, Florescu, Urechia and educator Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu was a Romanian historian, writer and literary critic, member of the Romanian Academy in 1902.-Childhood and studies:...
to try and revive it as Revista Literară ("The Literary Review", published for a few months in 1885). The poet attempted to establish other magazines, all of them short-lived, and, in 1887, handed for print his Naturalist
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
novella
Novella
A novella is a written, fictional, prose narrative usually longer than a novelette but shorter than a novel. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Awards for science fiction define the novella as having a word count between 17,500 and 40,000...
Dramă banală ("Banal Drama") while completing one of the most revered episodes in the Nights series, Noaptea de mai ("May Night"). Also in 1886, he worked on his other Naturalist novellas: Zi de august ("August Day"), Pe drum de poştă ("On the Stagecoach Trail"), Din carnetul unui dezertor ("From the Notebook of a Deserter"), Între coteţe ("Amidst Hen Houses") and the eponymous Nicu Dereanu.
By 1888, he was again sympathetic toward Blaremberg, whose dissident National Liberal faction had formed an alliance with the Conservatives, editing Stindardul Ţărei (later Straja Ţărei) as his supporting journal. However, late in the same year, he returned to the liberal mainstream, being assigned a weekly column in Românul newspaper. Two years later, he attempted to relaunch Literatorul under the leadership of liberal figure Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu
Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Hasdeu is considered to have been able to understand 26 languages .-Life:...
, but the latter eventually settled for founding his own Revista Nouă. Around 1891, he saluted Junimeas own break with the Conservatives and its entry into politics at the Conservative-Constitutional Party, before offering an enthusiastic welcome to the 1892 Junimist agitation among university students. In 1894, he would speak in front of student crowds gathered at a political rally in University Square
University Square, Bucharest
University Square is located in downtown Bucharest, near the University of Bucharest.Four statues are located in the University Square, in front of the University; they depict Ion Heliade Rădulescu , Michael the Brave , Gheorghe Lazăr and Spiru Haret .The square was the site of the 1990 Golaniad,...
, and soon after made himself known for supporting the cause of ethnic Romanians
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
and other underrepresented groups of Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary
Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...
.
His literary thesis of the time was titled Poezia viitorului ("The Poetry of the Future"). It upheld Symbolist authors as the models to follow, while Macedonski personally began producing what he referred to as "instrumentalist" poems, composed around musical and onomatopoeic elements, and showing a preference for internal rhyme
Internal rhyme
In poetry, internal rhyme, or middle rhyme, is rhyme that occurs in a single line of verse.Internal rhyme occurs in the middle of a line, as exemplified by Coleridge, "In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud" or "Whiles all the night through fog-smoke white," in "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner." ...
s. Such an experimental
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
approach was soon after parodied
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
and ridiculed by Ion Luca Caragiale, who had by then affiliated and parted with Junimea, in his new Moftul Român magazine. The poet sought to reconcile with his rival, publicizing a claim that Caragiale was being unjustly ignored by the cultural establishment, but this attempt failed to mend relations between them, and the conflict escalated further.
While, in 1893, Literatorul hosted fragments of Thalassa in its Romanian-language version, the author also launched a daily, Lumina ("The Light"). It was also at that stage that Alexandru Macedonski associated with Cincinat Pavelescu, the noted epigrammarian, who joined him in editing Literatorul, and with whom he co-authored the 1893 verse tragedy
Tragedy
Tragedy is a form of art based on human suffering that offers its audience pleasure. While most cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, tragedy refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of...
depicting the Biblical
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
hero Saul
Saul
-People:Saul is a given/first name in English, the Anglicized form of the Hebrew name Shaul from the Hebrew Bible:* Saul , including people with this given namein the Bible:* Saul , a king of Edom...
, and named after him. Although showcased by the National Theater with star actor Constantin Nottara in the title role, it failed to register success with the public. Two years later, the two Literatorul editors made headlines as pioneers of cycling
Cycling
Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...
. An enthusiastic promoter of the sport, Macedonski joined fellow poet Constantin Cantilli on a marathon, pedaling from Bucharest across the border into Austria-Hungary, all the way down to Braşov
Brasov
Brașov is a city in Romania and the capital of Brașov County.According to the last Romanian census, from 2002, there were 284,596 people living within the city of Brașov, making it the 8th most populated city in Romania....
.
Late 1890s
Macedonski also returned with a new volume of poetry, ExcelsiorExcelsior (Macedonski)
Excelsior is the title of a collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Valţul rozelor*Excelsior*Stepa*Cu morţii*Vis de mai*Psalmi moderni*Noaptea de noiembrie*Sub stele*Acşam dovalar...
(consecutive editions in 1895 and 1896), and founded Liga Ortodoxă ("The Orthodox League"), a magazine noted for hosting the debut of Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
, later one of the most celebrated figures in Romanian literature. Macedonski commended his new protégé for reaching "the summit of poetry and art" at "an age when I was still prattling verses". Liga Ortodoxă also hosted articles against Caragiale, which Macedonski signed with the pseudonym Sallustiu ("Sallustius
Sallustius
Sallustius or Sallust was a 4th-century Latin writer, a friend of the Roman Emperor Julian. He wrote the treatise On the Gods and the Cosmos, a kind of catechism of 4th-century Hellenic paganism. Sallustius' work owes much to that of Iamblichus of Chalcis, who synthesized Platonism with...
"). The magazine was additional proof of Macedonski's return to conservatism, and largely dedicated to defending the cause of Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan
Patriarch of All Romania
The Patriarch of All Romania is the title of the head of the Romanian Orthodox Church. As of September 12, 2007, the chair is occupied by Daniel Ciobotea.-Metropolitans of Ungro-Wallachia:* Maxim * Macarie II * Ilarion II...
Ghenadie
Ghenadie Petrescu
Ghenadie Petrescu was a Wallachian-born Romanian priest of the national Orthodox church, who served as Metropolitan-Primate of Romania from 1893 to 1896. Ghenadie was a monk and hieromonk steadily progressing through church ranks, and becoming Bishop of Argeş in 1875...
, deposed by the Romanian Synod following a political scandal. It defended Ghenadie up until he chose to resign, and subsequently went out of print. Macedonski was shocked to note that Ghenadie had given up his own defense.
In 1895, his Casa cu nr. 10 was translated into French by the Journal des Débats
Journal des Débats
The Journal des débats was a French newspaper, published between 1789 and 1944 that changed title several times...
, whose editors reportedly found it picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
. Two years later, Macedonski himself published French-language translations of his earlier poetry under the title Bronzes, a volume prefaced by his disciple, the critic and promoter Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti
Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti was a Romanian Symbolist poet, essayist, and art and literary critic, who was also known as a journalist and left-wing political agitator. A wealthy landowner, he invested his fortune in patronage and art collecting, becoming one of the main local promoters of modern art,...
. Although it was positively reviewed by Mercure de France
Mercure de France
The Mercure de France was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group....
magazine, Bronzes was largely unnoticed by the French audience, a fact which Tudor Vianu attributes to Bogdan-Piteşti's lack of qualification for the cultural mission Macedonski had trusted him with. By that time, his circle had come to be frequented with regularity by Bogdan-Piteşti's friend and collaborator, the celebrated painter Ştefan Luchian
Stefan Luchian
Ștefan Luchian or Lukian was a Romanian painter, famous for his landscapes and still life works.-Early life:He was born in Ștefănești, a village of Botoșani County, as the son of Major Dumitru Luchian and of Elena Chiriacescu. The Luchian family moved to Bucharest in 1873 and his mother desired...
, who was in the Symbolist and Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
stage of his career.
By 1898, Macedonski was again facing financial difficulties, and his collaborators resorted to organizing a fundraiser
Fundraiser
A fundraiser is an event or campaign whose primary purpose is to raise money for a cause. See also: fundraising. A fundraiser can also be an individual or company whose primary job is to raise money for a specific charity or non-profit organization...
in his honor. His rejection of the Orthodox establishment was documented by his political tract, published that year as . Between that time and 1900, he focused on researching esoteric
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
, occult
Occult
The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...
and pseudoscientific
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
subjects. Traian Demetrescu
Traian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
, who recorded his visits with Macedonski, recalled his former mentor being opposed to his positivist
Positivism
Positivism is a a view of scientific methods and a philosophical approach, theory, or system based on the view that, in the social as well as natural sciences, sensory experiences and their logical and mathematical treatment are together the exclusive source of all worthwhile information....
take on science, claiming to explain the workings of the Universe in "a different way", through "imagination", but also taking an interest in Camille Flammarion
Camille Flammarion
Nicolas Camille Flammarion was a French astronomer and author. He was a prolific author of more than fifty titles, including popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and several works about Spiritism and related topics. He also published the magazine...
's astronomy
Astronomy
Astronomy is a natural science that deals with the study of celestial objects and phenomena that originate outside the atmosphere of Earth...
studies. Macedonski was determined to interpret death through parapsychological
Parapsychology
The term parapsychology was coined in or around 1889 by philosopher Max Dessoir, and originates from para meaning "alongside", and psychology. The term was adopted by J.B. Rhine in the 1930s as a replacement for the term psychical research...
means, and, in 1900, conferenced at the Atheneum on the subject Sufletul şi viaţa viitoare ("The Soul and the Coming Life"). The focal point of his vision was that man could voluntarily stave off death with words and gestures, a concept he elaborated upon in his later articles. In one such piece, Macedonski argued: "man has the power [...] to compact the energy currents known as thoughts to the point where he changes them, according to his own will, into objects or soul-bearing creatures." He also attempted to build a machine for extinguishing chimney fire
Chimney fire
A chimney fire is the combustion of residue deposits referred to as creosote, on the inner surfaces of chimney tiles, flue liners, stove pipes, etc. The process begins with the incomplete combustion of fuel in the attached appliance, usually a wood or coal stove...
s. Later, Nikita Macedonski registered the invention of nacre
Nacre
Nacre , also known as mother of pearl, is an organic-inorganic composite material produced by some mollusks as an inner shell layer; it is also what makes up pearls. It is very strong, resilient, and iridescent....
-treated paper, which is sometimes attributed to his father.
Caion scandal and expatriation
The few issues of Literatorul that were printed in 1899-1900 saw the circle being joined by the young Symbolist poet Ştefan Petică. In 1902, he published Cartea de aur ("The Golden Book"), comprising his sketch storiesSketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
and novellas. In parallel, Macedonski returned to the public scene, founding Forţa Morală magazine. It was through this venue that he began responding to Ion Luca Caragiale's earlier attacks. This he did by hosting the articles of aspiring journalist Constantin Al. Ionescu-Caion, who accused Caragiale of having plagiarized
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
a Hungarian
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
author by the name of Kemény in his tragedy play Năpasta. Kemény turned out to be non-existent. According to Vianu, Macedonski had no prior knowledge of the fraud, but had also been "blinded" by his resentments instead of displaying "discernment", and had even showed evidence of "insanity". Most in Macedonski's own series of anti-Caragiale articles were unsigned, or signed with pseudonyms such as Luciliu ("Gaius Lucilius
Gaius Lucilius
Gaius Lucilius , the earliest Roman satirist, of whose writings only fragments remain, was a Roman citizen of the equestrian class, born at Suessa Aurunca in Campania.-The Problem of his birthdate:...
").
Like in the case of Eminescu's conflict with Macedonski, the polemic enlisted a negative response from the public. The poet's associate Th. M. Stoenescu convinced himself that Caragiale was being framed, and refused to allow Revista Literară to be used for endorsing Caion, which caused Macedonski to shun him. Macedonski refused to withdraw his support for the cause even after Caragiale sued Caion, but Forţa Morală soon went out of print. Before it did so, the journal hosted some of Macedonski's most renowned poems, including Lewki and Noaptea de decemvrie ("December Night"), together with his article on Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars...
's thoughts on poetics
Poetics
Aristotle's Poetics is the earliest-surviving work of dramatic theory and the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory...
.
In his article of 1903, titled ("Toward Occultism. Later Orientations toward Theosophy
Theosophy
Theosophy, in its modern presentation, is a spiritual philosophy developed since the late 19th century. Its major themes were originally described mainly by Helena Blavatsky , co-founder of the Theosophical Society...
and Social Philosophy
Social philosophy
Social philosophy is the philosophical study of questions about social behavior . Social philosophy addresses a wide range of subjects, from individual meanings to legitimacy of laws, from the social contract to criteria for revolution, from the functions of everyday actions to the effects of...
"), the poet envisaged making his interest in esoteric subjects the basis of a new literary movement. Also that year, poet George Bacovia
George Bacovia
George Bacovia was a Romanian symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventually established him in critical esteem alongside Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga and Ion Barbu as one of the most...
began attending the literary circle, and gave a reading of his celebrated Plumb poem, being welcomed by Macedonski with a flattering epigram. Macedonski's series of short-lived periodicals resumed in 1905, when he founded Le Beau Danube Bleu (French for "The Beautiful Blue Danube") and Liga Conservatoare ("The Conservative League"). He registered more success in 1906, when his Thalassa was published, as Le Calvaire de feu, by Edward Sansot's Paris-based publishing house. This followed intense self-promotion within the French literary environment, as well as advertisements in the French press. Part of this involved Macedonski sending his book to be reviewed by Émile Faguet
Émile Faguet
Auguste Émile Faguet was a French author and literary critic.Faguet was born at La Roche-sur-Yon, and educated at the École normale supérieure in Paris. After teaching for some time in La Rochelle and Bordeaux, he returned to Paris to act as assistant professor of poetry in the university. He...
, Jean Mounet-Sully
Jean Mounet-Sully
Mounet-Sully , a French actor, was born at Bergerac. His birth name was Jean-Sully Mounet: "Mounet-Sully" was a stage name....
, Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism.-Biography:...
, Pierre Quillard
Pierre Quillard
Pierre Quillard was a French Symbolist poet, playwright, translator , and journalist. An anarchist and supporter of Dreyfuss, he later became one of the first people to defend the Armenians persecuted under the Ottoman Empire...
and Jean Richepin
Jean Richepin
Jean Richepin , French poet, novelist and dramatist, the son of an army doctor, was born at Médéa, French Algeria.At school and at the École Normale Supérieure he gave evidence of brilliant, if somewhat undisciplined, powers, for which he found physical vent in different directions—first as a...
, who replied with what Vianu deems "the politeness of circumstance." The volume was nonetheless favorably reviewed by the prestigious magazines Mercure de France and Gil Blas
Gil Blas (periodical)
Gil Blas was a Parisian literary periodical founded by Augustin-Alexandre Dumont in November 1879. It was in publication until 1914...
.
Also in 1906, La Revue Musicale published his interview with Combarieu, through which the latter aimed to verify supposed connections between literary inspiration and musical sensitivity. By 1907, he was concentrating on experiments in physics, and eventually publicized his claim to have discovered that light does not travel through vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
. He sent a paper on astronomy subjects to be reviewed by the Société Astronomique de France
Société Astronomique de France
The Société Astronomique de France is a French astronomical society that was founded by the astronomer Camille Flammarion....
, of which he subsequently became a member. The same year, he drafted the plan for a world government
World government
World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...
, announcing that he had found sympathy for the cause throughout Europe. Macedonski also introduced himself to an Italophone public, when two of his sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
s were published by Poesia, the magazine of Futurist
Futurism
Futurism was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.Futurism or futurist may refer to:* Afrofuturism, an African-American and African diaspora subculture* Cubo-Futurism* Ego-Futurism...
theorist Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti
Filippo Tommaso Emilio Marinetti was an Italian poet and editor, the founder of the Futurist movement, and a fascist ideologue.-Childhood and adolescence:...
.
Between 1910 and 1912, Macedonski was again in Paris. Seeking to withdraw himself from Romania's public life due to what he perceived as injustice, he had by then completed work on the French-language tragicomedy
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
Le Fou? ("The Madman?"), which was only published after his death. He was actively seeking to establish his reputation in French theater
Theatre of France
The theatre of France has a long and eventful history dating back to the Middle Ages.-Middle Ages:Discussions about the origins of non-religious theatre -- both drama and farce—in the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and...
, reading his new play to a circle which included Louis de Gonzague Frick and Florian-Parmentier, while, at home, newspapers reported rumors that his work was going to be staged by Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt
Sarah Bernhardt was a French stage and early film actress, and has been referred to as "the most famous actress the world has ever known". Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas...
's company. His efforts were largely fruitless, and, accompanied by his son Alexis, the poet left France, spent some time in Italy, and eventually returned to Romania. Passing through the German Empire
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
, he learned of Ion Luca Caragiale's sudden death, and wrote Adevărul
Adevarul
Adevărul is a Romanian daily newspaper, based in Bucharest. Founded in 1871 and reestablished in 1888, it was the main left-wing press venue to be published during the Romanian Kingdom's existence, adopting an independent pro-democratic position, advocating land reform and universal suffrage...
daily an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
, which showed that he had come to revise his stance, notably comparing the deceased author's style and legacy to those of Mark Twain
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens , better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist...
.
During Macedonski's absence, his style and work had come to be reviewed more positively, in particular by the young authors I. Dragoslav
I. Dragoslav
I. Dragoslav or Ion Dragoslav, pen names of Ion V. Ivaciuc or Ion Sumanariu Ivanciuc , was a Romanian writer...
, Horia Furtună, Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat grew up in Bucharest. He was a poet, best known for his volume Pe Argeş în sus and Poeme într-un vers...
, Anastasie Mândru, Al. T. Stamatiad, as well as by post-Junimist critic Mihail Dragomirescu, who offered Macedonski a good reception in his Convorbiri Critice magazine. Tudor Vianu, who cites contemporary statements by Dragoslav, concludes that, upon arrival, Macedonski was enthusiastically received by a public who had missed him. Also in 1912, one of his poems was published as an homage by Simbolul
Simbolul
Simbolul was a Romanian literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between October and December 1912. Co-founded by writers Tristan Tzara and Ion Vinea, together with visual artist Marcel Janco, while they were all high school students, the journal was a late representative of international...
, a magazine published by the young and radical Symbolists Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
, Ion Vinea and Marcel Janco
Marcel Janco
Marcel Janco was a Romanian and Israeli visual artist, architect, art theorist and cultural promoter, known as the co-inventor of Dadaism and a leading exponent of Constructivism in Eastern Europe. His first contribution came in the 1910s, when he joined up with poets Tristan Tzara and Ion Vinea...
. Around that time, Macedonski also collaborated with the Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
-based moderate Symbolist magazine Versuri şi Proză. Polemics surrounding his case nevertheless continued: in late 1912, as part of a National Theater adaptation of Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet
Alphonse Daudet was a French novelist. He was the father of Léon Daudet and Lucien Daudet.- Early life :Alphonse Daudet was born in Nîmes, France. His family, on both sides, belonged to the bourgeoisie. The father, Vincent Daudet, was a silk manufacturer — a man dogged through life by misfortune...
's Sapho, actor Cazimir Belcot borrowed from Macedonski's appearance and mannerisms to portray a failure.
Return and World War I years
Macedonski and his protégés had become regular frequenters of Bucharest cafés. Having a table permanently reserved for him at Imperial Hotel's Kübler Coffeehouse, he was later a presence in two other such establishments: High-Life and Terasa Oteteleşanu. He is said to have spent part of his time at Kübler loudly mocking the traditionalist poets who gathered at an opposite table. Meanwhile, the poet's literary club, set up at his house in DorobanţiDorobanti
Dorobanţi is a neighborhood in Sector 1, Bucharest. The neighborhood is dominated by red brick buildings and glass buildings. Main intersections/squares are Perla, Dorobanţi Square, Lahovari, Charles de Gaulle and Quito Square. Main streets are Calea Dorobanţilor, Iancu de Hunedoara Avenue, Lascăr...
quarter, had come to resemble a mystical
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
circle, over which he held magisterial command. Vianu, who visited the poet together with Pillat, compares this atmosphere with those created by other "mystics and magi of poetry" (citing as examples Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism.-Biography:...
, Louis-Nicolas Ménard
Louis-Nicolas Ménard
Louis-Nicolas Ménard was a French man of letters also known for his early discoveries on collodion.He was born in Paris. His versatile genius occupied itself in turn with chemistry, poetry, painting and history. In 1843 he published, under the pseudonym of L. de Senneville, a translation of...
, Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
and Stefan George
Stefan George
Stefan Anton George was a German poet, editor, and translator.-Biography:George was born in Bingen in Germany in 1868. He spent time in Paris, where he was among the writers and artists who attended the Tuesday soireés held by the poet Stéphane Mallarmé. He began to publish poetry in the 1890s,...
). The hall where seances were hosted was only lit by candles, and the tables were covered in red fabric. Macedonski himself was seated on a throne designed by Alexis, and adopted a dominant pose. The apparent secrecy and the initiation rites performed on new members were purportedly inspired by Rosicrucianism and the Freemasonry
Freemasonry
Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge...
. By then, Macedonski was rewarding his followers' poems with false gemstone
Gemstone
A gemstone or gem is a piece of mineral, which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments...
s.
The poet founded Revista Critică ("The Critical Review"), which again closed after a short while, and issued the poetry volume Flori sacre ("Sacred Flowers"). Grouping his Forţa Morală poems and older pieces, it was dedicated to his new generation of followers, whom Macedonski's preface referred to as "the new Romania." He continued to hope that Le Fou? was going to be staged in France, especially after he received some encouragement in the form of articles in Mercure de France and Journal des Débats, but was confronted with the general public's indifference. In 1914, Thalassa was published in a non-definitive version by Constantin Banu's magazine Flacăra
Flacăra
Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....
, which sought to revive overall interest in his work. At a French Red Cross conference in September, Macedonski paid his final public homage to France, which had just become entangled in World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
. It was also in 1914 that Macedonski commissioned for print his very first rondels
Rondel (poem)
A rondel is a verse form originating in French lyrical poetry, later used in the verse of other languages as well, such as English and Romanian. It is a variation of the rondeau consisting of two quatrains followed by a quintet or a sestet...
and completed work on a tragedy play about Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
poet Dante Aligheri—known as La Mort de Dante in its French original, and Moartea lui Dante in the secondary Romanian version (both meaning "Dante's Death"). The aging poet was by then building connections with the local art scene
Art of Romania
Art of Romania encompasses the artists and artistic movements in Romania.-Romanian contemporary and modern artists:* Almaşan Virgil* Adela Andea* George Apostu* Corneliu Baba* Calin Baban* Sabin Bălaşa* Horia Bernea* Traian Brădean...
: together with artist Alexandru Severin, he created (and probably presided over) Cenaclul idealist ("The Idealist
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
Club"), which included Symbolist artists and was placed under the honorary patronage of King Carol.
1916 was also the year when Romania abandoned her neutrality and, under a National Liberal government, rallied with the Entente Powers
Allies of World War I
The Entente Powers were the countries at war with the Central Powers during World War I. The members of the Triple Entente were the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire; Italy entered the war on their side in 1915...
. During the neutrality period, Macedonski had abandoned his lifelong Francophilia to join the Germanophile
Germanophile
A Germanophile is a person who is fond of German culture, German people, and Germany in general, exhibiting as it were German nationalism in spite of not being an ethnic German or a German citizen. Its opposite is Germanophobia...
s, who wanted to see Romanian participation on the Central Powers
Central Powers
The Central Powers were one of the two warring factions in World War I , composed of the German Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria...
' side. In 1915, he issued the journal Cuvântul Meu ("My Word"). Entirely written by him, it published ten consecutive issues before going bankrupt, and notably lashed out against France for being "bourgeois
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
" and "lawyer-filled", demanding from Romania not to get involved in the conflict. Commentators and researchers of his work have declared themselves puzzled by this change in allegiance.
Macedonski further alienated public opinion during the Romanian Campaign
Romanian Campaign (World War I)
The Romanian Campaign was part of the Balkan theatre of World War I, with Romania and Russia allied against the armies of the Central Powers. Fighting took place from August 1916 to December 1917, across most of present-day Romania, including Transylvania, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian...
, when the Central Powers armies entered southern Romania and occupied Bucharest. The poet, who received formal protection from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Bucharest, Romania was established on 27 April 1883. There had been a Catholic presence in the city since at least the 18th century, but it was only in 1847 that Bishop Josephus Molajoni was able to establish his residence there...
, chose to stay behind while the authorities and many ordinary citizens relocated to Iaşi
Iasi
Iași is the second most populous city and a municipality in Romania. Located in the historical Moldavia region, Iași has traditionally been one of the leading centres of Romanian social, cultural, academic and artistic life...
, where resistance was still being organized. His stance was interpreted as collaborationism
Collaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
by his critics. However, Macedonski reportedly faced extreme poverty throughout the occupation. Having by then begun to attend the circle of Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti
Alexandru Bogdan-Pitesti
Alexandru Bogdan-Piteşti was a Romanian Symbolist poet, essayist, and art and literary critic, who was also known as a journalist and left-wing political agitator. A wealthy landowner, he invested his fortune in patronage and art collecting, becoming one of the main local promoters of modern art,...
, his promoter and fellow Germanophile, he was once rewarded by the latter with a turkey filled with gold coins.
Late polemics, illness and death
Literatorul resumed print in June 1918, once Romania capitulated to the Central Powers under the Treaty of Bucharest. A controversial incident occurred soon afterwards, when, going against the counsel of his friend and collaborator Stamatiad, Macedonski signed a Literatorul article where the German military administrator August von MackensenAugust von Mackensen
Anton Ludwig August von Mackensen , born August Mackensen, was a German soldier and field marshal. He commanded with success during the First World War and became one of the German Empire's most prominent military leaders. After the Armistice, Mackensen was interned for a year...
, who was about to lead his troops out of Romania, was presented in a positive light. In a manner deemed "excessive" by historian Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia
Lucian Boia is a Romanian historian, known especially for his works debunking Romanian nationalism and Communism.-Bibliography:* Eugen Brote: Litera, 1974...
, the Romanian writer was paying homage not just to Mackensen, but also, indirectly, to German Emperor
German Emperor
This article is about the emperors of the German Empire. For full list of German monarchs before 1871, see List of German monarchs.The German Emperor was the official title of the Head of State and ruler of the German Empire, beginning with the proclamation of Wilhelm I as emperor during the...
Wilhelm II and the Reichsheer
German Army (German Empire)
The German Army was the name given the combined land forces of the German Empire, also known as the National Army , Imperial Army or Imperial German Army. The term "Deutsches Heer" is also used for the modern German Army, the land component of the German Bundeswehr...
. Soon after reading the piece, Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
member and fellow Symbolist promoter Ovid Densusianu
Ovid Densusianu
Ovid Densusianu was a Romanian poet, philologist, linguist and folklorist. He is known for introducing new trends of European modernism into Romanian literature.He was a professor at the University of Bucharest, and a member of the Romanian Academy....
withdrew his own nomination of Macedonski for an Academy seat. During summer, Macedonski also joined the group of public figures who saluted the senior Conservative Germanophile Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp
Petre P. Carp , commonly rendered as P. P. Carp, was a Romanian conservative politician and literary critic who served as a Prime Minister of Romania for two terms...
(deeming Carp "the veteran of character, honesty and Romanianism"), and, in September, joined Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici
Ioan Slavici was a Transylvanian-born Romanian writer and journalist. He made his debut in Convorbiri literare , with the comedy Fata de birău...
and Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction
Gala Galaction was a Romanian Orthodox clergyman and theologian, writer, journalist, left-wing activist, as well as a political figure of the People's Republic of Romania...
as a contributor to the occupation magazine Rumänien in Wort und Bild, where he prophesied an anti-French
Francophobia
Francophobia or Gallophobia are terms that refer to a dislike or hatred toward France, the People of France, the Government of France, or the Francophonie...
"political renaissance" of Romania.
Alexandru Macedonski faced problems after the Romanian government resumed its control over Bucharest, and during the early years of Greater Romania
Greater Romania
The Greater Romania generally refers to the territory of Romania in the years between the First World War and the Second World War, the largest geographical extent of Romania up to that time and its largest peacetime extent ever ; more precisely, it refers to the territory of the Kingdom of...
. What followed the Mackensen article, Vianu claims, was Macedonski's bellum contra omnes ("war against all"). However, the poet made efforts to accommodate himself with the triumphal return of the Iaşi authorities: in December 1918, Literatorul celebrated the extension of Romanian rule "from the Tisza
Tisza
The Tisza or Tisa is one of the main rivers of Central Europe. It rises in Ukraine, and is formed near Rakhiv by the junction of headwaters White Tisa, whose source is in the Chornohora mountains and Black Tisa, which springs in the Gorgany range...
to the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
" as a success of the National Liberals, paying homage to Francophile political leaders Ion I. C. Brătianu
Ion I. C. Bratianu
Ion I. C. Brătianu was a Romanian politician, leader of the National Liberal Party , the Prime Minister of Romania for five terms, and Foreign Minister on several occasions; he was the eldest son of statesman and PNL leader Ion Brătianu, the brother of Vintilă and Dinu Brătianu, and the father of...
and Take Ionescu
Take Ionescu
Take or Tache Ionescu was a Romanian centrist politician, journalist, lawyer and diplomat, who also enjoyed reputation as a short story author. Starting his political career as a radical member of the National Liberal Party , he joined the Conservative Party in 1891, and became noted as a social...
. Macedonski also envisaged running in the 1918 election for a seat in the new Parliament
Parliament of Romania
The Parliament of Romania is made up of two chambers:*The Chamber of Deputies*The SenatePrior to the modifications of the Constitution in 2003, the two houses had identical attributes. A text of a law had to be approved by both houses...
(which was supposed to vote a document to replace the 1866 Constitution
1866 Constitution of Romania
The 1866 Constitution of Romania was the fundamental law that capped a period of nation-building in the Danubian Principalities, which had united in 1859. Drafted in a short time and using as its model the 1831 Constitution of Belgium, then considered Europe's most liberal, it was substantially...
as the organic law), but never registered his candidature. According to Vianu, he had intended to create a joke political party
Joke political party
A frivolous party or a joke party is a political party which has been created for the purposes of entertainment or political satire. Such a party may or may not have a serious point behind its activities...
, the "intellectual group", whose other member was an unnamed coffeehouse acquaintance of his. Literatorul was revived for a final time in 1919.
His health deteriorated from heart disease
Heart disease
Heart disease, cardiac disease or cardiopathy is an umbrella term for a variety of diseases affecting the heart. , it is the leading cause of death in the United States, England, Canada and Wales, accounting for 25.4% of the total deaths in the United States.-Types:-Coronary heart disease:Coronary...
, which is described by Vianu as an effect of constant smoking. By that stage, Vianu recalls, Macedonski also had problems coming to terms with his age. His last anthumous work was the pamphlet Zaherlina (named after the Romanian version of "Zacherlin"; also known as Zacherlina or Zacherlina în continuare, "Zacherlin Contd."), completed in 1919 and published the following year. It notably attacked Densusianu, who had become Macedonski's personal enemy. Some other polemical texts he had authored late in life saw print only after his death, under the title Mustrări postume către o generaţie neînţelegătoare ("Posthumous Reprimands for an Obtuse Generation").
1920 was also the year when the People's Party cabinet attempted to pension him off from his office at the Historical Monuments Commission, but the publicized protest of Macedonski's fellow writers in Bucharest made it reconsider. Confined to his home by illness and old age, Macedonski was still writing poems, some of which later known as his Ultima verba ("Last Words"). The writer died on November 24, at three o'clock in the afternoon. Having come to develop an addiction to floral fragrances, he was inhaling a rose petal extract during his last hours. He was buried in Bucharest's Bellu
Bellu
Bellu is the most famous cemetery in Bucharest, Romania.It is located on a plot of land donated to the local administration by Baron Barbu Bellu...
.
General characteristics
Although Alexandru Macedonski frequently changed his style and views on literary matters, a number of constants have been traced throughout his work. Thus, a common perception is that his literature had a strongly visual aspect, the notion being condensed in Cincinat Pavelescu's definition of Macedonski: "Poet, therefore painter; painter, therefore poet." Traian DemetrescuTraian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
too recalled that his mentor had been dreaming of becoming a visual artist, and had eventually settled for turning his son Alexis into one. This pictorial approach to writing created parallels between Macedonski and his traditionalist contemporaries Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri
Vasile Alecsandri was a Romanian poet, playwright, politician, and diplomat. He collected Romanian folk songs and was one of the principal animators of the 19th century movement for Romanian cultural identity and union of Moldavia and Wallachia....
and Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of Romania's greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.-External links:*...
.
Following the tenets of Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu
Dimitrie Bolintineanu was a Romanian poet , diplomat, politician, and a participant in the revolution of 1848. He was of Macedonian Aromanian origins...
and Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, the writer repeatedly called for purity in versification
Versification
Versification may be*the art of making verses, see poetry*the theory of the phonetic structure of verse, see meter *the rendition of a prose work into verse, especially of classical works during the Middle Ages, see medieval poetry...
, and upheld it as an essential requirement, while progressively seeking to verify the quality of his poetry through phonoaesthetics. A characteristic of Macedonski's style is his inventive use of Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
. Initially influenced by Ion Heliade Rădulescu
Ion Heliade Radulescu
Ion Heliade Rădulescu or Ion Heliade was a Wallachian-born Romanian academic, Romantic and Classicist poet, essayist, memoirist, short story writer, newspaper editor and politician...
's introduction of Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
-based words to the Romanian lexis
Romanian lexis
The lexis of the Romanian language , a Romance language, has changed over the centuries as the language evolved from Vulgar Latin, to Proto-Romanian, to medieval, modern and contemporary Romanian.-Medieval Romanian:...
, Macedonski himself later infused poetic language with a large array of neologisms from several Romance
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
sources. Likewise, Vianu notes, Macedonski had a tendency for comparing nature with the artificial, the result of this being a "document" of his values. Macedonski's language alternated neologisms with barbarisms, many of which were coined by him personally. They include claviculat ("clavicle
Clavicle
In human anatomy, the clavicle or collar bone is a long bone of short length that serves as a strut between the scapula and the sternum. It is the only long bone in body that lies horizontally...
d", applied to a shoulder), împălăriată ("enhatted", used to define a crowd of hat-wearing tourists), and ureichii (instead of urechii, "to the ear" or "of the ear"). His narratives nevertheless take an interest in recording direct speech, used as a method of characterization. However, Călinescu criticizes Macedonski for using a language which, "although grammatically correct [...], seems to have been learned only recently", as well as for not following other Romanian writers in creating a lasting poetic style.
The writer's belief in the effects of sheer willpower, notably present in his comments on esoteric
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
subjects, was itself a defining characteristic of his perspective on literature. In 1882, he wrote about progression in one's career: "We are all poets at birth, but only those who shape themselves through study will become poets." Vianu, who notes Macedonski's "exclusivity" and "fanaticism", places such statements in connection with Macedonski's personal ambition, "pride" and "the willingness to carry out ventured actions [...], in stated opposition with the entire surrounding and with contempt for the foreseeable reaction."
Almost all periods of Macedonski's work reflect, in whole or in part, his public persona and the polemics he was involved in. George Călinescu's emits a verdict on the relation between his lifetime notoriety and the public's actual awareness of his work: "Macedonski [was] a poet well-known for being an unknown poet." According to literary critic Matei Călinescu
Matei Calinescu
Matei Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic and professor of comparative literature at Indiana University, in Bloomington, Indiana....
, the innovative aspects of his impact on Romanian literature
Literature of Romania
Romanian literature is literature written by Romanian authors, although the term may also be used to refer to all literature written in the Romanian language.Eugène Ionesco is one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd....
were not as much related to his "literary ideology", as much as to his "contradictory spirit" and "essential nonconformism". However, literary researcher Adrian Marino proposes that Macedonski was one of the first modern authors to illustrate the importance of "dialectic
Dialectic
Dialectic is a method of argument for resolving disagreement that has been central to Indic and European philosophy since antiquity. The word dialectic originated in Ancient Greece, and was made popular by Plato in the Socratic dialogues...
unity" through his views on art, in particular by having argued that poetry needed to be driven by "an idea". Having theorized once, while questioning Junimist rigor, that "the logic of poetry is absurdity itself [italics in the original]", the poet also said: "Poetry is the chaos of spirit and matter, of the cries of distress and mad laughter. From the sublime to the trivial, that is what it should be." He later revised part of this verdict, and, making explicit his adoption of aestheticism
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
, spoke against trivial subjects and in favor of the sublime.
While Macedonski also discarded the concept of "social poetry" not long after postulating it, its spirit, Tudor Vianu believes, can still be found in his later contributions. This, the critic notes, was owed to his "social temperament", whose "fundamental experience is that of the social." Discussing this sociable and extrovert character, other critics see in the poet's life and work the imprint of "quixotism
Quixotism
Quixotism is impracticality in pursuit of ideals, especially those ideals manifested by rash, lofty and romantic ideas or extravagantly chivalrous action. It also serves to describe an idealism without regard to practicality...
". Also according to Vianu, this contrasted with Macedonski's failures in communicating with the public, an experience which made him "misanthropic
Misanthropy
Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings...
" and contributed to his ultimate vision of death as freedom. Literary historian Pompiliu Constantinescu
Pompiliu Constantinescu
Pompiliu Constantinescu was a Romanian literary critic.-Biography:He was born on 17 May 1901, "in a place where he saw the light of day for the first time, on Sabines Street no...
concluded: "Macedonski could not resign; his one martyrdom was for Art, as the sole liberation from a tormented life." Other commentators have defined the poet's perspective on life as a result of "neurosis
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
".
In Vianu's perspective, Macedonski's stance is dominated by a mixture of nostalgia
Nostalgia
The term nostalgia describes a yearning for the past, often in idealized form.The word is a learned formation of a Greek compound, consisting of , meaning "returning home", a Homeric word, and , meaning "pain, ache"...
, sensuality, lugubrious-grotesque imagery, and "the lack of bashfulness for antisocial sentiments" which compliments his sarcasm
Sarcasm
Sarcasm is “a sharp, bitter, or cutting expression or remark; a bitter jibe or taunt.” Though irony and understatement is usually the immediate context, most authorities distinguish sarcasm from irony; however, others argue that sarcasm may or often does involve irony or employs...
. In respect to the latter characteristic, Vianu notes "no one in Romanian literature has laughed the same way as Macedonski", whereas critic Ştefan Cazimir argues: "[Macedonski was] lacking the sense of relativity in principles, and implicitly a sense of humor." Cazimir adds: "Only when he aged did [Macedonski] learn to smile". George Călinescu himself believes Macedonski to have been "fundamentally a spiritual man with lots of humor", speculating that he was able to see the "uselessness" of his own scientific ventures.
Critics note that, while Macedonski progressed from one stage to the other, his work fluctuated between artistic accomplishment and mediocrity. Tudor Vianu believes "failure in reaching originality" and reliance on "soppy-conventional attributes of the day" to be especially evident wherever Macedonski tried to emulate epic poetry
Epic poetry
An epic is a lengthy narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation. Oral poetry may qualify as an epic, and Albert Lord and Milman Parry have argued that classical epics were fundamentally an oral poetic form...
. He also notes that Macedonski's love-themed pieces "cannot be listed among [his] most fortunate". At his best, commentators note, he was one of the Romanian literature's classics. Macedonski is thus perceived as the author second only to Eminescu, and as his ideal counterpart—a relation Vianu describes as "the internal dualism
Dualistic cosmology
Dualistic cosmology is a collective term. Many variant myths and creation motifs are so described in ethnographic and anthropological literature...
[confronting] two familiar gods
Lares
Lares , archaically Lases, were guardian deities in ancient Roman religion. Their origin is uncertain; they may have been guardians of the hearth, fields, boundaries or fruitfulness, hero-ancestors, or an amalgam of these....
". Various critics have compared Eminescu's poetic discourse with that of the Symbolist leader, concluding that the two poets often display very similar attitudes. Călinescu writes that, while Macedonski's work is largely inferior to that of his Junimist rival, it forms the best "reply" ever conceived within their common setting.
The only English language translation of Macedonski's work is "If I knew/De as stii" a bilingual edition of 50 selected poems in English and Romanian. Also coming in 2012 the English translation of the novel Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu.
Prima verba and other early works
With Ion Catina, Vasile Păun and Grigore H. Grandea, young Macedonski belonged to late Romanian RomanticismRomanticism
Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...
, part of a Neoromantic
Neo-romanticism
The term neo-romanticism is used to cover a variety of movements in music, painting and architecture. It has been used with reference to very late 19th century and early 20th century composers such as Gustav Mahler particularly by Carl Dahlhaus who uses it as synonymous with late Romanticism...
generation which had for its mentors Heliade Rădulescu and Bolintineanu. Other early influences were Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger
Pierre-Jean de Béranger was a prolific French poet and chansonnier , who enjoyed great popularity and influence in France during his lifetime, but faded into obscurity in the decades following his death...
and Gottfried August Bürger
Gottfried August Bürger
Gottfried August Bürger was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, Lenore, found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English adaptation and a French translation.-Biography:He was born in Molmerswende , Principality of Halberstadt, where...
, together with Romanian folklore, motifs from them being adapted by Macedonski into pastoral
Pastoral
The adjective pastoral refers to the lifestyle of pastoralists, such as shepherds herding livestock around open areas of land according to seasons and the changing availability of water and pasturage. It also refers to a genre in literature, art or music that depicts such shepherd life in an...
s and ballade
Ballade
The ballade is a form of French poetry. It was one of the three formes fixes and one of the verse forms in France most commonly set to music between the late 13th and the 15th centuries....
s of ca. 1870-1880. The imprint of Romanticism and such other sources was evident in Prima verba, which groups pieces that Macedonski authored in his early youth, the earliest of them being written when he was just twelve. Critics generally argue that the volume is without value. The poems display his rebellious attitude, self-victimization and strong reliance on autobiographical elements, centering on such episodes as the death of his father. In one piece inspired by the ideology of Heliade Rădulescu, Vianu notes, Macedonski sings "the French Revolution
French Revolution
The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...
's love for freedom and equality, otherwise proclaimed from his nobleman's perspective." It reads:
Când acum poporul vedem că studiază Să nu avem ură când se luminează, Ca fraţi să-l iubim! |
Now that we see the people studying Let us not be hating them while they grow enlightened, Let us love them like brothers! |
In parallel, Macedonski used erotic themes
Erotic literature
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...
, completing a series which, although written on the model of idylls, is noted for its brute details of sexual exploits. The poet probably acknowledged that posterity would reject them, and did not republish them in any of his collected poetry volumes.
During his time at Oltul (1873–1875), Macedonski published a series of poems, most of which were not featured in definitive editions of his work. In addition to ode
Ode
Ode is a type of lyrical verse. A classic ode is structured in three major parts: the strophe, the antistrophe, and the epode. Different forms such as the homostrophic ode and the irregular ode also exist...
s written in the Italian
Italian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
-based version of Romanian
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
, it includes lyrics which satirize Carol I
Carol I of Romania
Carol I , born Prince Karl of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen was reigning prince and then King of Romania from 1866 to 1914. He was elected prince of Romania on 20 April 1866 following the overthrow of Alexandru Ioan Cuza by a palace coup...
without mentioning his name. Following his arrest, Macedonski also completed Celula mea de la Văcăreşti ("My Cell in Văcăreşti"), which shows his attempt to joke about the situation. In contrast to this series, some of the pieces written during Macedonski's time in the Budjak
Budjak
Budjak or Budzhak is a historical region in the Odessa Oblast of Ukraine. Lying along the Black Sea between the Danube and Dniester rivers this multiethnic region was the southern part of Bessarabia...
and Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja
Northern Dobruja is the part of Dobruja within the borders of Romania. It lies between the lower Danube river and the Black Sea, bordered in south by Bulgarian Southern Dobruja.-Geography:...
display a detachment from contemporary themes. At that stage, he was especially inspired by Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, later George Gordon Noel, 6th Baron Byron, FRS , commonly known simply as Lord Byron, was a British poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement...
, whom Vianu calls "the sovereign poet of [Macedonski's] youth." In Calul arabului, Macedonski explores exotic
Exoticism
Exoticism is a trend in art and design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations since the late 19th-century. In music exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times Exoticism (from 'exotic')...
and Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
ine settings, using symbols which announce George Coşbuc
George Cosbuc
George Coşbuc was a Romanian poet, translator, teacher, and journalist, best remembered for his verses describing, praising and eulogizing rural life, its many travails but also its occasions for joy....
's El-Zorab, and the Venetian
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
-themed Ithalo, which centers on episodes of betrayal and murder. Others were epic and patriotic
Patriotism
Patriotism is a devotion to one's country, excluding differences caused by the dependencies of the term's meaning upon context, geography and philosophy...
in tone, with subjects such as Romanian victories in the Russo-Turkish War or the Imperial Roman
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
sites along the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
. One of these pieces, titled Hinov after the village and stone quarry in Rasova
Rasova
Rasova is a commune in Constanţa County, Romania. It includes two villages:* Rasova* Cochirleni...
, gives Macedonski a claim to being the first modern European poet to have used free verse
Free verse
Free verse is a form of poetry that refrains from consistent meter patterns, rhyme, or any other musical pattern.Poets have explained that free verse, despite its freedom, is not free. Free Verse displays some elements of form...
, ahead of the French Symbolist Gustave Kahn
Gustave Kahn
Gustave Kahn was a French Symbolist poet and art critic.Kahn was born in Metz.He claimed to have invented the term vers libre, or free verse; he was in any case one of the first European exponents of the form. His principal publications include Les Palais nomades, 1887, Domaine de fée, 1895, and...
. Macedonski himself later voiced the claim, and referred to such a technique as "symphonic verse", "proteic verse", or, in honor of composer Richard Wagner
Richard Wagner
Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
, "Wagnerian verse".
While editing Oltul, Macedonski also completed his first prose writings. These were the travel account
Travel writing
Travel writing is a genre that has, as its focus, accounts of real or imaginary places. The genre encompasses a number of styles that may range from the documentary to the evocative, from literary to journalistic, and from the humorous to the serious....
Pompeia şi Sorento ("Pompeia and Sorento", 1874) and a prison-themed story described by Vianu as "a tearjerker", titled Câinele din Văcăreşti ("The Dog in Văcăreşti", 1875). These were later complemented by other travel works, which critic Mihai Zamfir likens to the verbal experiments of Impressionist literature, pioneering in the Romanian prose poetry
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...
genre. The short comedy Gemenii was his debut work for the stage, but, according to Vianu, failed to show any merit other than a "logical construction" and a preview into Macedonski's use of sarcasm. These writings were followed in 1876 by a concise biography of Cârjaliul, an early 19th century hajduk
Hajduk
Hajduk is a term most commonly referring to outlaws, highwaymen or freedom fighters in the Balkans, Central- and Eastern Europe....
. In line with his first Levant-themed poems, Macedonski authored the 1877 story Aşa se fac banii ("This Is How Money Is Made", later retold in French as Comment on devient riche et puissant, "How to Become Rich and Powerful"), a fable
Fable
A fable is a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, mythical creatures, plants, inanimate objects or forces of nature which are anthropomorphized , and that illustrates a moral lesson , which may at the end be expressed explicitly in a pithy maxim.A fable differs from...
of fatalism
Fatalism
Fatalism is a philosophical doctrine emphasizing the subjugation of all events or actions to fate.Fatalism generally refers to several of the following ideas:...
and the Muslim world
Muslim world
The term Muslim world has several meanings. In a religious sense, it refers to those who adhere to the teachings of Islam, referred to as Muslims. In a cultural sense, it refers to Islamic civilization, inclusive of non-Muslims living in that civilization...
—it dealt with two brothers, one hard-working and one indolent, the latter of whom earns his money through a series of serendipitous events. Likewise, his verse comedy
Verse drama and dramatic verse
Verse drama is any drama written as verse to be spoken; another possible general term is poetic drama. For a very long period, verse drama was the dominant form of drama in Europe...
Iadeş! borrowed its theme from the widely circulated collection of Persian literature
Persian literature
Persian literature spans two-and-a-half millennia, though much of the pre-Islamic material has been lost. Its sources have been within historical Persia including present-day Iran as well as regions of Central Asia where the Persian language has historically been the national language...
known as Sindipa. The setting was however modern, and, as noted by French-born critic Frédéric Damé, the plot also borrowed much from Émile Augier
Émile Augier
Guillaume Victor Émile Augier was a French dramatist. He was the thirteenth member to occupy seat 1 of the Académie française on 31 March 1857.-Biography:...
's Gabrielle and from other morality play
Morality play
The morality play is a genre of Medieval and early Tudor theatrical entertainment. In their own time, these plays were known as "interludes", a broader term given to dramas with or without a moral theme. Morality plays are a type of allegory in which the protagonist is met by personifications of...
s of the period. Part of the text was an ironic treatment of youth in liberal professions, an attitude which Macedonski fitted in his emerging anti-bourgeois discourse.
With the first poems in his Nights cycle, Macedonski still showed his allegiance to Romanticism, and in particular to Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse de Lamartine
Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine was a French writer, poet and politician who was instrumental in the foundation of the Second Republic.-Career:...
, and the supposed inventor of this theme, Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
. Noaptea de noiembrie opens with a violent condemnation of his adversaries, and sees Macedonski depicting his own funeral. The poem is commended by Călinescu, who notes that, in contrast to the "apparently trivial beginning", the main part, where Macedonski depicts himself in flight over the Danube
Danube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
, brings the Romanian writer close to the accomplishments of Dante Aligheri. The writer himself claimed that the piece evidenced "the uttermost breath of inspiration I have ever felt in my life." Another poem, Noaptea de aprilie ("April Night"), was probably his testimony of unrequited love
Unrequited love
Unrequited love is love that is not openly reciprocated or understood as such, even though reciprocation is usually deeply desired. The beloved may or may not be aware of the admirer's deep affections...
for Aristizza Romanescu.
Realism and Naturalism
By the 1880s, Macedonski developed and applied his "social poetry" theory, as branch of RealismLiterary realism
Literary realism most often refers to the trend, beginning with certain works of nineteenth-century French literature and extending to late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century authors in various countries, towards depictions of contemporary life and society "as they were." In the spirit of...
. Explained by the writer himself as a reaction against the legacy of Lamartine, it also signified his brief affiliation with the Naturalist
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
current, a radical segment of the Realist movement. Traian Demetrescu
Traian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
thus noted that Macedonski cherished the works of French Naturalists and Realists such as Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert
Gustave Flaubert was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary , and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.-Early life and education:Flaubert was born on December 12, 1821, in Rouen,...
and Émile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
. During this phase, Macedonski made known his sympathy for the disinherited, from girls forced into prostitution to convicts sentenced to penal labor on salt mines, and also spoke out against the conventionalism of civil marriage
Civil marriage
Civil marriage is marriage performed by a government official and not a religious organization.-History:Every country maintaining a population registry of its residents keeps track of marital status, and most countries believe that it is their responsibility to register married couples. Most...
s. His Ocnele ("The Salt Mines") includes the verdict:
Vai! Ce-am convenit cu toţii a numi soţietate Mult mai demnă ca tâlharii e de-acest cumplit locaş! Statul e o ficţiune, iar dreptatea—strâmbătate, Care duce omenirea dintr-un hop într-un făgaş. |
Alas! What we have all agreed to deem society Is far more suited than bandits are for this terrible dwelling! State is fiction, and justice—an injustice That leads humanity from a bump down into a rut. |
Naturalist depiction was also the main element in his prose pieces of the early 1880s. Among them was the first of several sketch stories
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
using still life
Still life
A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects which may be either natural or man-made...
techniques, Casa cu nr. 10 (according to Zamfir, a prime sample of Macedonski's "ornamental" genre). With Între coteţe, Dramă banală and later Cometa lui Odorescu ("Odorescu's Comet"), Macedonski speaks about his own biography. The former has for a protagonist Pandele Vergea, a thirty-five year old man who is consumed by an avicultural
Aviculture
Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds and the culture that forms around it. Aviculture is generally focused on not only the raising and breeding of birds, but also on preserving avian habitat, and public awareness campaigns....
obsession, who dreams of turning into a bird, and who is eventually maimed by his overcrowded fowls. In contrast, Dereanu is a bohemian
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
university student, possessed by dreams of military and political glory, and who meditates about his future in front of Heliade Rădulescu's statue or in Bucharest cafés. Also a bohemian, Odorescu announces his discovery of a comet, before being proved wrong by his aunt, an ordinary woman. Some pieces also double as memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s: in Dramă banală, the plot revolves around Macedonski's recollection of the 1866 plebiscite. Vianu draws attention to the picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
depiction of historic Bucharest
History of Bucharest
The history of Bucharest covers the time from the early settlements on the locality's territory until its modern existence as a city, capital of Wallachia, and present-day capital of Romania.-Ancient times:...
, a contributing element in Cometa..., Casa cu nr. 10 and Între coteţe.
With Unchiaşul Sărăcie (also written in verse), Macedonski took Naturalist tenets into the field of drama. Frédéric Damé believed it an imitation of a play by Ernest d'Hervilly and Alfred Grévin
Alfred Grévin
Alfred Grévin was a 19th century caricaturist, best known during his lifetime for his caricature silhouettes of contemporary Parisian women...
, but, Vianu argues, the Romanian text was only loosely based on theirs: in Macedonski's adaptation, the theme became fairy tale
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
-like, and used a speech style based on Romanian folklore. Around the time of its completion, Macedonski was also working on a similarly loose adaptation of William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet
Romeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
, which notably had the two protagonists die in each other's arms. Another such play is 3 decemvrie ("December 3"), which partly retells Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner
Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner
Friedrich Ludwig Zacharias Werner was a German poet, dramatist, and preacher. As a dramatist, he is known mainly for inaugurating the era of the so-called “tragedies of fate.”-Biography:...
's Der 24 Februar using Naturalist devices. By contrast, the homage-play Cuza-Vodă is mainly a Romantic piece, where Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza
Alexander John Cuza was a Moldavian-born Romanian politician who ruled as the first Domnitor of the United Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia between 1859 and 1866.-Early life:...
finds his political mission validated by legendary figures in Romanian history.
In parallel, Macedonski was using poetry to carry out his polemics. In an 1884 epigram
Epigram
An epigram is a brief, interesting, usually memorable and sometimes surprising statement. Derived from the epigramma "inscription" from ἐπιγράφειν epigraphein "to write on inscribe", this literary device has been employed for over two millennia....
, he reacted against Alecsandri's Fântâna Blanduziei, but, in Vianu's definition, "his regular causticity seems to be restrained." The piece he had earlier written, presumably against Eminescu, scandalized the public by mocking the rival's mental ruin:
Un X... pretins poet—acum S-a dus pe cel mai jalnic drum... L-aş plânge dacă-n balamuc Destinul său n-ar fi mai bun Căci până ieri a fost năuc Şi nu e azi decât nebun. |
An X... who calls himself a poet—has now Gone down that most pathetic road... I'd cry for him if in bedlam His fate were not one for the best As up to yesterday he has been dopey And now he is merely insane. |
According to Tudor Vianu, Macedonski was mostly motivated by his disappointment in Junimea, and in particular by Eminescu's response to his public persona. Vianu contends that, although Macedonski "never was familiar with the resigned and patient attitudes", he was "by no means an evil man." On one occasion, the poet defended himself against criticism, noting that the epigram had not been specifically addressed to Eminescu, but had been labeled as such by the press, and claiming to have authored it years before its Literatorul edition. However, the later piece Viaţa de apoi ("The Afterlife") still displays resentments he harbored toward Eminescu.
By 1880-1884, particularly after the Eminescu scandal, Macedonski envisaged prioritizing French as his language of expression. According to Vianu, Macedonski had traversed "the lowest point" of his existence, and had been subject to "one of the most delicate mysteries of poetic creation." Among his pieces of the period is the French-language sonnet
Sonnet
A sonnet is one of several forms of poetry that originate in Europe, mainly Provence and Italy. A sonnet commonly has 14 lines. The term "sonnet" derives from the Occitan word sonet and the Italian word sonetto, both meaning "little song" or "little sound"...
Pârle, il me dit alors ("Speak, He Then Said to Me"), where, Vianu notes, "one discovers the state of mind of a poet who decides to expatriate himself."
Adoption of Symbolism
According to Mihai Zamfir, at the end of his transition from the "mimetic and egocentric" verse to Symbolist poetry, Macedonski emerged a "remarkable, often extraordinary" author. In the early 20th century, fellow poet and critic N. Davidescu described Macedonski, Ion MinulescuIon Minulescu
Ion Minulescu was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor , he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and...
and other Symbolists from Wallachia
Wallachia
Wallachia or Walachia is a historical and geographical region of Romania. It is situated north of the Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians...
as distinct from their Moldavia
Moldavia
Moldavia is a geographic and historical region and former principality in Eastern Europe, corresponding to the territory between the Eastern Carpathians and the Dniester river...
n counterparts in both style and themes. Endorsing the theory and practice of Symbolism for much of his life, Macedonski retrospectively claimed to have been one of its first exponents. His version of Symbolism, critic Paul Cernat notes, clashed with that advocated by many of his contemporaries in that it rejected merit to the Decadent movement
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
, and represented the "decorative" aestheticist
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a 19th century European art movement that emphasized aesthetic values more than socio-political themes for literature, fine art, the decorative arts, and interior design...
trend of Paranassian spirit within the Romanian Symbolist current
Symbolist movement in Romania
The Symbolist movement in Romania, active during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, marked the development of Romanian culture in both literature and visual arts...
.
Within Poezia viitorului, Macedonski invoked as his models to follow some important or secondary Symbolist and Parnassian figures: Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire
Charles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
, Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan
Joséphin Péladan was a French novelist and Martinist. His father was a journalist who had written on prophecies, and professed a philosophic-occult Catholicism.-Biography:...
, Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck, also called Comte Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. The main themes in his work are death and the meaning of life...
, Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé
Stéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
and Jean Moréas
Jean Moréas
Jean Moréas , was a Greek poet, essayist, and art critic, who wrote mostly in the French language but also in Greek during his youth.-Background:...
. In his review of Bronzes for Mercure de France
Mercure de France
The Mercure de France was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group....
, Pierre Quillard
Pierre Quillard
Pierre Quillard was a French Symbolist poet, playwright, translator , and journalist. An anarchist and supporter of Dreyfuss, he later became one of the first people to defend the Armenians persecuted under the Ottoman Empire...
remarked the "irreproachable" technique, but criticized the poet for being too indebted to both Baudelaire and Leconte de Lisle; other Symbolist figures whom Macedonski is known to have borrowed from are José María de Heredia
José María de Heredia
José-Maria de Heredia was a Cuban-born French poet. He was the fifteenth member elected for seat 4 of the Académie française during 1894.-Early years:...
and Iwan Gilkin
Iwan Gilkin
Iwan Gilkin was a Belgian poet. Born in Brussels, Gilkin was associated with the Symbolist school in Belgium. His works include Les ténèbres and Le Sphinx...
. While undergoing this transition, to what linguist Manuela-Delia Suciu argues is a mostly Parnassian phase, Macedonski was still referencing Naturalism, and considered it compatible with Symbolism.
With the adoption of such tenets came a succession of Symbolist poems, where the focus is on minutely-observed objects, usually items of luxury, partly reflecting themes he had explored in the Naturalist stage. Commenting on them, Tudor Vianu argues that no such works had ever been produced in Romanian literature up until that moment. In his Ospăţul lui Pentaur ("The Feast of Pentaur"), the poet reflected on civilization itself, as reflected in inanimate opulence. The motif was also developed in descriptive prose fragments later grouped in Cartea de aur, collectively titled nuvele fără oameni ("novellas without people") and compared by Călinescu with the paintings of Theodor Aman
Theodor Aman
Theodor Aman was a Romanian painter of Armenian descent. His style is often considered to be a predecessor of Impressionism.He is buried in Bellu cemetery.-External links:...
.
Also during that stage, Macedonski was exploring the numerous links between Symbolism, mysticism
Mysticism
Mysticism is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being.-Classical origins:...
and esotericism
Esotericism
Esotericism or Esoterism signifies the holding of esoteric opinions or beliefs, that is, ideas preserved or understood by a small group or those specially initiated, or of rare or unusual interest. The term derives from the Greek , a compound of : "within", thus "pertaining to the more inward",...
. Earlier pieces had already come to explore macabre
Macabre
In works of art, macabre is the quality of having a grim or ghastly atmosphere. Macabre works emphasize the details and symbols of death....
themes characteristic for an early branch of Symbolism. Influenced by Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat
Maurice Rollinat was a French poet.-Early works:His father represented Indre in the National Assembly of 1848, and was a friend of George Sand, whose influence is very marked in young Rollinat's first volume, Dans les brandes , and to whom it was dedicated.-Brief fame:After its publication, he...
, they include the somber Vaporul morţii ("The Ship of Death") and Visul fatal ("The Fatal Dream"). Likewise, the piece titled Imnul lui Satan ("Satan's Hymn") was placed by critics in connection with Les Litanies de Satan
Les Litanies de Satan
"Les Litanies de Satan" is a poem by Charles Baudelaire, published as part of Les Fleurs du mal. The date of composition is unknown, but there is no evidence that it was composed at a different time to the other poems of the volume....
(part of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal
Les Fleurs du mal
Les Fleurs du mal is a volume of French poetry by Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1857 , it was important in the symbolist and modernist movements...
), but, Vianu argues, the source of Macedonski's satanic themes may have been lodged in his own vision of the world. This interest also reflected in his 1893 Saul, where Cincinat Pavelescu's contribution is supposedly minimal. Echoing satanic themes, Ernest Legouvé
Ernest Legouvé
Gabriel Jean Baptiste Ernest Wilfrid Legouvé was a French dramatist.-Biography:Son of the poet Gabriel-Marie Legouvé , he was born in Paris. His mother died in 1810, and almost immediately afterwards his father was removed to a lunatic asylum. The child, however, inherited a considerable fortune,...
's dramatic version of the Medea
Medea
Medea is a woman in Greek mythology. She was the daughter of King Aeëtes of Colchis, niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios, and later wife to the hero Jason, with whom she had two children, Mermeros and Pheres. In Euripides's play Medea, Jason leaves Medea when Creon, king of...
myth (which Macedonski translated at some point in his life) and the classical work of Jean Racine
Jean Racine
Jean Racine , baptismal name Jean-Baptiste Racine , was a French dramatist, one of the "Big Three" of 17th-century France , and one of the most important literary figures in the Western tradition...
, it shows the dark powers of political conflict intervening between the eponymous king and his ephebos
Ephebos
Ephebos , also anglicised as ephebe or archaically ephebus , is a Greek word for an adolescent age group or a social status reserved for that age in Antiquity....
-like protégé David
David
David was the second king of the united Kingdom of Israel according to the Hebrew Bible and, according to the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, an ancestor of Jesus Christ through both Saint Joseph and Mary...
, the latter of whom turns out to be the agent of spiritual revolution.
("August Night"), outlines a monistic
Monism
Monism is any philosophical view which holds that there is unity in a given field of inquiry. Accordingly, some philosophers may hold that the universe is one rather than dualistic or pluralistic...
belief probably inspired by Rosicrucianism, stressing the unity between soul and matter and depicting Macedonski's own journey into a transcendental space. Following the examples of Baudelaire's Les paradis artificiels
Les paradis artificiels
Les paradis artificiels is a book by French poet Charles Baudelaire, first published in 1860, about the state of being under the influence of opium and hashish. Baudelaire describes the effects of the drugs and discusses the way in which they could theoretically aid mankind in reaching an "ideal"...
, but also echoing his readings from Paul Verlaine
Paul Verlaine
Paul-Marie Verlaine was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. He is considered one of the greatest representatives of the fin de siècle in international and French poetry.-Early life:...
and Théophile Gautier
Théophile Gautier
Pierre Jules Théophile Gautier was a French poet, dramatist, novelist, journalist, art critic and literary critic....
, Macedonski left poems dealing with narcotic
Narcotic
The term narcotic originally referred medically to any psychoactive compound with any sleep-inducing properties. In the United States of America it has since become associated with opioids, commonly morphine and heroin and their derivatives, such as hydrocodone. The term is, today, imprecisely...
s and substance abuse
Substance abuse
A substance-related disorder is an umbrella term used to describe several different conditions associated with several different substances .A substance related disorder is a condition in which an individual uses or abuses a...
, at least some of which reflected his personal experience with nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
and possibly other unnamed drugs. Also at that stage, Macedonski also began publishing the "instrumentalist" series of his Symbolist poems. This form of experimental poem
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
was influenced by the theories of René Ghil and verified through his encounter with Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont
Remy de Gourmont was a French Symbolist poet, novelist, and influential critic. He was widely read in his era, and an important influence on Blaise Cendrars...
's views. In parallel, it reaffirmed Macedonski's personal view that music and the spoken word were intimately related (a perspective notably attested by his 1906 interview with Jules Combarieu). Romanian critic Petre Răileanu theorized that such elements evidenced Macedonski's transition to "metaliterature". On a different level, they echoed an older influence, that of Gottfried August Bürger
Gottfried August Bürger
Gottfried August Bürger was a German poet. His ballads were very popular in Germany. His most noted ballad, Lenore, found an audience beyond readers of the German language in an English adaptation and a French translation.-Biography:He was born in Molmerswende , Principality of Halberstadt, where...
.
Excelsior
Despite having stated his interest in innovation, Macedonski generally displayed a more conventional style in his ExcelsiorExcelsior (Macedonski)
Excelsior is the title of a collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Valţul rozelor*Excelsior*Stepa*Cu morţii*Vis de mai*Psalmi moderni*Noaptea de noiembrie*Sub stele*Acşam dovalar...
volume. It included Noaptea de mai, which Vianu sees as "one of the [vernacular's] most beautiful poems" and as evidence of "a clear joy, without any torment whatsoever". A celebration of spring partly evoking folkloric themes, it was made famous by the recurring refrain
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
, Veniţi: privighetoarea cântă şi liliacul e-nflorit ("Come along: the nightingale is singing and the lilac is in blossom"). Like Noaptea de mai, Lewki (named after and dedicated to the Snake Island
Snake Island (Black Sea)
Snake Island, also known as Serpent Island, , is a Ukrainian island located in the Black Sea near the Danube Delta.The island is populated. A rural settlement of Bile was established in February 2007, which is part of the Vylkove city, Kiliya Raion, Odessa Oblast...
), depicts intense joy, completed in this case by what Vianu calls "the restorative touch of nature." The series also returned to Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
settings and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
ic imagery, particularly in Acşam dovalar (named after the Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
version of Witr
Witr
Witr is an Islamic prayer that is performed at night after isha'a and before fajr . There are a few distinguishing factors of the witr prayer that sets it apart from the fard and sunnah prayers. Witr has an odd number of rakat prayed in pairs, with the final raka'ah prayed separately...
). Also noted within the volume is his short "Modern Psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
" series, including the piece Iertare ("Forgiveness"), which is addressed to God:
Iertare! Sunt ca orice om M-am îndoit de-a ta putere, Am râs de sfintele mistere Ce sunt în fiecare-atom... Iertare! Sunt ca orice om. |
Forgiveness! I'm like any man I have been doubting your power I derided the sacred mysteries That lie within each of the atoms... Forgiveness! I'm like any man. |
Excelsior also included Noaptea de ianuarie ("January Night"), which encapsulates one of his best-known political statements. Anghelescu reads it as a "meditation on disillusionment that culminates in a vitality-laden exhortation of action." Its anti-bourgeois attitude, literary historian Z. Ornea argues, was one of the meeting points between Macedonski and Junimism. In what is seen as its most acid section, the text notably reads:
M-am născut în nişte zile când tâmpita burghezime Din tejghea făcând tribună, legiune de coţcari, Pune-o talpă noroioasă pe popor şi boierime, Zile când se-mparte ţara în călăi şi în victime Şi când steagul libertăţii e purtat de cârciumari. |
I was born into days when the moronic bourgeoisie Turning counters into rostrums, a legion of knaves, Places a muddy sole on the people and the boyars, Days when the country is divided into hangmen and victims And when the flag of liberty is carried by publicans. |
At the same time as being engaged in his most violent polemics, Macedonski produced meditative and serene poems, which were later judged to be among his best. Noaptea de decemvrie is the synthesis of his main themes and influences, rated by commentators as his "masterpiece". Partly based on an earlier poem (Meka, named after the Arab city
Mecca
Mecca is a city in the Hijaz and the capital of Makkah province in Saudi Arabia. The city is located inland from Jeddah in a narrow valley at a height of above sea level...
), it tells the story of an emir
Emir
Emir , meaning "commander", "general", or "prince"; also transliterated as Amir, Aamir or Ameer) is a title of high office, used throughout the Muslim world...
, who, left unsatisfied by the shallow and opulent life he leads in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
, decides to leave on pilgrimage
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
. While critics agree that it is to be read as an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
of Macedonski's biography, the ironic text does not make it clear whether the emir actually reaches his target, nor if the central metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
of Mecca as a mirage
Mirage
A mirage is a naturally occurring optical phenomenon in which light rays are bent to produce a displaced image of distant objects or the sky. The word comes to English via the French mirage, from the Latin mirare, meaning "to look at, to wonder at"...
means that the goal is not worth sacrificing for. While Mircea Anghelescu comments that Macedonski illustrates "unusual tension" by rigorously amplifying references to the color red, seen as a symbol of suffering, Călinescu notes that the sequence of lyrics has a studied "delirious" element, and illustrates this with the quote:
Şi el e emirul, şi toate le are... E tânăr, e farmec, e trăsnet, e zeu, Dar zilnic se simte furat de-o visare... Spre Meka se duce cu gândul mereu, Şi-n faţa dorinţei—ce este—dispare Iar el e emirul, şi toate le are. |
And he is the emir, and he owns each thing... He's young, he's a charm, he's a bolt, he's a god, But in each day he feels he is swept by a dream... Towards Mecca his though races constantly, And faced with the wish, all things disappear, And he is the emir, and he owns each thing. |
Late prose works
In prose, his focus shifted back to the purely descriptive, or led Alexandru Macedonski into the realm of fantasy literatureFantasy literature
Fantasy literature is fantasy in written form. Historically speaking, literature has composed the majority of fantasy works. Since the 1950s however, a growing segment of the fantasy genre has taken the form of films, television programs, graphic novels, video games, music, painting, and other...
. These stories, most of which were eventually collected in Cartea de aur, include memoirs of his childhood in the Amaradia
Amaradia River (Dolj)
The Amaradia River is a tributary of the Jiu River in Romania.-References:* Administraţia Naţională Apelor Române - Cadastrul Apelor - Bucureşti* Institutul de Meteorologie şi Hidrologie - Rîurile României - Bucureşti 1971...
region, nostalgic portrayals of the Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
n boyar
Boyar
A boyar, or bolyar , was a member of the highest rank of the feudal Moscovian, Kievan Rus'ian, Bulgarian, Wallachian, and Moldavian aristocracies, second only to the ruling princes , from the 10th century through the 17th century....
environment, idealized depictions of Cuza's reign, as well as a retrospective view on the end of Rom slavery
Slavery in Romania
Slavery existed on the territory of present-day Romania from before the founding of the principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia in 13th–14th century, until it was abolished in stages during the 1840s and 1850s. Most of the slaves were of Roma ethnicity...
(found in his piece Verigă ţiganul, "Verigă the Gypsy"). The best-known among them is Pe drum de poştă, a third-person narrative and thinly disguised memoir, where the characters are an adolescent Alexandru Macedonski and his father, General Macedonski. The idyllic outlook present in such stories is one of the common meeting points between his version of Symbolism and traditionalist authors such as Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea
Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea
Barbu Ştefănescu Delavrancea was a Romanian writer and poet, considered one of Romania's greatest figures in the National awakening of Romania.-External links:*...
. Vianu indicates the connection, but adds: "Macedonski descended, through memory, in the world of the village, with the tremor of regret for the peace and plenty of the old settlements, so well polished that each person, landowner as well as peasant, lived within a framework that nature itself seemed to have granted. [...] in depicting rural environments, Macedonski presents the point of view of a conservative
Conservatism
Conservatism is a political and social philosophy that promotes the maintenance of traditional institutions and supports, at the most, minimal and gradual change in society. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others oppose modernism...
."
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu, a fantasy novel and extended prose poem
Prose poetry
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery and emotional effects.-Characteristics:Prose poetry can be considered either primarily poetry or prose, or a separate genre altogether...
, was celebrated by Macedonski's disciple Oreste Georgescu as "the new religion of humanity". The volume carried the mocking dedication "To France, this Chaldea
Chaldea
Chaldea or Chaldaea , from Greek , Chaldaia; Akkadian ; Hebrew כשדים, Kaśdim; Aramaic: ܟܐܠܕܘ, Kaldo) was a marshy land located in modern-day southern Iraq which came to briefly rule Babylon...
" (thought by Vianu to reference Péladan's views on the decay of civilization). It has affinities with writings by the Italian Decadent
Decadent movement
The Decadent movement was a late 19th century artistic and literary movement of Western Europe. It flourished in France, but also had devotees in England and throughout Europe, as well as in the United States.-Overview:...
author Gabriele d'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio
Gabriele D'Annunzio or d'Annunzio was an Italian poet, journalist, novelist, and dramatist...
, as well as echoes from Anatole France
Anatole France
Anatole France , born François-Anatole Thibault, , was a French poet, journalist, and novelist. He was born in Paris, and died in Saint-Cyr-sur-Loire. He was a successful novelist, with several best-sellers. Ironic and skeptical, he was considered in his day the ideal French man of letters...
. The hero Thalassa, an Greek boy, works as a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
-keeper on Snake Island, fantasizing about the golden age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
of mankind. His fate is changed by a shipwreck, during which a girl, Caliope, reaches the island's shore. Thalassa and Caliope fall in love, but are mysteriously unable to seal their union through sexual intercourse: the boy attributes this failure to the "curse" of human individuality. Seeking to achieve a perfect union with his lover, he eventually kills her and drowns himself in the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
.
In her review for Mercure de France
Mercure de France
The Mercure de France was originally a French gazette and literary magazine first published in the 17th century, but after several incarnations has evolved as a publisher, and is now part of the Éditions Gallimard publishing group....
, novelist Rachilde
Rachilde
Rachilde was the nom de plume of Marguerite Vallette-Eymery, a French author who was born February 11, 1860 in Périgueux, Périgord, Dordogne, Aquitaine, France during the Second French Empire and died on April 4, 1953....
argued: "Very difficult to read, entirely developed in Symbolist manner [and] almost impossible to recount, obviously written in French but nevertheless obviously conceived by a Romanian (and what a spirited Romanian!)." Rachilde believed the work to display "the fragrance of Oriental spices [...] rose marmalade and a slice of bear meat." According to Vianu, the book builds on Macedonski's earlier themes, replacing Naturalist observation with a metaphysical
Metaphysics
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world, although the term is not easily defined. Traditionally, metaphysics attempts to answer two basic questions in the broadest possible terms:...
speculation about idealism
Idealism
In philosophy, idealism is the family of views which assert that reality, or reality as we can know it, is fundamentally mental, mentally constructed, or otherwise immaterial. Epistemologically, idealism manifests as a skepticism about the possibility of knowing any mind-independent thing...
. One other aspect of Macedonski's stylistic exploration took him to attempt recording synesthesia
Synesthesia
Synesthesia , from the ancient Greek , "together," and , "sensation," is a neurologically based condition in which stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic, involuntary experiences in a second sensory or cognitive pathway...
. His manuscript is written in ink of several colors, which, he believed, was to help readers get a full sense of its meaning. Like other synesthetic aspects of his novel, this is believed to have been inspired by the techniques of Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud
Arthur Rimbaud
Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud was a French poet. Born in Charleville, Ardennes, he produced his best known works while still in his late teens—Victor Hugo described him at the time as "an infant Shakespeare"—and he gave up creative writing altogether before the age of 21. As part of the decadent...
.
Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu is noted for its numerous cultural references, and especially for using a wide range of metaphors. Such aspects have been reviewed negatively by modern critics. Tudor Vianu writes: "the poet makes such waste of gemstones that we feel like saying some of them must be false", while Călinescu, who notes that some fragments reveal "an incomparable artist" and "a professional metaphorist", notes that "in the end, such virtuosities become a bore." According to Manuela-Delia Suciu, Thalassa is "polix" and "too polished", traits believed by Zamfir to be less irritating in the Romanian version. Critic Cornel Moraru found that, in the background, Thalassa, a "great Symbolist novel", confronts Ancient Greek
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...
and Christian mythology
Christian mythology
Christian mythology is the body of myths associated with Christianity. In the study of mythology, the term "myth" refers to a traditional story, often one which is regarded as sacred and which explains how the world and its inhabitants came to have their present form.Classicist G.S. Kirk defines a...
, but "abuses" the religious vocabulary. Another part of the novel's imagery is erotic
Erotic literature
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...
, and includes an elaborate and aestheticized description of male genitalia.
The four-act tragicomedy
Tragicomedy
Tragicomedy is fictional work that blends aspects of the genres of tragedy and comedy. In English literature, from Shakespeare's time to the nineteenth century, tragicomedy referred to a serious play with either a happy ending or enough jokes throughout the play to lighten the mood.-Classical...
Le Fou? is seen by Vianu as comparable in subject matter and depth to Enrico IV
Enrico IV
Henry IV is a play by Luigi Pirandello. A study on madness with comic and tragic sides, it has been translated into English by Tom Stoppard and others...
, a celebrated 1922 play by Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
. The plot reflects Macedonski's confrontation with his critics, and his acceptance of the fact that people saw in him an eccentric. The central figure is a banker, Dorval, who identifies himself with Napoleon Bonaparte
Napoleon I of France
Napoleon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader during the latter stages of the French Revolution.As Napoleon I, he was Emperor of the French from 1804 to 1815...
to the point where he sees episodes in his biography as mirrors of early 19th-century battles. Unlike patients with dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder
Dissociative identity disorder is a psychiatric diagnosis and describes a condition in which a person displays multiple distinct identities , each with its own pattern of perceiving and interacting with the environment....
, Dorval does not actually imagine his life has become Napoleon's, but rather joins with him on an intellectual level. Witnesses of this disorder are divided into family, who seek to have Dorval committed, and close friends, who come to see his take on life as a manifestation of genius. The spectator is led to believe that the latter interpretation is the correct one. At a larger level, Vianu indicates, the play is also Macedonski's critique of capitalism
Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...
, and, using Parisian argot
Argot
An Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job,...
, makes allusive references to famous people of the day.
Particularly during the 1890s, Macedonski was a follower of Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
and of Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
in general, producing a Romanian version of Poe's Metzengerstein
Metzengerstein
"Metzengerstein", also called "Metzengerstein: A Tale In Imitation of the German", was the first short story by American writer and poet Edgar Allan Poe to see print. It was first published in the pages of Philadelphia's Saturday Courier magazine, in 1832...
story, urging his own disciples to translate other such pieces, and adopting "Gothic" themes in his original prose. Indebted to Jules Verne
Jules Verne
Jules Gabriel Verne was a French author who pioneered the science fiction genre. He is best known for his novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea , A Journey to the Center of the Earth , and Around the World in Eighty Days...
and H. G. Wells
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
, Macedonski also wrote a number of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
stories, including the 1913 Oceania-Pacific-Dreadnought, which depicts civilization on the verge of a crisis. The gigantic commercial ship is maintained by a banker's union, and designed to grant travelers access to every pleasure imaginable; this causes the working-class inhabited cities on the continent to fall into a state of neglect and permanent violence, the climax of the story occurring with the bankers' decision to destroy their creation. Oceania-Pacific-Dreadnought is noted for anticipating television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, the ship being equipped with electrically-operated "large and clear mirrors" that display "images from various parts of the Earth". Macedonski was by then interested in the development of cinema, and authored a silent film
Silent film
A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...
screenplay based on Comment on devient riche et puissant.
Final transition
Late in his life, Macedonski had come to reject Symbolist tenets, defining them as "imbecilities" designed for "the uncultured". Ultima verba, the very last poems to be written by him, show him coming to terms with himself, and are treasured for their serene or intensely joyous vision of life and human accomplishment. The rondelsRondel (poem)
A rondel is a verse form originating in French lyrical poetry, later used in the verse of other languages as well, such as English and Romanian. It is a variation of the rondeau consisting of two quatrains followed by a quintet or a sestet...
written at this stage, known collectively as Poema rondelurilor
Poema rondelurilor
Poema rondelurilor is the title of a 1927 collection of rondel cycles by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following rondels divided into the following cycles:*Rondelurile pribege**Rondelul lucrurilor**Rondelul oraşului mic...
, are one of the first instances where the technique is used locally. Like those written previously by Literatoruls Pavelescu and Alexandru Obedenaru, they are based on an earlier motif present in Macedonski's work, that of recurring refrains. Many of the pieces document the poet's final discoveries. One of them is Rondelul crinilor ("The Rondel of the Lilies"), which proclaims fragrances as the source of beatitude: În crini e beţia cea rară, "In lilies one finds that exceptional drunkenness". According to Ştefan Cazimir, Rondelul oraşului mic ("The Rondel of the Small Town") shows a "likable wave of irony and self-irony", and the poet himself coming to terms with "the existence of a world who ignores him." Proof of his combativeness was still to be found in Rondelul contimporanilor ("The Rondel of the Contemporaries").
The poet's take on life is also outlined in his final play, Moartea lui Dante. Călinescu writes that, by then, Macedonski was "obsessed" with the Divine Comedy. Macedonski identifies with his hero, Dante Aligheri, and formulates his own poetic testament while identifying World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
Romania with the medieval Republic of Florence
Republic of Florence
The Republic of Florence , or the Florentine Republic, was a city-state that was centered on the city of Florence, located in modern Tuscany, Italy. The republic was founded in 1115, when the Florentine people rebelled against the Margraviate of Tuscany upon Margravine Matilda's death. The...
. Tudor Vianu remarks: "In Dante's great self-pride, Macedonski found his own." He sees the play as the best such work to have been produced by Macedonski, whereas Călinescu deems it "puerile". Zamfir believes Moartea... to be a significant text in Macedonski's bibliography, "one of the first samples of Romanian Symbolist theater", and as such indebted mainly to Maeterlinck. Vianu argues that the play may document the Romanian writer's late rejection of France, through the protagonist's statement: "the French are a gentle people, but their soul is different from mine."
A number of rondels show Macedonski's late fascination with the Far East
Far East
The Far East is an English term mostly describing East Asia and Southeast Asia, with South Asia sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons.The term came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 19th century,...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. George Călinescu believes that this is to be understood as one item in a large antithesis
Antithesis
Antithesis is a counter-proposition and denotes a direct contrast to the original proposition...
, the other being Decadent Paris, which one rondel describes as "hell". The Orient, viewed as the space of serenity, is believed by Macedonski to be peopled by toy-like women and absent opium
Opium
Opium is the dried latex obtained from the opium poppy . Opium contains up to 12% morphine, an alkaloid, which is frequently processed chemically to produce heroin for the illegal drug trade. The latex also includes codeine and non-narcotic alkaloids such as papaverine, thebaine and noscapine...
-smokers, and to be kept orderly by a stable meritocracy
Meritocracy
Meritocracy, in the first, most administrative sense, is a system of government or other administration wherein appointments and responsibilities are objectively assigned to individuals based upon their "merits", namely intelligence, credentials, and education, determined through evaluations or...
. The Chinese-themed poem Tsing-Ly-Tsi, which Cazimir notes for its discreet, "almost imperceptible", humor, reads:
Tsing-Ly-Tsi stă-n prispa de-aur, Cu ochi mici ca de ghierlan, Sub de-argint frunzos tezaur, Casa e de porţelan. |
Tsing-Ly-Tsi sits on the golden porch, With his eyes as small as those of mice, Under the silvery, leafy, treasure, His house is porcelain-like. |
Macedonski's school and its early impact
Alexandru Macedonski repeatedly expressed the thought that, unlike his contemporaries, posterity would judge him a great poet. With the exception of Mihail Dragomirescu, conservative literary critics tended to ignore Macedonski while he was alive. The first such figure was Junimeas Titu MaiorescuTitu Maiorescu
Titu Liviu Maiorescu was a Romanian literary critic and politician, founder of the Junimea Society. As a literary critic, he was instrumental in the development of Romanian culture in the second half of the 19th century....
, who believed him to be a minor author, referring to him only a couple of times in his books and usually ridiculing him in his articles. One of these texts, the 1886 essay Poeţi şi critici ("Poets and Critics"), spoke of Macedonski as having "vitiated" poetry, a notion he also applied to Constantin D. Aricescu and Aron Densuşianu. Especially radical pronouncements were left by the traditionalist authors Ilarie Chendi and Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
. Chendi wrote of Macedonski being "the caricature of a man", having "a feverish mind" and being motivated by "the brutal instinct of revenge". Iorga, who became better known as a historian, later retracted some of the statements he had made against the poet during the 1890s. Among the younger prominent traditionalist writers was the Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
n-born Lucian Blaga
Lucian Blaga
-Biography:Lucian Blaga was a commanding personality of the Romanian culture of the interbellum period. He was a philosopher and writer higly acclaimed for his originality, a university professor and a diplomat. He was born on May 9, 1895 in Lancrăm, near Alba Iulia, Romania, his father being an...
, who may have purposefully avoided Macedonski during his first visit to Bucharest in 1920. Although more sympathetic to the Symbolist author, both Dragomirescu and Gheorghe Adamescu tended to describe him as exclusively the product of French and Decadent literature, while Dragomirescu's disciple Ion Trivale denied all merit to Macedonski's literature.
According to Tudor Vianu, Macedonski's intellectual friends (among them Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu
Anghel Demetriescu was a Romanian historian, writer and literary critic, member of the Romanian Academy in 1902.-Childhood and studies:...
, George Ionescu-Gion, Bonifaciu Florescu, Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore Tocilescu
Grigore George Tocilescu was a Romanian historian, archaeologist, epigrapher and folkorist, member of Romanian Academy....
and V. A. Urechia
V. A. Urechia
V. A. Urechia was a Moldavian-born Romanian historian, Romantic author of historical fiction and plays, academic and politician...
) were largely responsible for passing down "a better and truer image of the abused poet." It was also due to Dragomirescu that Noaptea de decemvrie was included in a literature textbook for final grade high school students, which some argue is the poet's first-ever presence in the Romanian curriculum
Education in Romania
According to the Law on Education adopted in 1995, the Romanian Educational System is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Research . Each level has its own form of organization and is subject to different legislation. Kindergarten is optional between 3 and 6 years old...
. According to historian Lucian Nastasă, the poet's wife Ana Rallet behaved like an "excellent secretary" while Macedonski was still alive, and thereafter helped sort and edit his manuscript while maintaining "an actual cult" for her husband.
Macedonski's cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitanism
Cosmopolitanism is the ideology that all human ethnic groups belong to a single community based on a shared morality. This is contrasted with communitarian and particularistic theories, especially the ideas of patriotism and nationalism...
circle was the center of a literary alternative to the prevailing conservatism and Eminescu-like traditionalism of the day, the latter tendency being grouped around Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul
Sămănătorul or Semănătorul was a literary and political magazine published in Romania between 1901 and 1910. Founded by poets Alexandru Vlahuţă and George Coşbuc, it is primarily remembered as a tribune for early 20th century traditionalism, neoromanticism and ethnic nationalism...
magazine for part of Macedonski's lifetime. While Macedonski himself maintained his links with Romanticism and Classicism, commentators have retrospectively recognized in him the main person who announced Romania's first wave in modernist literature
Modernist literature
Modernist literature is sub-genre of Modernism, a predominantly European movement beginning in the early 20th century that was characterized by a self-conscious break with traditional aesthetic forms...
. Many first-generation disciples were to part with his guidelines early on, either by radicalizing their Symbolism or by stepping out of its confines. Traian Demetrescu
Traian Demetrescu
Traian Rafael Radu Demetrescu was a Romanian poet, novelist and literary critic, considered one of the first symbolist authors in local literature...
was one of the first to do so, focusing on his commitment to socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
—Vianu notes that the split took place "without coldness and the heart's versatility" on Macedonski's part. Literary researcher Lidia Bote argues that it was Petică who first illustrated mature Symbolism, emancipating himself from Macedonski's eclectic
Eclecticism
Eclecticism is a conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain complementary insights into a subject, or applies different theories in particular cases.It can sometimes seem inelegant or...
tendencies after 1902. By that time, the Symbolist authors Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel
Dimitrie Anghel was a Romanian poet.His first poem was published in Contemporanul...
and N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea
N. D. Cocea was a Romanian journalist, novelist, critic and left-wing political activist, known as a major but controversial figure in the field of political satire...
used Macedonski's fantasy prose as an inspiration for their own, and N. Davidescu was borrowing from his mystical discourse. The pictorial and joyous elements in Macedonski's poems were also serving to inspire Stamatiad, Eugeniu Ştefănescu-Est and Horia Furtună. In the early stages of his career, Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat
Ion Pillat grew up in Bucharest. He was a poet, best known for his volume Pe Argeş în sus and Poeme într-un vers...
wrote pieces which echo his master's choice of exotic
Exoticism
Exoticism is a trend in art and design, influenced by some ethnic groups or civilizations since the late 19th-century. In music exoticism is a genre in which the rhythms, melodies, or instrumentation are designed to evoke the atmosphere of far-off lands or ancient times Exoticism (from 'exotic')...
themes. A more discreet legacy of Macedonski's ideas was also preserved inside the conservative and traditionalist camps. Although his separation from Literatorul was drastic, and led him to rally with Junimea, Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu
Duiliu Zamfirescu was a Romanian novelist, poet, short story writer, lawyer, nationalist politician, journalist, diplomat and memoirist. In 1909, he was elected a member of the Romanian Academy, and, for a while in 1920, he was Foreign Minister of Romania...
built on some elements borrowed from the magazine's ideology, incorporating them into his literary vision.
Many of Macedonski's most devoted disciples, whom he himself had encouraged, have been rated by various critics as secondary or mediocre. This is the case of Theodor Cornel (who made his name as an art critic), Mircea Demetriade, Oreste Georgescu, Alexandru Obedenaru, Stoenescu, Stamatiad, Carol Scrob, Dumitru Karnabatt and Donar Munteanu. Another such minor author was the self-styled "hermeticist" Al. Petroff, who expanded on Macedonski's ideas about esoteric knowledge.
Macedonski's eldest son Alexis continued to pursue a career as a painter. His son Soare followed in his footsteps, receiving acclaim from art critics of the period. Soare's short career ended in 1928, before he turned nineteen, but his works have been featured in several retrospective exhibitions, including one organized by Alexis. Alexis later experimented with scenic design
Scenic design
Scenic design is the creation of theatrical, as well as film or television scenery. Scenic designers have traditionally come from a variety of artistic backgrounds, but nowadays, generally speaking, they are trained professionals, often with M.F.A...
as an assistant to French filmmaker René Clair
René Clair
René Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
; his later life, shrouded in mystery and intrigue, led him to a career in Fascist Italy
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
and Francoist Spain. Another of Alexandru Macedonski's sons, Nikita, was also a poet and painter. For a while in the 1920s, he edited the literary supplement of Universul
Universul
Universul was a mass-circulation newspaper in Romania. It existed from 1884 to 1953, and was run by Stelian Popescu from 1914 to 1943 ....
newspaper. Two years after her father's death, Anna Macedonski married poet Mihail Celerianu.
In addition to his polemical portrayals in works by Alecsandri, Eminescu and Caragiale, Macedonski's career was an inspiration for various authors. His image acquired mythical proportions for his followers. Like Demetrescu, many of them left memoirs on Macedonski which were published before or after his death. His admirers were writing poetry about him as early as 1874, and, in 1892, Cincinat Pavelescu published a rhapsodizing portrait of Macedonski as "the Artist". Pavelescu, Dragoslav and Petică paid homage to the writer by leaving recollections which describe him as a devoted and considerate friend. In contrast, traditionalist poet Alexandru Vlahuţă
Alexandru Vlahuta
Alexandru Vlahuţă was a Romanian writer. His best known work is România pitorească, an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of Sămănătorul magazine, alongside George Coşbuc....
authored an 1889 sketch story
Sketch story
A sketch story, or sketch, is a piece of writing that is generally shorter than a short story, and contains very little, if any, plot. The term was most popularly-used in the late nineteenth century. As a literary work, it is also often referred to simply as the sketch.-Style:A sketch is mainly...
in which Macedonski (referred to as Polidor) is the object of derision.
Late recognition
Actual recognition of the poet as a classic came only in the interwar periodInterwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
. A final volume of never before published poems, Poema rondelurilor
Poema rondelurilor
Poema rondelurilor is the title of a 1927 collection of rondel cycles by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following rondels divided into the following cycles:*Rondelurile pribege**Rondelul lucrurilor**Rondelul oraşului mic...
, saw print in 1927. Macedonski's work was analyzed and popularized by a new generation of critics, among them Vianu and George Călinescu. The post-Junimist modernist critic Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu
Eugen Lovinescu was a Romanian modernist literary historian, literary critic, academic, and novelist, who in 1919 established the Sburătorul literary club. He was the father of Monica Lovinescu, and the uncle of Horia Lovinescu, Vasile Lovinescu, and Anton Holban...
also commented favorably on Macedonski's work, but overall, Călinescu asserts, his opinions on the subject gave little insight into what he actually thought about the poet. He also recounts that Macedonski himself treated Lovinescu with disdain, and once called him "a canary".
The emerging avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
, although originating from Symbolism, progressively took its distance from Literatoruls legacy. Initially, Macedonski's contribution to experimental literature
Experimental literature
Experimental literature refers to written works - often novels or magazines - that place great emphasis on innovations regarding technique and style.-Early history:...
was continued within formal Symbolism by his disciples Demetriade, Iuliu Cezar Săvescu and Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu
Ion Minulescu was a Romanian avant-garde poet, novelist, short story writer, journalist, literary critic, and playwright. Often publishing his works under the pseudonyms I. M. Nirvan and Koh-i-Noor , he journeyed to Paris, where he was heavily influenced by the growing Symbolist movement and...
. The latter was particularly indebted to Macedonski in matters of vision and language. In 1904, Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi
Tudor Arghezi was a Romanian writer, best known for his contribution to poetry and children's literature. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest , he explained that his pen name was related to Argesis, the Latin name for the Argeş River.-Early life:Along with Mihai Eminescu, Mateiu Caragiale, and...
also left behind the Literatorul circle and its tenets, eventually arriving to the fusion of modernist, traditionalist and avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
elements. However, he remained indebted to Macedonski's example in his descriptive prose. The 1912 Simbolul
Simbolul
Simbolul was a Romanian literary and art magazine, published in Bucharest between October and December 1912. Co-founded by writers Tristan Tzara and Ion Vinea, together with visual artist Marcel Janco, while they were all high school students, the journal was a late representative of international...
magazine, which moved between conventional Symbolism and the emerging avant-garde, also published an Imagist
Imagism
Imagism was a movement in early 20th-century Anglo-American poetry that favored precision of imagery and clear, sharp language. The Imagists rejected the sentiment and discursiveness typical of much Romantic and Victorian poetry. This was in contrast to their contemporaries, the Georgian poets,...
-inspired parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of Noaptea de mai, signed by Adrian Maniu. A co-founder of Dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ism during the late 1910s, Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara
Tristan Tzara was a Romanian and French avant-garde poet, essayist and performance artist. Also active as a journalist, playwright, literary and art critic, composer and film director, he was known best for being one of the founders and central figures of the anti-establishment Dada movement...
is believed by Swedish
Sweden
Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
researcher Tom Sandqvist to have been inspired more or less directly by Macedonski, and in particular by the latter's thoughts on the relation between absurdity and poetry. In his debut poems, Benjamin Fondane-Barbu Fundoianu
Benjamin Fondane
Benjamin Fondane or Benjamin Fundoianu was a Romanian and French poet, critic and existentialist philosopher, also noted for his work in film and theater. Known from his Romanian youth as a Symbolist poet and columnist, he alternated Neoromantic and Expressionist themes with echoes from Tudor...
occasionally followed Macedonski, but, by 1920, stated that the Symbolist doyen merely imitated French models to the point of "parasitism".
Several avant-garde authors returned to Macedonski's literary guidelines by the late 1920s, as they themselves grew more moderate. This was the case of Maniu and Ion Vinea, both of whom published prose works in the line of Thalassa. The same work also is also believed to have influenced two non-avant-garde authors, Davidescu and Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Caragiale
Mateiu Ion Caragiale was a Romanian poet and prose writer, best known for his novel Craii de Curtea-Veche, which portrays the milieu of boyar descendants before and after World War I. Caragiale's style, associated with Symbolism, the Decadent movement of the fin de siècle, and early modernism, was...
, who remained close to the tenets Symbolism. Mateiu was the illegitimate son of Ion Luca Caragiale, but, Vianu notes, could withstand comparisons with his father's rival: the eccentricities were complementary, although Mateiu Caragiale shied away from public affairs. In the same post-Symbolist generation, Celerianu (Macedonski's posthumous son-in-law), George Bacovia
George Bacovia
George Bacovia was a Romanian symbolist poet. While he initially belonged to the local Symbolist movement, his poetry came to be seen as a precursor of Romanian Modernism and eventually established him in critical esteem alongside Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga and Ion Barbu as one of the most...
and Păstorel Teodoreanu also built on Macedonski's legacy, being later joined in this by the Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
n linguist Eugenio Coşeriu
Eugenio Coseriu
Eugenio Coşeriu July 27, 1921, Mihăileni, Bălţi, Republic of Moldova – September 7, 2002, Tübingen, Germany) was a linguist that specialized in Romance languages at the University of Tübingen, author of over 50 books, honorary member of the Romanian Academy....
(who, in his early poetic career, imitated Macedonski's rondel style). In the late 1920s, when their form of modern psalms
Psalms
The Book of Psalms , commonly referred to simply as Psalms, is a book of the Hebrew Bible and the Christian Bible...
inspired Albanian-Romanian
Albanians of Romania
The Albanians are an ethnic minority in Romania. As an officially recognized ethnic minority, Albanians have one seat reserved in the Romanian Chamber of Deputies to the League of Albanians of Romania .-Demographics:In the 2002 census 520 Romanian citizens indicated their ethnicity was Albanian,...
poet Aleksander Stavre Drenova
Aleksander Stavre Drenova
Aleksandër Stavre Drenova, best known under his pen name Asdreni , was one of the most well-known Albanian poets. One of his most recognizable poems is the Albanian National Anthem, Hymni i Flamurit.-Biography:...
, Macedonski and Arghezi both made an indirect impact on Albanian literature
Albanian literature
The Albanian literature is the literature written by Albanians.-Renaissance:The expansion of the Ottoman Empire pushed many Albanians from their homeland during the period of the Western European Renaissance humanism...
.
Macedonski's status as one of Romanian literature's greats was consolidated later in the 20th century. By this time, Noaptea de decemvrie had become one of the most recognizable literary works to be taught in Romanian schools. During the first years of Communist Romania
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
, the Socialist Realist current
Socialist realism in Romania
After World War II, socialist realism on the Soviet model was imposed on the USSR's new satellites, including Romania. This was accompanied by a series of organisational and repressive moves, for instance the incarceration of numerous poets...
condemned Symbolism (see Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania
Censorship in Communist Romania was widespread and virtually every published document, be it a newspaper article or a book, had to pass the censor's approval...
), but spoke favorably of Macedonski's critique of the bourgeoisie
Bourgeoisie
In sociology and political science, bourgeoisie describes a range of groups across history. In the Western world, between the late 18th century and the present day, the bourgeoisie is a social class "characterized by their ownership of capital and their related culture." A member of the...
. A while after this episode, Marin Sorescu
Marin Sorescu
- Biography :Born to a family of farmworkers in Bulzeşti, Dolj County, Sorescu graduated from the primary school in his home village. After that he went to the Buzesti Brothers High School in Craiova, after which he was transferred to the Predeal Military School. His final education was at the...
, one of the best-known modernist poets of his generation, wrote a homage-parody of the Nights cycle. Included in the volume Singur între poeţi ("Alone among Poets"), it is seen by critic Mircea Scarlat as Sorescu's most representative such pieces. Also then, Noaptea de decemvrie partly inspired Ştefan Augustin Doinaş
Stefan Augustin Doinas
Ştefan Augustin Doinaş was a Romanian Neoclassical poet of the Communist era....
' ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
Mistreţul cu colţi de argint.
In the 1990s, Ştefan Agopian took the Nights cycle as inspiration for an erotic
Erotic literature
Erotic literature comprises fictional and factual stories and accounts of human sexual relationships which have the power to or are intended to arouse the reader sexually. Such erotica takes the form of novels, short stories, poetry, true-life memoirs, and sex manuals...
short story, while Pavel Şuşară adapted his rondels to a modernized setting. Macedonski's prose also influenced younger writers such as Angelo Mitchievici and Anca Maria Mosora. In neighboring Moldova
Moldova
Moldova , officially the Republic of Moldova is a landlocked state in Eastern Europe, located between Romania to the West and Ukraine to the North, East and South. It declared itself an independent state with the same boundaries as the preceding Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic in 1991, as part...
, Macedonski influenced the Neosymbolism
Neosymbolism
Neosymbolism is a movement current in the visual arts genre. Active in the movement are artists in the USA, in Denmark, and in the Czech Republic.- History :...
of Aureliu Busuioc. A magazine by the name of Literatorul, which claims to represent the legacy of Macedonski's publication, was founded in Romania in 1991, being edited by writers Sorescu, Fănuş Neagu and Mircea Micu. In 2006, the Romanian Academy
Romanian Academy
The Romanian Academy is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 acting members who are elected for life....
granted posthumous membership to Alexandru Macedonski.
Macedonski's poems had a sizable impact on Romania's popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
. During communism, Noaptea de mai was the basis for a successful musical adaptation, composed by Marian Nistor and sung by Mirabela Dauer. Tudor Gheorghe
Tudor Gheorghe
Tudor Gheorghe is a Romanian musician, actor and poet known primarily for his politically charged musical career and his collaborations with well known figures of late 20th century Romanian poetry. Tudor's recording work is often associated with anti communist activism and has received much...
, a singer-songwriter inspired by American folk revival
American folk music revival
The American folk music revival was a phenomenon in the United States that began during the 1940s and peaked in popularity in the mid-1960s. Its roots went earlier, and performers like Josh White, Burl Ives, Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Richard Dyer-Bennett, Oscar Brand, Jean Ritchie, John Jacob...
, also used some of Macedonski's texts as lyrics to his melodies. In the 2000s, the refrain of Noaptea de mai was mixed into a manea
Manele
Manele is a music style from Romania, generally associated with the Romani minority, though not exclusively....
parody by Adrian Copilul Minune
Adrian Copilul Minune
Adrian Minune is a Romani-Romanian manele singer.- Family :Adrian Minune married his long time life-partner Cati in 2004 and has two daughters and a son with her...
.
Portrayals, visual tributes and landmarks
Although his poetic theories were largely without echoes in Romanian artArt of Romania
Art of Romania encompasses the artists and artistic movements in Romania.-Romanian contemporary and modern artists:* Almaşan Virgil* Adela Andea* George Apostu* Corneliu Baba* Calin Baban* Sabin Bălaşa* Horia Bernea* Traian Brădean...
, Macedonski captured the interest of several modern artists. Alongside other writers who visited Terasa Oteteleşanu, Macedonski was notably portrayed the drawings of celebrated Romanian artist Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser
Iosif Iser was a Romanian painter and graphic artist.Born to a Jewish family, he was initially inspired by Expressionism, creating drawings with thick, unmodulated, lines and steep angles...
. He is also depicted in a 1918 lithograph by Jean Alexandru Steriadi
Jean Alexandru Steriadi
Jean Alexandru Steriadi was a Romanian painter and drawing artist. He made portraits and compositions based on a strong, expressive drawing; then he evoluated towards impressionistic influenced landscapes in which the subtle harmony is combined with a refined sense of picturesque...
, purportedly Steriadi's only Symbolist work. Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu inspired a series of relief
Relief
Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...
s, designed by Alexis Macedonski and hosted in his father's house in Dorobanţi
Dorobanti
Dorobanţi is a neighborhood in Sector 1, Bucharest. The neighborhood is dominated by red brick buildings and glass buildings. Main intersections/squares are Perla, Dorobanţi Square, Lahovari, Charles de Gaulle and Quito Square. Main streets are Calea Dorobanţilor, Iancu de Hunedoara Avenue, Lascăr...
. During the 1910s, busts of him were completed by two sculptors, Alexandru Severin and Friedrich Storck, one of Storck's variants being hosted by the Ioan Cantacuzino
Ioan Cantacuzino
Ioan C. Cantacuzino was a renowned Romanian physician and bacteriologist, a professor at the Romanian School of Medicine and Pharmacy and a member of the Romanian Academy...
collection. In 1919, Theodor Burcă was also inspired to complete another bust, and, during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, was commissioned by Mayor of Bucharest
Mayor of Bucharest
The Mayor of Bucharest , sometimes known as the General Mayor, is the head of the Bucharest City Hall in Bucharest, Romania, which is responsible for city-wide affairs, such as the water system, the transport system and the main boulevards...
Ion Răşcanu to build a Macedonski Monument in the Grădina Icoanei
Gradina Icoanei
Grădina Icoanei is a small park in central Bucharest, situated not far away from Piaţa Romană and Bulevardul Magheru.The Bulandra Theatre , Ioanid Park , the Icoanei Church and the Anglican Church are located in the park's immediate vicinity....
park, but this was never completed. Constantin Piliuţă, a painter active in the second half of the 20th century, made Macedonski the subject of a portrait in series dedicated to Romanian cultural figures (also depicted were Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga
Nicolae Iorga was a Romanian historian, politician, literary critic, memoirist, poet and playwright. Co-founder of the Democratic Nationalist Party , he served as a member of Parliament, President of the Deputies' Assembly and Senate, cabinet minister and briefly as Prime Minister...
, Ştefan Luchian
Stefan Luchian
Ștefan Luchian or Lukian was a Romanian painter, famous for his landscapes and still life works.-Early life:He was born in Ștefănești, a village of Botoșani County, as the son of Major Dumitru Luchian and of Elena Chiriacescu. The Luchian family moved to Bucharest in 1873 and his mother desired...
and Vianu). In 1975, a bust of Macedonski, the work of Constantin Foamete, was unveiled in Craiova
Craiova
Craiova , Romania's 6th largest city and capital of Dolj County, is situated near the east bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a longstanding political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians and the River Danube . Craiova is the chief...
.
Of Macedonski's numerous residences, the one in Dorobanţi was demolished when the Academy of Economic Studies (ASE) was expanded. A commemorative plaque was later put up near the spot. Macedonski's childhood home in Goieşti passed into state property under communism, and was in turn a school, a community home and a Macedonski Museum, before falling into neglect after the Romanian Revolution of 1989
Romanian Revolution of 1989
The Romanian Revolution of 1989 was a series of riots and clashes in December 1989. These were part of the Revolutions of 1989 that occurred in several Warsaw Pact countries...
. Several streets named in honor of Alexandru Macedonski, notably in Bucharest (by the ASE), Craiova, Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca
Cluj-Napoca , commonly known as Cluj, is the fourth most populous city in Romania and the seat of Cluj County in the northwestern part of the country. Geographically, it is roughly equidistant from Bucharest , Budapest and Belgrade...
and Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
.
Works published anthumously
- Prima verba (poetry, 1872)
- Ithalo (poem, 1878)
- PoeziiPoezii (Macedonski)Poezii is an 1882 collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Ocnele, "The Salt Mines"*Formele , "The Forms "*Noaptea de aprilie, "April Night"...
(poetry, 1881/1882) - Parizina (translation of ParisinaParisinaParisina is a poem written by Byron. It was published on 13 February 1816 and probably written between 1812 and 1815.It is based on a story related by Edward Gibbon in his Miscellaneous Works about Niccolò III d'Este, one of the dukes of Ferrara who lived in the fifteenth century...
, 1882) - Iadeş! (comedy, 1882)
- Dramă banală (short story, 1887)
- Saul (with Cincinat Pavelescu; tragedy, 1893)
- ExcelsiorExcelsior (Macedonski)Excelsior is the title of a collection of poetry by the Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski. It contains the following poems:*Valţul rozelor*Excelsior*Stepa*Cu morţii*Vis de mai*Psalmi moderni*Noaptea de noiembrie*Sub stele*Acşam dovalar...
(poetry, 1895) - Bronzes (poetry, 1897)
- (essay, 1898)
- Cartea de aur (prose, 1902)
- Thalassa, Le Calvaire de feu (novel, 1906; 1914)
- Flori sacreFlori sacreFlori sacre is the title of a 1912 collection of poetry by Romanian poet Alexandru Macedonski which contains the poems:*Avatar*Noaptea de decembrie*Mai*Imn la Satan*Castelul*Vasul*Corabia*Mănăstirea*Cântecul ploaiei...
(poetry, 1912) - Zaherlina (essay, 1920)
External links
- Amidst Hen Houses (excerpts), Poésies, Thalassa (excerpt), in the Romanian Cultural InstituteRomanian Cultural InstituteThe Romanian Cultural Institute is a state-funded institution that promotes Romanian culture and civilization in Romania and abroad. The ICR was formerly set up through reorganization of the Romanian Cultural Foundation and Romanian Cultural Publishing Foundation...
's Plural Magazine (various issues) Alexandru Macedonski, Museum of Romanian Literature profile