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Ileana Andrei, Romania:
The Romanian Religious Poetry
Just like in world literature, religious poetry in Romanian literature represents
a concrete form of Man's attempt to communicate with God/Divinity.
Religious poetry underlies the whole development of our language and literature, and
clearly demonstrates that the Genesis of the Romanian people took place within a
Christian space. It also constitutes one of the first expressions of the Romanian
literature which was thus enriched with themes and lyrical motifs of great artistic
sensitivity: life, death, love, pain, grief, joy, faith, all of these being expressions that
have become part of our history once the Romanian language was born.
Stemming from the archaeologically attested, uninterrupted existence of the
Dacian-Roman population in Dacia and Scythia Minor for a long centuries, the
activity of the ancient Romanian writers, people of the Church, once again stands
proof to our continuity in this ancient Romanian space as a place wholly integrated
into the general preoccupation for producing books. That is why religious lyricism is
the best represented genre in our literary beginnings. Niceta de Remesiana, Ioan
Cassian from Scythia Minor, Dionisie Exiguul, a great Dacian-Roman scholar, are
just a few founders of Romanian Poetry, who created here a connecting realm, a
spiritual bridge between the East and the West. Following this tradition we come
across hymnal verses in Varlaam’s Cazania ( Homiliary ) (1643) and in Dosoftei’s
Psaltirea pre versuri tocmită (Psalter drawn up in verses) (1673). The latter is still
considered to be the first great achievement in Romanian lyrical genre. Hymnal verses
are also found in Mihai Eminescu’s religious style poetry or in the poems of George
Cosbuc, Octavian Goga, Lucian Blaga and Vasile Voiculescu. But it is Macedonski
and his psalms cycle 'Psalmi moderni' ( Modern Psalms), Tuder Arghezi (with the 17
psalms series) and Ştefan Augustin Doinaş (with no less than 100 psalms, gathered
together in a booklet which was published by Albatros Publishing House, in 1997)
who give special attention to the psalms, because they express the modern Man's
drama in search of his ego in relation to God.
For almost half a century, after the communist regime settled in Romania, this
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
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theme of poetic inspiration was regarded as a taboo, and literary critics could not list
the Christian dimension of the Romanian literature among its distinctive
characteristics. It was only after 1990 that the Romanian Poetry could be examined
from a dual perspective: theological and literary.
Consequently, today, when we are trying to reconstruct the history of the
Romanian Religious Poetry, we can start from Niceta de Remesiana's masterpiece, Te
Deum laudamus ( Thee, Lord, we praise), which represents for the Dacian-Roman
period what Eminescu's poem Lucaefarul (The Morning Star) represents for
Romanian Classical Poetry. Pursuing one way of lyric expression – the religious
hymn – we will group together the poets of subsequent ages, from Nicolae Olahus,
Petru Cercel, Mitropolitul Dosoftei, Varlaam, Miron Costin, Timotei Cipariu, with
those of the 1848 generation, such as Vasile Alecsandri, Grigore Alexandrescu or
valuable creators of Mihai Eminescu’s importance, George Coșbuc, Octavian Goga,
and our contemporary poets writers, Ştefan Augustin Doinaş, Ioan Alexandru, or
Daniel Turcea.
It is quite remarkable that Mihai Eminescu, before Ioan Alexandru, sensed
intuitively the extraordinary Christian and poetical value of the biblical text which
inspired him. So, Luceafărul could be considered a Christian poem of the Romanian
literature. George Coşbuc and Octavian Goga are viewed as poets of liturgical life in
Transilvanian villages. Nichifor Crainic, our pre-eminently Christian poet, like Paul
Claudel who is the outstading French Christian poet or Rainer Maria Rilke, the
German Christian poet, expressed in his turn the concrete spirituality
of the
Romanian people. But the most of the explicit Christian poetry was composed by
Nichifor Crainic during his over 15 years spent in communist prisons. These poems
are the work of a martyr poet. Another martyr poet, Vasile Voiculescu, with his
Ultimele sonete închipuite ale lui Shakespeare (The last immaginary sonets of
Shakespeare), reveals a themed unitary poetical vision. His 90 poems together
compose a genuine Romanian Canticum Canticorum, (Song of Solomon, in English
or Shir ha Shirim, in Hebrew), competing with the great poetry of the Old Testament.
Lucian Blaga, a philosopher and representative poet of the inter-war literature,
also wrote poetry of religious inspiration, but he particularly projects himself against
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
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the background of pagan myths, before or parallel to Christianity, from Zamolxis to
the myths and legends stored in the creation of Romanian villages.
Unlike Blaga, Tudor Arghezi, another great Romanian poet, in the same way
as Iov or David, places himself in a direct relationship, commencing a dialogue with
Divinity, sometimes rising in revolt against It. His Poetry ceaselessly reveals, from its
beginning to the end, a Homo Religious who is unequaled in the whole Romanian
literature.
In 'The Former Church' volume, mainly in the 'Magi’s Road' cycle, Ion Pilat
unveils divinity in the Romanian space and in domestic instances. The cultivated
remaking of the folklore motifs and the refined simulation of the peasant naivety
deliver admirable, sweet, realistic and candid visions similar to the paintings of
Cimabue and Giotto.
A special place is occupied by the poetry belonging to the
'Romanian
Christians', Traian Dorz and Costache Ioanid, "confessors upon Christ”, alongside
with the poets from the communist prisons: Valeriu Gafencu, Radu Gyr, Sandu
Tudor, Valeriu Anania.
In contemporary poetry we discover Ştefan Augustin Doinas in the position of
a modern psalmist or, Lidia Stăniloae, Daniel Turcea and Ioan Alexandru, who are
undoubtedly accepted by the connoisseurs of their poetry as genuine religious poets.
Ioan Alexandru, a "poet of the Logos”, is the most important hymngraph of Romanian
poetry, who is even compared with some hymngraphs of Bizantyne literature, such as
Roman Melodul or Efrem Sirul.
We cannot ignore the Christmas Carol, one piece of our folk artisitic creation.
Throughout centuries the carol song has proved to be a genuine Romanian Canticum
Canticorum, as poet Vasile Voiculescu called it. In the verses of Romanian Carols we
find
God Himself, as an Eucharist Romanian miracle together with the whole
creation, with all the elements that form our kin, and transcend Heaven and Earth.
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the
views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the
information contained therein.
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