Mihai Eminescu
January 15, 1850 — June 15, 1889 — Botoșani, Moldavia
Mihai Eminescu is Romania's greatest poet — a Romantic visionary whose extraordinary lyrical gifts, philosophical depth, and passionate nationalism made him the foundational voice of Romanian literature, beloved by Romanians to a degree that few national poets anywhere in the world have ever achieved.
A Wandering Scholar in a Divided Land
Born Mihail Eminovici on January 15, 1850, in Botoșani, in the Romanian principality of Moldavia, he was the seventh of eleven children in a boyar family of modest means. He showed literary gifts from childhood and had an unusual early life: he joined a traveling theater troupe as a prompter and actor, traveling widely across Transylvania and the Romanian principalities. He studied briefly at the University of Vienna and the University of Berlin, where he encountered German Romantic philosophy — particularly Kant and Schopenhauer — that would profoundly shape his worldview. He became involved in Romanian nationalist circles in Transylvania, working for Romanian-language publications while writing the poems that would define him.
The Poems That Defined a Nation
Eminescu served as editor of the newspaper Timpul in Bucharest from 1877 to 1883, writing political essays while producing his greatest poems on the side. His masterwork, Luceafărul (The Evening Star, 1883) — a 98-stanza poem drawing on Romanian folklore and Platonic philosophy — is considered the pinnacle of Romanian poetry. His lyrics of love, nature, history, and metaphysical longing were unlike anything Romanian literature had produced before: steeped in German Romanticism yet drawing on the specific rhythms and mythology of Romanian oral tradition. His friend and fellow poet Titu Maiorescu assembled and published his collected poems in 1883, the year a mental breakdown ended his active literary career.
Did You Know?
Mihai Eminescu's birthday, January 15, is celebrated in Romania as "Eminescu Day" — a national cultural holiday. Romanians hold public readings of his poetry in town squares across the country, and his face has appeared on the Romanian currency. In a 2006 Romanian television poll to identify the greatest Romanian of all time, Eminescu finished second — beaten narrowly by the medieval ruler Stephen the Great — in a testament to how deeply he remains embedded in Romanian national identity more than 130 years after his death.
Mental Illness, Death, and Immortality
In June 1883, Eminescu suffered a severe mental breakdown and spent his final six years in and out of psychiatric institutions and convalescent homes. He died on June 15, 1889, in Bucharest, at just 39 years old, under circumstances still debated by Romanian scholars. His collected poems in translation have been published in dozens of languages. His influence on Romanian literature is so total that the period before him is sometimes called "pre-Eminescu" — as if Romanian literary consciousness can only be understood in relation to him. He is arguably the most personally beloved literary figure of any European nation.