At least today, 131 years after Eminescu morphed into Hyperion, let us not criticize him

Mihai Eminescu has "unveiled" the soul in its purest forms, said on Monday the president of the Romanian Academy, Ioan-Aurel Pop, who urged that at least today, on the 131st anniversary of the poet's death, we do not criticize him. "In adolescence, we learned that on January 15 and June 15, we are entitled to think of Eminescu as our homeland. I never asked why, because it was in the nature of things. My Latin teacher would have said est modus in rebus, I mean it is in the order of things to be like that. Much later, I noticed that, for some, it was not exactly right to be so, and today I am terrified that, writing with love about the author of 'Poor Dionis', I can be accused of being offensive or downright derogatory. Now, when I see that Harriet Beecher Stowe with her 'Uncle Tom''s Hut' is forbidden, that Margaret Mitchell, after whom the famous film 'Gone with the Wind' was made, is put in the corner or that the explorer Christopher Columbus - the unknowing discoverer America - is suppressed the second time, 'in effigy', by tearing down his statue, I am no longer surprised by anything," Pop declared for AGERPRES. According to him, "writers are also people and, even though they are touched by an angel's wing, they are wrong from time to time". "Certain critics don't forgive anything. I propose, however, that at least today, when we find that it has been 131 years since Eminescu morphed into Hyperion, let us not criticize him. Let us not think of the fact that he did not think like some of us, that he did not apply precepts that emerged after his leaving this world, that he declared some as enemies of his people, that he had mocked the 'Muscovites on horseback', that he did not invent 'political correctness'," said Ioan-Aurel Pop. He added that today, "commemorating Eminescu, we express ourselves as worthy, righteous and good people, even if we fail to be like this". "I propose that we think today only of the 'boy' who 'roams the forests', who saw Bucovina in mourning at the death of his teacher, who declared himself 'epigone', praising another as 'king of poetry', who wanted to die 'at the edge of the sea' and who traveled on 'thousands of years' in a few moments. By commemorating Eminescu, we express ourselves as worthy, righteous and kind people, even if we fail to be like this. The poet has revealed our soul in its purest forms," the academic said. For this, "Eminescu remains our eternal lord". "Let us at least at this moment think of Eminescu after the teaching of (literary critic) George Calinescu: 'Thus the greatest poet the Romanian land has given birth or will ever give birth to passed away in his prime. Waters will dry up in the riverbed and over the place of his burial will rise forest or fortress and one star will fade away in the sky in the distance, until this soil gathers all its saps and lifts them into the thin stem of another lily with the strength of his perfumes'. Through Eminescu we have the certainty that - despite our fleeting individual life and nothingness - this nation will live as long as the Earth. Eminescu remains our eternal lord," academic Ioan-Aurel Pop concluded.AGERPRES(RO - author: Daniel Popescu, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN -author: Maria Voican, editor: Simona Iacob)