Leonid Dimov was a 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 postmodernist

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

 poet

Poet

A poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...

 and translator.

The son of Nadejda Dimov and Naum Mordcovici, he was one of the main representatives (together with, amongst others, Dumitru Ţepeneag

Dumitru Tepeneag

Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...

) of onirism

Onirism

Onirism was a surrealist Romanian literary school most popular during the 1960s, in the wake of popular uprisings in Eastern Europe. One of the techniques it employed was automatic writing....

 in Romanian poetry, explorer of the dream

Dream

Dreams are successions of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. The content and purpose of dreams are not definitively understood, though they have been a topic of scientific speculation, philosophical intrigue and religious...

 as an absolute, objective reality.

He graduated from the Sf. Sava highschool

Saint Sava National College

The Saint Sava National College is the oldest and one of the most prestigious high schools in Bucharest, Romania....

 in Bucharest. Then he studied for three years at the philology

Philology

Philology is the study of language in written historical sources; it is a combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.Classical philology is the philology of Greek and Classical Latin...

 department of 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:...

. Without graduating, he studied again for three years at the biology

Biology

Biology is a natural science concerned with the study of life and living organisms, including their structure, function, growth, origin, evolution, distribution, and taxonomy. Biology is a vast subject containing many subdivisions, topics, and disciplines...

 department. After a dispute (it seems that he questioned at a seminar

Seminar

Seminar is, generally, a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some particular subject, in which everyone present is...

 the logic of Michurinist science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

) he was expelled. He also followed courses in law

Law

Law is a system of rules and guidelines which are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior, wherever possible. It shapes politics, economics and society in numerous ways and serves as a social mediator of relations between people. Contract law regulates everything from buying a bus...

 and mathematics

Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...

 at the same University of Bucharest.

In 1957 he was arrested for urinating on a statue of Stalin in Bucharest, but was released after two months due of lack of evidence.

His literary debut came rather late, in 1965, when he published some poems in the Viața Românească

Viata Româneasca

Viaţa Românească, originally Viaţa Romînească , is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania...

 magazine, where Șerban Cioculescu

Şerban Cioculescu

Şerban Cioculescu was a Romanian literary critic, literary historian and columnist, who held teaching positions in Romanian literature at the University of Iaşi and the University of Bucharest, as well as membership of the Romanian Academy and chairmanship of its Library...

, Dimovs old French teacher, had become chief editor. Soon after, Miron Radu Paraschivescu, the editor in charge of the literary supplement "Poveste vorbei" of the "Ramuri" magazine 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...

, also let Dimov publish some poems.

His first book, Versuri ("Poems"), was published in December 1966. After becoming a member of the Writers' Union of Romania

Writers' Union of Romania

The Writers' Union of Romania , founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chişinău, Republic of Moldova...

, he was hired as an editor at the Romania literară

România Literară

România literară is a cultural and literary magazine from România founded in 1855 by Vasile Alecsandri and published in Iași between January 1, 1855 until December 3, 1855, when it was suppressed. The new series appeared in October 10, 1855 as a continuation of Gazeta literară...

 magazine in 1970, where he worked until 1975, when he went into early retirement due to illness.

He was married twice: the first time, to Lucia Salam (with whom he had a daughter, Tatiana, born in 1952), and the second time, to Ana-Marina Voinescu (whose daughter, Ileana- born in 1957 from her marriage

Marriage

Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 to Teodor Pâcǎ, he would adopt as his own child).

He continued to publish until shortly before his death, the last published poems being Sonete pentru Irina ("Sonets for Irina"), dedicated to his granddaughter Irina (Ileana's daughter).

In an age

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...

 and society where many Romanian poets and writers compromised their conscience in order to be able to publish more, Dimov was not an outright political dissident, but rather a nonconformist, one of the few who refused to praise the regime, a fact that brought him to the attention of the Romanian secret police, the feared Securitate

Securitate

The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...

.

He died of a heart attack.

"Carte de vise"

Carte de vise (en

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

. "book of dreams") is one of Dimov's best known works. It was published in 1969, at Editura pentru Literatură, with cover and illustrations by Florin Pucă

Florin Puca

Florin Pucă was a Romanian graphic artist. He was also a close collaborator of Leonid Dimov's, having illustrated several of his literary works. Other writers Pucă illustrated for include Gheorghe Pituṭ, Mircea Micu, Nichita Stănescu, Petre Stoica, Ion Băieşu and Modest Morariu....

. The book is divided into four cycles:

• Hipnagogice
• 7 proze
• La capătul somnului
• Poeme de veghe

Translations

He translated from Marcel Raymond

Marcel Raymond

Marcel Raymond was a Swiss literary critic who specialized in French literature. He is generally grouped with the so-called "Geneva School".-Biography:...

, Curzio Malaparte

Curzio Malaparte

Curzio Malaparte , born Kurt Erich Suckert, was an Italian journalist, dramatist, short-story writer, novelist and diplomat...

, Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval

Gérard de Nerval was the nom-de-plume of the French poet, essayist and translator Gérard Labrunie, one of the most essentially Romantic French poets.- Biography :...

, Andrei Belyi, M.I. Lermontov.

Output

• Versuri (1966)
• 7 poeme (1968)
• Pe malul Styxului (1968)
• Carte de vise (1969)
• Semne cereşti (1970)
• Eleusis (1970)
• Deschideri (1972)
• A.B.C. (1973)
• La capăt (1974)
• Litanii pentru Horia (1975)
• Dialectica vârstelor (1977)
• Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe (1978)
• Spectacol (1979)
• Veşnica reîntoarcere (1982)

Other editions and anthologies:

• A.B.C., Ed. Cartea Românească, 1973
• Texte, Introduction by Mircea Iorgulescu, Ed. Albatros
• Cele mai frumoase poezii, 1980; Poetry, edition that was taken care of, with a postscriptum, chronological table and critical references by Nicolae Barna, Ed. Grammar, 2000.
• Leonid Dimov, „Opera poetică”, vol. I-II, foreword by Ion Bogdan Lefter, Editura Paralela 45, 2010
• Theoretical texts, very important for the understanding of the aesthetical onirism
  Onirism
  Onirism was a surrealist Romanian literary school most popular during the 1960s, in the wake of popular uprisings in Eastern Europe. One of the techniques it employed was automatic writing....
  
  , written by Leonid Dimov and Dumitru Ţepeneag
  Dumitru Tepeneag
  Dumitru Ţepeneag is a contemporary Romanian novelist, essayist, short story writer and translator, who currently resides in France...
  
  , can be found in Corin Braga Momentul oniric, Ed. Cartea Românească, 1997.

Prizes and honours

• The Romanian Writers' Union Prize, 1979
• The Bucharest Writers' Union Prize, 1968, 1977, 1982