The festive celebration from the middle of Ghenar from our cultural calendar brings us to the reunion with Eminescu, the “full man of Romanian culture.” Returning to Eminescu and his unrivaled creation will unleash answers and even solutions to the many issues that bring disaster and waste to the Romanian nation, helping her to find her way through the not very clear times that we are going through.
From the multitude of Eminescu’s references to society and its problems, in today’s article we will stop in his struggle for the ideal of unity of the Romanians, given that we are at the onset of the centenary 2018 events, dedicated by our Orthodox Church to the commemoration of the Great Union 1918 and her builders.
Eminescu loved his nation and his country. How did the unrivaled scowl of the Romanians learn to show love for national values? He did not graduate from any school in this sense, nor did he have such a thing, nor did he declare himself a great lover of Romanianism only because it was a matter of fashion. We will understand that Eminescu’s patriotism has been felt and cultivated since childhood, if we remember that his life coincided, perhaps providentially, with a series of major events in the tumultuous history of the nineteenth century, have brought not only suffering but also fulfillment. By enumerating them, we will easily build ourselves.
Eminescu was born immediately after the Revolution of the Passover, in an agonized epoch, when the idea of Romanians’ self-determination experienced an unprecedented revival.
When he was 9 years old, in 1859, the Union of the Principalities took place, which laid the foundations of modern Romania. At that time, the child was taught at Cernăuţi, having the great patron saint Aron Pumnul; the remarkable teacher continued to cultivate in the soul of the schoolmaster the love of Romanianism, at home, in the family, or at Agafton, the monastery where the four nuns’ sons of Raluca, the mother of the poet, lived.
The reign of Alexandru Ioan Cuza and especially his reforms found Michael still in the school education stage, but not indifferent to what was happening in Romania. His appreciation of Cuza showed her later, reminding him of several articles, and personally, in 1870, when, in Vienna, he visited the first prince of the United Principalities at Döbling in Germany , where Cuza lived his exile bitter.
On May 10, 1866, the Assembly of Deputies proclaimed Prince Carol of Hohenzollern. During this period, Eminescu went through Transylvania with Fani Tardini Vlădicescu’s theater troupe, reinforcing his patriotic convictions. The dream of a glorious, great, united Romania and a poem in the poetry I wish you, sweet Romania, written in 1867, when the poet was 17 years old. In the same year, Eminescu visited Alba-Iulia and the place of detention of the great Horea. He dedicated to him an emotional poetry in which he expresses the ambition of the dissolution of Transylvania and the union with the country.
In 1869, Eminescu began his studies in Vienna, continuing his patriotic activity: he joined, together with Ion Slavici, the Literary and Scientific Society of the Romanian students in Vienna; becomes a member of “Romanianism” society, promoting national folklore; is received in the “Romania” society, the students from the Viennese university. He will fight for the unification of the two associations, which will result in the well-known student society “Romania Juna”.
In 1870, the New Year visits him to Alexandru Ioan Cuza, who is in exile with his family at Döbling. In April, the same year, Eminescu publishes the Equilibrium study in the Pest federation, supporting the autonomy of Transylvania. Pest public prosecutor quoted Eminescu, counting his article as an instigation to rebellion.
In August 1871 the Putna celebration took place. Eminescu was part of the organizing committee, together with Slavici. Comprised of a strong emotion, the patriotic student composes the Putna Poem, showing his sadness caused by the alienation of the Romanian lands, urging “Junimea” to country love and fighting for her unity. At Putna, Eminescu, the “Lucifer” of our poetry, he met the “New Crowd” of Romanian music, Ciprian Porumbescu, a Bucovina jun, in full assertion. Ciprian, together with other members of the “Arboroasa” society, was arrested because of their patriotic actions. Eminescu defended them in two articles, published in the newspaper “Timpul” on November 11 and 18, 1877. With journalistic clarity and with solid legal knowledge, the journalist Eminescu analyzes the actions of the imprisoned Arboros students, reaffirming the historical legitimacy of the Bucovinians to demand the right to self-determination.
The Independence War of 1877 found Eminescu editor in the Timpul newspaper in Bucharest with full creative force. That is why, in many articles written during this period, the unsuspecting journalist, handling with real talent and competence historic sources, worsened his love for nation and country, to the people’s historical right to independence and independence, reiterating in particular the idea of the unity of the Romanians by returning home to Bukovina, Bessarabia and Transylvania. Few understood his aspirations for the unity of the nation. That’s why they began to catalog him as chauvinism, antisemitic, accusing him of instigating hatred and disobedience. He has not been intimidated, but has undertaken new actions targeting Great Romania. On 24 January 1882 he founded the “Carpathians” secret society, for the unification of all Romanians within the boundaries of the “Great Dacia”. The society was brutally abolished on June 28, 1883, and Eminescu, one of its founding fathers, prepared her out of public life in an outrageous manner, on the charge that she had psychic problems. Haunted and threatened, Eminescu does not abdicate. He always dreams of the dissolution of Romania and the fulfillment of the dream of ages – UNIREA. On July 1, 1883, he publishes the long controversial and damn poetry Doina, which brings us a grievous pain from the soul of the unfortunate poet: the suffering caused by the division and oppression of his people. We can consider this Eminescu masterpiece as his patriotic will. Doina Doina is the lyrical expression of the need to preserve our being and our national identity. Admiring the fierce struggle for national unity, Nicolae Iorga said that Eminescu is the “affirmation of the eternal Romanian unity,” and his entire work, his struggle and his sacrifice are “a gift for the unity of the nation.” In conclusion, I propose to you of Eminescu to become all of us in this centennial year: “The Romanians’ union is my iron dream.”