D. Iacobescu
Encyclopedia
D. Iacobescu or Dumitru Iacobescu (duˈmitru jakoˈbesku; born Armand Iacobsohn; 1893 – October 9, 1913) was a Romania
n Symbolist
poet. His literary activity only lasted about two years, between his high school graduation and his death from tuberculosis
, but made him a critically acclaimed presence inside Romania's Symbolist movement
. Much of Iacobescu's work remained unpublished during his lifetime, and survived as autographed notebooks. Once rediscovered and published some twenty years after his death, it brought him posthumous recognition as a writer of talent, but one whose introversion and nostalgia ran contrary to the main currents in modernism
.
Romanticizing his own physical suffering while adopting stylistic elements from French
Symbolist classics such as Paul Verlaine
, D. Iacobescu left lyric poetry
that is either resigned or visionary in dealing with mortality. His other contributions display an interest in Decadent
, pre-modernist, themes, as well as a taste for black comedy
. The contrast between his approach and that of other, more avant-garde
, Romanian Symbolists did not prevent Iacobescu's affiliation with the modernist circle at Ion Minulescu
's Insula magazine.
as the son of physician Iacobsohn and his wife Doroteea, the future D. Iacobescu belonged to the Jewish-Romanian
community, being one of several Jewish members of his early modernist generation to make an impact on Romanian literature
.
D. Iacobescu had a short life, marked by his losing battle with tuberculosis. He was however active on the literary scene of Bucharest
, just shortly after completing his high school studies. In spring 1912, Iacobescu became an affiliate of the literary circle formed by Minulescu around the short-lived review Insula (the existence of which marked a coming of age in Romanian Symbolism). At the time, Iacobescu met the modernist poet Ion Vinea, who later contributed his obituary in Facla magazine. According to this text, Iacobescu, who rallied with "the purifying and insect repelling" Insula, represented a "multicolored ray, vibrating far away from [...] the mediocre talents." In addition to lending his contribution to Insula, Iacobescu had his various poems published published by several other literary magazines or newspapers: Flacăra
, Noua Revistă Română, Ramuri, Ilustraţia Naţională, Arta, Biruinţa and Noi Pagini Literare.
D. Iacobescu died in Bucharest at age nineteen. He left behind several calligraphed manuscripts of his lifelong poetry (most of it previously unpublished), including a notebook carrying the title Quasi. In a memoir
written during or shortly after World War I
, literary historian Tudor Vianu
, who noted having "read and admired" Iacobescu while he was still alive, reviewed these unpublished pieces, and argued that their title probably alluded to an "indecisive atmosphere" to be discerned in Iacobescu's creative process. The notebooks included Iacobescu's first mention of being bedridden, with Zile de vară ("Summer Days", dated August 6, 1913), as well as his last known work in verse, Capriccio-Fantazie (August 13).
, was still characterized by a focus on the mainstays of Symbolist aesthetics. In his obituary piece, Ion Vinea described the "dreamer's verse" contributed by Iacobescu as complimenting "the fastidious and strange plangency" of Minulescu's work. Writing in 1929, the modernist critic and poet Benjamin Fondane
assessed that Minulescu himself was not a Symbolist, but rather one who adopted the label as "the pretext of revolt", and that Iacobescu, Ştefan Petică, and ("to a lesser degree") Vinea or Adrian Maniu, were the actual voices of Romania's Symbolist school. In Tudor Vianu's opinion, Iacobescu was primarily a pre-modernist and "minor poet of great talent", whose work evidenced a stage in Romanian poetry that preceded the wartime effort. Himself a war veteran, Vianu noted: "This poet never once smiled. Wrapped up in his singularity, he was cultivating his nostalgia. This is how people wrote before the war. [...] Our souls demand basic touches and of the most generally human category. Had he been alive, Iacobescu, a less virile talent, could not have resisted."
A particular trait of Iacobescu's poetry, which placed him in line with the stylistic choices of many Romanian Symbolists, was its use of color-related epithet
s, particularly "synesthesic
" ones (and, according to researcher Carmen Niculescu, with a personal palette of black, gray and blood red). Tudor Vianu argued that, in his more humorous works in particular, Iacobescu displays "the extraordinary precision of detail [Vianu's italics]", condensed into "dynamic evocations".
As noted by critics, Iacobescu's poetry was indebted to models in French or Francophone literature
. A special influence on Iacobescu's style was France
's Symbolist forerunner Paul Verlaine
—according to literary historian Paul Cernat, the Romanian writer was a "Verlainian poet". The various echoes from "French poets active after 1885", as found in Iacobescu's style, were attributed by Vianu to three distinct sources: "through their unrealness and bizarreness some of them display, [Iacobescu's poems] border on Baudelaire
's, and through their melodiousness and sweet sentimentality, place themselves beneath the autumnal skies of Verlaine and Samain
."
The overall impact of such borrowings was assessed by literary historians George Călinescu
and Tudor Vianu alike. While noting that Iacobescu found in French Symbolism "images suited to his own nostalgia, ships, ports, arctic seas, gull
s, parks, fountains", Călinescu suggests that the parallel imagery of fêtes galantes
is excessive: "Pierrot
s, Columbina
s, lords, misses, minuet
s, gavotte
s, pianos, mandolin
s, guitars, pinkish, purple, gray salons, all in a too specifically French atmosphere, pushed to the point where it evokes the Bourbons
". Expanding on his view about Iacobescu's poetry being essentially Decadent
, Vianu exclaimed: "Bourbons! Lilies! Chinaware! Silk! Our soul—I'm being told by something that comes from deep within—demands different realities nowadays. Iacobescu took to his grave a something from his age."
which deal with his sickness, with solitude and depression
, detailing states such as "the strain of hearing to the vibrations of silence" or "the sensitivity in relation to rain". One such sample reads:
Several such poems deal more or less explicitly with the symptoms of Iacobescu's disease. In one piece, titled Poem de amiază ("Noon Poem"), the author talks about his episodes of hemoptysis
(or, according to Călinescu, "the obsession of hemorrhages"). It reads:
In the end, Călinescu notes, Iacobescu displayed the "fixation of death, which he sees as a descent into an aquatic environment". This is in reference to stanzas where Iacobescu talks about a spiritual vision or an apparition
:
According to Vianu, Iacobescu's Quasi poems are in large part determined by the "premonition of death", showing his struggle with the notion and his coming to terms with it. In the end, the same critic argues, Iacobescu turned to "the illusion of historical fatality
" in order to explain his condition. He finds proof of this in Iacobescu's lines:
imagery. Focusing on the Symbolist contribution to Romanian humor, literary historian Ştefan Cazimir argues that, among Iacobescu's writings, such samples echo either Verlaine (in cases where Iacobescu discusses his "hypothetical love affairs" in self-mocking tones) or Jules Laforgue
(in those pieces where his texts veer into black comedy
). Cazimir suggests that the latter influence is to be found in the poem Prin ceaţă ("Through the Fog"), where Iacobescu likens streetlights to ghosts that have no choice but to play audience to tomcats in heat.
In his 1918 note on Iacobescu, Vianu also assessed: "I do believe I have managed to capture an especially original tone in his poetry [...]. I mean a certain sentimental grotesque [Italics in the original] where laughter merges into a flinch of pain." This trait, Vianu notes, is especially observable in settings such as Scenă de seară ("Evening Scene"), where patients in a mental institution marvel as one of them plays the ballerina, and where contentment suddenly becomes violence:
, including Călinescu and the modernist critic Eugène Ionesco
. The latter's articles, which center on the idea of radical cultural innovation, attacked the substance of Iacobescu's poems in terms deemed "full of hate" by cultural historian Marta Petreu
.
Iacobescu's work was again the object of critical interest in and after 2008, when semiologist and critic Marin Mincu published the anthology
Poezia română actuală ("Timely Romanian Poetry"). In what was equated with an actual recovery by literary reviewer Bogdan Creţu, it placed Iacobescu alongside other representatives of lyrical Romanian Symbolism. Mincu's work also placed Iacobescu's taste for the ballade
poetic form in relation to the balladesque poetry of the 1940s, in particular with that produced by the modernist Sibiu Literary Circle
.
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 Symbolist
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...
poet. His literary activity only lasted about two years, between his high school graduation and his death from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
, but made him a critically acclaimed presence inside Romania's 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...
. Much of Iacobescu's work remained unpublished during his lifetime, and survived as autographed notebooks. Once rediscovered and published some twenty years after his death, it brought him posthumous recognition as a writer of talent, but one whose introversion and nostalgia ran contrary to the main currents in modernism
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...
.
Romanticizing his own physical suffering while adopting stylistic elements from 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...
Symbolist classics such as 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:...
, D. Iacobescu left lyric poetry
Lyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
that is either resigned or visionary in dealing with mortality. His other contributions display an interest in 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:...
, pre-modernist, themes, as well as a taste for black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
. The contrast between his approach and that of other, more 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....
, Romanian Symbolists did not prevent Iacobescu's affiliation with the modernist circle at 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...
's Insula magazine.
Biography
Born in CraiovaCraiova
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...
as the son of physician Iacobsohn and his wife Doroteea, the future D. Iacobescu belonged to the Jewish-Romanian
History of the Jews in Romania
The history of Jews in Romania concerns the Jews of Romania and of Romanian origins, from their first mention on what is nowadays Romanian territory....
community, being one of several Jewish members of his early modernist generation to make an 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....
.
D. Iacobescu had a short life, marked by his losing battle with tuberculosis. He was however active on the literary scene of 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....
, just shortly after completing his high school studies. In spring 1912, Iacobescu became an affiliate of the literary circle formed by Minulescu around the short-lived review Insula (the existence of which marked a coming of age in Romanian Symbolism). At the time, Iacobescu met the modernist poet Ion Vinea, who later contributed his obituary in Facla magazine. According to this text, Iacobescu, who rallied with "the purifying and insect repelling" Insula, represented a "multicolored ray, vibrating far away from [...] the mediocre talents." In addition to lending his contribution to Insula, Iacobescu had his various poems published published by several other literary magazines or newspapers: Flacăra
Flacăra
Flacăra is a weekly magazine published in Bucharest, Romania, originally as a literary periodical....
, Noua Revistă Română, Ramuri, Ilustraţia Naţională, Arta, Biruinţa and Noi Pagini Literare.
D. Iacobescu died in Bucharest at age nineteen. He left behind several calligraphed manuscripts of his lifelong poetry (most of it previously unpublished), including a notebook carrying the title Quasi. In a 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...
written during or shortly after 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...
, 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 noted having "read and admired" Iacobescu while he was still alive, reviewed these unpublished pieces, and argued that their title probably alluded to an "indecisive atmosphere" to be discerned in Iacobescu's creative process. The notebooks included Iacobescu's first mention of being bedridden, with Zile de vară ("Summer Days", dated August 6, 1913), as well as his last known work in verse, Capriccio-Fantazie (August 13).
Generic traits
D. Iacobescu's short career, overlapping with Symbolist mutations into the avant-gardeAvant-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....
, was still characterized by a focus on the mainstays of Symbolist aesthetics. In his obituary piece, Ion Vinea described the "dreamer's verse" contributed by Iacobescu as complimenting "the fastidious and strange plangency" of Minulescu's work. Writing in 1929, the modernist critic and poet Benjamin Fondane
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...
assessed that Minulescu himself was not a Symbolist, but rather one who adopted the label as "the pretext of revolt", and that Iacobescu, Ştefan Petică, and ("to a lesser degree") Vinea or Adrian Maniu, were the actual voices of Romania's Symbolist school. In Tudor Vianu's opinion, Iacobescu was primarily a pre-modernist and "minor poet of great talent", whose work evidenced a stage in Romanian poetry that preceded the wartime effort. Himself a war veteran, Vianu noted: "This poet never once smiled. Wrapped up in his singularity, he was cultivating his nostalgia. This is how people wrote before the war. [...] Our souls demand basic touches and of the most generally human category. Had he been alive, Iacobescu, a less virile talent, could not have resisted."
A particular trait of Iacobescu's poetry, which placed him in line with the stylistic choices of many Romanian Symbolists, was its use of color-related epithet
Epithet
An epithet or byname is a descriptive term accompanying or occurring in place of a name and having entered common usage. It has various shades of meaning when applied to seemingly real or fictitious people, divinities, objects, and binomial nomenclature. It is also a descriptive title...
s, particularly "synesthesic
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...
" ones (and, according to researcher Carmen Niculescu, with a personal palette of black, gray and blood red). Tudor Vianu argued that, in his more humorous works in particular, Iacobescu displays "the extraordinary precision of detail [Vianu's italics]", condensed into "dynamic evocations".
As noted by critics, Iacobescu's poetry was indebted to models in French or Francophone literature
Francophone literature
Francophone literature is literature written in the French language. Most often the term is misused to refer only to literature from francophone countries outside France, but this category includes French Literature, or Literature of France, that is literature written by French authors...
. A special influence on Iacobescu's style was France
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...
's Symbolist forerunner 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:...
—according to literary historian Paul Cernat, the Romanian writer was a "Verlainian poet". The various echoes from "French poets active after 1885", as found in Iacobescu's style, were attributed by Vianu to three distinct sources: "through their unrealness and bizarreness some of them display, [Iacobescu's poems] border on 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...
's, and through their melodiousness and sweet sentimentality, place themselves beneath the autumnal skies of Verlaine and Samain
Albert Samain
Albert Victor Samain was a French poet and writer of the Symbolist school.Born in Lille, his family were Flemish and had long lived in the town or its suburbs. At the time of the poet's birth, his father, Jean-Baptiste Samain, and his mother, Elisa-Henriette Mouquet, conducted a business in "wines...
."
The overall impact of such borrowings was assessed by literary historians George Călinescu
George Calinescu
George Călinescu was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies...
and Tudor Vianu alike. While noting that Iacobescu found in French Symbolism "images suited to his own nostalgia, ships, ports, arctic seas, gull
Gull
Gulls are birds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders...
s, parks, fountains", Călinescu suggests that the parallel imagery of fêtes galantes
Fête galante
Fête galante is a French term referring to some of the celebrated pursuits of the idle, rich aristocrats in the 18th century—from 1715 until the 1770s...
is excessive: "Pierrot
Pierrot
Pierrot is a stock character of pantomime and Commedia dell'Arte whose origins are in the late 17th-century Italian troupe of players performing in Paris and known as the Comédie-Italienne; the name is a hypocorism of Pierre , via the suffix -ot. His character in postmodern popular culture—in...
s, Columbina
Columbina
Columbine is a fictional character in the Commedia dell'Arte. She is Harlequin's mistress, a comic servant playing the tricky slave type, and wife of Pierrot...
s, lords, misses, minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
s, gavotte
Gavotte
The gavotte originated as a French folk dance, taking its name from the Gavot people of the Pays de Gap region of Dauphiné, where the dance originated. It is notated in 4/4 or 2/2 time and is of moderate tempo...
s, pianos, mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
s, guitars, pinkish, purple, gray salons, all in a too specifically French atmosphere, pushed to the point where it evokes the Bourbons
House of Bourbon
The House of Bourbon is a European royal house, a branch of the Capetian dynasty . Bourbon kings first ruled Navarre and France in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Bourbon dynasty also held thrones in Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Parma...
". Expanding on his view about Iacobescu's poetry being essentially 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:...
, Vianu exclaimed: "Bourbons! Lilies! Chinaware! Silk! Our soul—I'm being told by something that comes from deep within—demands different realities nowadays. Iacobescu took to his grave a something from his age."
Poems about disease and death
Călinescu believes the "personal note" of Iacobescu's literary contribution is to be found in lyric poemsLyric poetry
Lyric poetry is a genre of poetry that expresses personal and emotional feelings. In the ancient world, lyric poems were those which were sung to the lyre. Lyric poems do not have to rhyme, and today do not need to be set to music or a beat...
which deal with his sickness, with solitude and depression
Depression (mood)
Depression is a state of low mood and aversion to activity that can affect a person's thoughts, behaviour, feelings and physical well-being. Depressed people may feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, or restless...
, detailing states such as "the strain of hearing to the vibrations of silence" or "the sensitivity in relation to rain". One such sample reads:
Mi-aduc aminte ca acuma Cum noi stăteam ursuzi la geam Ca două bufniţe pe-un ram Şi aşteptam să treacă ploaia... |
I remember as if it were now How we were sitting sullen by the window Like two owls on some branch And waited for the rain to pass... |
Several such poems deal more or less explicitly with the symptoms of Iacobescu's disease. In one piece, titled Poem de amiază ("Noon Poem"), the author talks about his episodes of hemoptysis
Hemoptysis
Hemoptysis or haemoptysis is the expectoration of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs Hemoptysis or haemoptysis is the expectoration (coughing up) of blood or of blood-stained sputum from the bronchi, larynx, trachea, or lungs Hemoptysis or haemoptysis ...
(or, according to Călinescu, "the obsession of hemorrhages"). It reads:
Nici eu nu ştiu ce am!... Hemoragii de soare-mi bat în geam, Cu lenevii de aur cald mă fură Şi mă sărută lung, pe ochi, pe gură... |
I too don't know what it is I have!... Sunlit hemorrhages are knocking on my window, Steal me away with idlenesses of warm gold And kiss me long, on my eyes, on my mouth... |
In the end, Călinescu notes, Iacobescu displayed the "fixation of death, which he sees as a descent into an aquatic environment". This is in reference to stanzas where Iacobescu talks about a spiritual vision or an apparition
Ghost
In traditional belief and fiction, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of ghosts vary widely from an invisible presence to translucent or barely visible wispy shapes, to...
:
Şi morţii reci pe care noi îi credem că dorm În adâncimi de fluvii, de mări şi de oceane, Şi morţii reci pe care noi îi credem că dorm Trăiesc o nouă viaţă într-un ţinut enorm De plante şi mărgeane. Şi viaţa lor e calmă, molatică şi rece Căci au în loc de inimi un vas de flori pustiu; Se strâng mereu alături prin parcurile ude, Şi-nvăluiţi de-un veşnic amurg trandafiriu Vorbesc încet de lume, de prieteni şi de rude. |
And the cold bodies that we think are sleeping In the depths of rivers, of seas and of oceans, And the cold bodies that we think are sleeping Lead their new lives in an enormous land Of plants and coral Coral Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of... s. And their life is calm, soft and cool For they have empty vases where their hearts once were; They always gather together in the wet parks, And, veiled by an eternal rosy sunset, Speak softly of the world, of friends and family. |
According to Vianu, Iacobescu's Quasi poems are in large part determined by the "premonition of death", showing his struggle with the notion and his coming to terms with it. In the end, the same critic argues, Iacobescu turned to "the illusion of historical fatality
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:...
" in order to explain his condition. He finds proof of this in Iacobescu's lines:
O, adormi, adormi În calmul nesfârşitelor pustii, Troienit de valuri largi de soare, De imense linişti arzătoare, De nisipuri sterpe şi latente Şi de-un şir de veacuri decadente. |
O, fall asleep, fall asleep To the calmness of infinite wastelands, Covered by vast waves of sunlight, By immense and burning silences, By barren and latent sands, And by an endless string of decadent ages. |
Black comedy
Iacobescu's sad and meditative poetry was contrasted by his other works, where he turns to depicting the irony of life, often highlighted by his use of grotesqueGrotesque
The word grotesque comes from the same Latin root as "Grotto", meaning a small cave or hollow. The original meaning was restricted to an extravagant style of Ancient Roman decorative art rediscovered and then copied in Rome at the end of the 15th century...
imagery. Focusing on the Symbolist contribution to Romanian humor, literary historian Ştefan Cazimir argues that, among Iacobescu's writings, such samples echo either Verlaine (in cases where Iacobescu discusses his "hypothetical love affairs" in self-mocking tones) or Jules Laforgue
Jules Laforgue
Jules Laforgue was an innovative Franco-Uruguayan poet, often referred to as a Symbolist poet. Critics and commentators have also pointed to Impressionism as a direct influence and his poetry has been called "part-symbolist, part-impressionist".-Life:...
(in those pieces where his texts veer into black comedy
Black comedy
A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...
). Cazimir suggests that the latter influence is to be found in the poem Prin ceaţă ("Through the Fog"), where Iacobescu likens streetlights to ghosts that have no choice but to play audience to tomcats in heat.
In his 1918 note on Iacobescu, Vianu also assessed: "I do believe I have managed to capture an especially original tone in his poetry [...]. I mean a certain sentimental grotesque [Italics in the original] where laughter merges into a flinch of pain." This trait, Vianu notes, is especially observable in settings such as Scenă de seară ("Evening Scene"), where patients in a mental institution marvel as one of them plays the ballerina, and where contentment suddenly becomes violence:
Iar unul dintre dânşii plecându-se îi strânge Un mic buchet de iarbă şi de măceş uscat, Cum, însă, dansatorul refuză încurcat, Galantul se repede şi-l bate pân' la sânge. |
And one of them leans down to pick for him A tiny wisp of grass and dried-up eglantine, But, since the dancer uneasily refuses, The gentleman pummels him until blood gushes out. |
Legacy
The poet's notebooks were preserved by his friends, but, according to Vianu, they were unable to persuade publishers to issue them as a volume. Quasi was eventually published in 1930. After being reviewed by Vinea and Vianu, Iacobescu's work was revisited by critics of 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....
, including Călinescu and the modernist critic Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
. The latter's articles, which center on the idea of radical cultural innovation, attacked the substance of Iacobescu's poems in terms deemed "full of hate" by cultural historian Marta Petreu
Marta Petreu
Marta Petreu is the pen name of Rodica Marta Vartic, née Rodica Crisan , a Romanian philosopher, literary critic, essayist and poet. A professor of Philosophy at the Babeş-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, she has published eight books of essays and seven of poetry, and is the editor of the...
.
Iacobescu's work was again the object of critical interest in and after 2008, when semiologist and critic Marin Mincu published the anthology
Anthology
An anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler. It may be a collection of poems, short stories, plays, songs, or excerpts...
Poezia română actuală ("Timely Romanian Poetry"). In what was equated with an actual recovery by literary reviewer Bogdan Creţu, it placed Iacobescu alongside other representatives of lyrical Romanian Symbolism. Mincu's work also placed Iacobescu's taste for the 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....
poetic form in relation to the balladesque poetry of the 1940s, in particular with that produced by the modernist Sibiu Literary Circle
Sibiu Literary Circle
The Sibiu Literary Circle was a literary group created during World War II in Sibiu to promote the modernist liberal ideas of Eugen Lovinescu....
.