Tudor Arghezi

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Tudor Arghezi (pronunciation in Romanian: Template:IPA; May 21 1880—1967) was a Romanian writer, noted for his contribution to poetry and Children's literature, and controversial intellectual figure - possibly best described as a fellow traveller. Born Ion N. Theodorescu in Bucharest (where he also died), he explained at some point that his pen name was related to Argesis, the ancient one for the Argeş River. Image:Arghezi01.jpg

Early life

He graduated from Saint Sava High School in 1891, and made his debut in 1896, publishing in the magazine Liga Ortodoxă under the name Ion Theo.

After a four year-long stint as an Orthodox monk at the Cernica Monastery, he traveled abroad in 1905. He visited Paris and then moved to Geneva, where he wrote poetry and attended courses at the local University, as well as being employed in a jeweler's workship.

He returned to Romania in 1912 and published works in Facla, Viaţa Românească, Teatru, and Rampa. His output was prolific, and a flurry of lyrics, political pamphlets and polemical articles gained him a good measure of notoriety among theatrical, political and literary circles of the day.

During the last two years of World War I, Arghezi was imprisoned along with eleven other newspapermen and writers, among them Ioan Slavici. He was accused of treason for his support of Romanian neutrality in the war effort. Charges were later dropped.

Inter-war years

In 1922, his published his first volume of collected poems, titled Cuvinte Potrivite ("Matching Words"). He was in charge of the satirical newspaper Bilete de Papagal and published his first prose effort, Icoane de Lemn ("Wooden Icons") in 1928.

In 1932, he published Flori de Mucigai ("Mildew Flowers") and Poarta Neagră ("The Black Gate") - collections of poetry inspired by the years he spent in detention and influenced by the works of Charles Baudelaire and other Symbolists. He also began writing the works that made him most familiar to the public, his poems and short prose for children. Among the more famous are Cartea cu Jucării ("The Toy-Ladden Book"), Cântec de Adormit Mitzura ("A Song to Get Mitzura to Sleep"), Buruieni ("Weeds") and, the most popular of all, Zdreanţă ("Rag") about a lovable mutt. Romanian literature textbooks feature many of his poems to this day.

In 1934, he finished a long novel on the topic of maternal love and filial devotion, Ochii Maicii Domnului ("Our Lord's Mother's Eyes").

During World War II the newspaper Informaţia Zilei took up the publishing of comments by Arghezi, as a column named after his former magazine, Bilete de Papagal. In 1943, it published virulently satires of the Romanian government, its military leader - Ion Antonescu, and Romania's allegiance to Nazi Germany. On September 30, Arghezi caused an outrage and a minor political scandal, after getting the paper to publish his most radical attack, one aimed at the German ambassador Manfred Freiherr von Killinger - Baroane ("Thou Baron"). Authorities confiscated all issues, and the author was imprisoned without trial in a penitentiary camp near Târgu Jiu. He was freed in 1944, only days after the fall of the Antonescu regime.

Arghezi and the Communist regime

Although initially well received by the Communist regime (and awarded several prizes), he was soon targeted as a decadent poet. A series of articles in the Romanian Communist Party's official voice, Scânteia, described his works as having a foul-smelling vocabulary - they were headlined Poezia Putrefacţiei sau Putrefacţia Poeziei ("The Poetry of Decay or the Decay of Poetry"; the title alluded to Karl Marx's The Misery of Philosophy, which mocked Pierre-Joseph Proudhon's Philosophy of Misery). He had to retreat from public life, spending most of these years at the house he owned in Bucharest, the one he named Mărţişor (the name it still goes by today); his main source of income was provided by selling the yields of cherries the surrounding plot returned.

However, as Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej consolidated his power over the state and Party post-1952, Arghezi was discovered as an asset to the new, more "national" tone of the regime. Once exonerated, he started being awarded countless titles and prizes. Arghezi was elected a member of the Romanian Academy and celebrated as national poet on his 80th and 85th birthdays. Although never turned-Socialist Realist, he adapted his themes to the requirements - such as he did in Cântare Omului ("A Chant to Mankind").

He died and was buried next to his wife Paraschiva in 1967 (she had died the previous year), with tremendous pomp and funeral festivities orchestrated by Communist Party officials. His home is currently a museum managed by his daughter, Mitzura.

Although many Romanians despise his association with the early figures of Communist rule, Arghezi is nonetheless widely acknowledged as an important literary figure. Most of his devotional and religious poems and novels had been shunted to the side, with critics pointing out the inherent hypocrisy of writing on such themes while providing cultural justification for a violently anti-religious political movement. Foremost recognized for his sizable contributions to children's literature, Arghezi will likely remain a staple of textbooks for decades to come.de:Tudor Arghezi ro:Tudor Arghezi