''Èšiganiada'' is a
Romania
Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...
n
epic poem
An epic poem, or simply an epic, is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants.
...
written by the poet and scholar
Ion Budai-Deleanu
Ion Budai-Deleanu (January 6, 1760 – August 24, 1820) was a Romanian scholar, philologist, historian, poet, and a representative of the Transylvanian School.
He was born in Csigmó (today Cigmău), a village in the town of Algyógy (today Geoa ...
, the first epic poem written in the
Romanian language
Romanian (obsolete spellings: Rumanian or Roumanian; autonym: ''limba română'' , or ''românește'', ) is the official and main language of Romania and the Republic of Moldova. As a minority language it is spoken by stable communities in ...
.
Èšiganiada treats an
allegorical
As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...
subject with
satirical tendencies,
antifeudal and
anticlerical
Anti-clericalism is opposition to religious authority, typically in social or political matters. Historical anti-clericalism has mainly been opposed to the influence of Roman Catholicism. Anti-clericalism is related to secularism, which seeks to ...
, being a complex and unexpectedly modern literary work that contains a significant amount of
Enlightenment ideas.
Budai-Deleanu used Romanian words of Slavic origin to make it sound more ancient. It includes twelve songs in 1381 stanzas.
The Transylvanian School: Enlightened Instrument of Romanian Nationalism
References
{{Reflist
Epic poems in Romanian