Eminescu. Totally a genius.

Thursday, 23 June, Year 8 d.Tr. | Author: Mircea Popescu

Since it came up recently, allow me to quotei

Cauza căderii celei adânci a d-lui Bolintineanu în aceste creature pare a fi împregiurarea cumcă a aruncat ochii pe geniala acuilă a Nordului: pe Shakespeare. Într-adevăr, când iei în mână operele sale, cari se par așa de rupte, așa de fără legătură între sine, ți se pare că nu e nimica mai ușor decât a scrie ca el, ba poate a-l și întrece chiar prin regularitate. Însă poate că n-a esistat autor tragic care să fie domnit cu mai multă singuritate asupra materiei sale, care să fie țesut cu mai multă conștiință toate firele operei sale ca tocmai Shakespeare; căci ruptura sa e numai părută și unui ochi mai clar i se arată îndată unitatea cea plină de simbolism și de profunditate care domnește în toate creațiunile acestui geniu puternic. Goethe — un geniu — a declarat cumcă un dramaturg care cetește pe an mai mult de una piesă a lui Shakespeare e un dramaturg ruinat pentru eternitate. Shakespeare nu trebuie cetit, ci studiat, și încă astfel ca să poți cunoaște ceea ce-ți permit puterile ca să imiți după el, căci, după părerea mea, terenul shakesperian pe care d-l Bolintineanu ar fi putut să-l calce mai cu succes ar fi fost acela al abstracțiunii absolute, cum sunt d.e. Visul unei nopți de vară, Basmul de iarnă, Ceea ce vreți etc., iar nu terenul cel grav și teribil, cu materia lui cea esactă, istorică, și cu pretensiunea cea mare de a fi înainte de toate adevărat.

In English :

The driver of Mr. Bolintineanu's deep fall in these monstrositiesii appears to be the circumstance that he cast his eye on the genius eagle of the North : Shakespeare. Indeed, when you take his work in hand, which appears so broken, so bereft of any internal consistency, it first appears that there's nothing easier than writing like him, or perhaps even exceeding him through a systematic approach. Yet there's perhaps never existed an author of tragedy more soundly enthroned in his matter, who more aptly weaved all the threads of his work than Shakespeare ; for his brokenness is but an appearance, and a clearer eye spots the profound and profoundly symbolic unity that is the mark of all the products of this strong genius. Goethe - also a genius - said that a playwright who reads more than a Shakespeare play a year is ruined for eternity. Shakespeare needn't be read, but studied, and in such a way as to recognize everything your powers allow to imitate from him, for, in my view, the Shakespearian terrain for which Mr. Bolintineanu was most suited was that of absolute abstraction, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, A Winter's Tale, As You Like It, and not the grave and terrible terrain, with its exact, historical material, and with the great pretense of being, before anything else, true.

I found this truth on my own skin, not that I complain. The man, literally 20 years old at the time, is exactly correct : the area he indicates would have been much more adequate to Bolintineanu's strengths, and moreover fixing Shakespeare is the bane of the mind.

———
  1. "Repertoriul nostru teatral", in Familia, on 18/30 January 1870. []
  2. He's discussing the failure of a muchly appreciated poet of the time (currently mostly out of style) to produce for the stage. []
Category: Cuvinte Sfiinte
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6 Responses

  1. [...] directly applicable to the situation in the field such as it is. Or, this is precisely the mark of genius in art : that forms once produced remain permanently and immediately meaningful throughout the [...]

  2. [...] you realise. How, just how could he have known back then ? [↩]If your first explanation goes along the lines of "evidently he can know what [...]

  3. [...] you. For which reason, indeed, we shan't look at the source of things too closely. In the words of that poet, Tu esti, Mircea ?! oops I mean Nu cerceta aceste legi, caci esti nebun de [...]

  4. [...] Events are never the salient point ; the interpretation of events always is. Upon hearing of the start of the first H1N1 pandemiciv he correctly predicted that Sense will make some initial inroads but eventually be crushed by Mass, that Transylvania will fall off Europe and into the latrinev, and that Stupidity will thenceforth find its tide ever on the rise. Genius. [...]

  5. [...] rog, stiti unde este strada Eminescu [...]

  6. [...] Talk about pettiness! [↩]A fellow regarded in some circles as Romania's foremost poet, one Eminovich, suffered just about contemporaneously a fate very much alligned to the implications and [...]

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