Mihu Dragomir

Mihu Dragomir (pen name of Mihail Constantin Dragomirescu; April 24, 1919 – April 9, 1964) was a Romanian poet, prose writer and translator. A native of Brăila on the Bărăgan Plain, he was heavily influenced by the worldview of an older novelist, Panait Istrati, as well as by the poetic works of Mihai Eminescu and Edgar Allan Poe. He debuted in his early teens, and, before turning 19, had self-published his first volume of verse, also putting out the literary magazine ''Flamura''. The late 1930s and early '40s saw his sympathy for, and finally engagement with, Romanian fascism—he joined the literary circle ''Adonis'', founded by former members of the Crusade of Romanianism, and, during the "National Legionary State" of 1940, openly adhered to the Iron Guard. Rebelliousness interfered with Dragomir's educational path, but he recovered enough to train as a sapper, then as a junior officer, in the Romanian Land Forces. He fought in their ranks for the remainder of World War II, witnessing events which were retold in his poetic cycles (including a verse novel) and short-story collections.

The coup of August 1944 and the Soviet occupation of Romania were celebrated in Dragomir's poems as inaugural evens in a national revolution. He was joined he mass organizations of the Romanian Communist Party, moving from generic progressivism to Leninism, and then to explicit Stalinism. His political poetry pioneered the conceptions of socialist realism from as early as 1946; from 1948, the cultural authorities of Communist Romania employed him as editor of '' Viața Romînească'', literary expert, translator of Russian literature, and purveyor of agitprop. His lyrical contributions were published in quick succession in the 1950s, and were celebrated at the time by the communist establishment—though they came to be seen as shameful by later scholarship, which examined their mediocre versification and their support for land collectivization. Dragomir continued to write poems that post-Stalinist reviewers upheld as more genuine, or even brilliant; he generally kept these for private use, or, when he published some of them, was attacked by his peers as an " escapist". He was also seen as a suspicious figure by Communist Party cadres. These either viewed him as an infiltrator planted by post-fascist " enemy groups", or were alarmed by his alleged embrace of liberal socialism.

Dragomir was isolated and sidelined after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, upon which he was sent to work as a consultant for the local film industry, during which time he inspired '' The Thistles of the Baragan'', adapted from Istrati's work. In July 1958, he became founder and main editor of the revived '' Luceafărul'', though the regime would not allow him full credits for his work there. His main contribution to that venue, and to Romanian literature in general, was as a discoverer and promoter of new talent. In his late thirties and early forties, Dragomir also contributed to the Romanian science fiction scene and, upon witnessing the first manifestations of national-communism, inaugurated his own transition to philosophical, largely non-political, poetry; this included publishing work that he had authored in previous decades. His death from a heart attack at age 44 interrupted this effort, though six posthumous volumes were issued by his wife, into the 1980s.

Biography

Humorist, fascist, soldier

The future poet was born in Brăila to a family of teachers—Constantin Dragomirescu and his wife Octavia-Olimpia (''née'' Rădulescu).Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', Vol. I, p. 515. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Musician Claudiu Moldovan claims that, due to his "brown complexion" and familiarity with ''Lăutari'' songs, Mihu Dragomir was mistakenly seen by Romanies as belonging to their own ethnic community. According to a memoir by film director Alexandru Struțeanu, he was always passionate about the Brăila-born and left-wing novelist Panait Istrati—viewing himself as a living version of Istrati's main character, Adrian Zografi. Upon reaching maturity, he was adverse to organized religion, praising poet Dumitru Theodor Neculuță for not giving in to "bourgeois institutions" such as the Romanian Orthodox Church.

Young Dragomir attended primary school in his native city, followed by Nicolae Bălcescu High School from 1929 to 1933. In 1933, he studied at Bucharest's Gheorghe Șincai High School, returning to Brăila for the Commercial High School from 1934 to 1936. Dragomir's first newspaper article appeared in ''Revista Tineretului Creștin'' in 1933; other contributions followed in the crossword magazines ''Revista Jocurilor'', ''Rebus'' and ''Curentul Jocurilor'', where he used the pen names Jules Limah, Dr. M. C., Mihail, Mișu Brăilițeanu and M. C. Dragomirescu. His first poems appeared in print in 1936, in the Silistra-based ''Valuri Dunărene''. That year, he self-published his first book of poems, ''Gânduri prăfuite'' ("Dusty Thoughts"), in 200 copies. In summer 1936, he traced Istrati's steps together with his friend Niță Vrînceanu, organizing a riotous party in Baldovinești together with Moș Dumitru (whose life had been fictionalized by Istrati).

Expelled out of school for a "nihilist" attitude, Dragomir re-enrolled in autumn 1936, and graduated at the top of his class in 1939. He also founded ''Flamura'' ("The Pennon") magazine in Brăila in 1937, handing its management to Ștefan Topcea (known then as Mac Antoniu) and Gheorghe Capagea-Rosetti in early 1939. By May 1939, he had been drafted into the Romanian Land Forces as a sapper, and was assigned to a garrison in Brăila; he was considering quitting school and emigrating to Antwerp. That summer, after a short stay in northern Moldavia, he eventually passed his baccalaureate in Galați.Ion Larian Postolache, "L-am cunoscut pe Arghezi. Prima întîlnire", in '' Luceafărul'', Vol. XXII, Issue 5, February 1979, p. 8 The same year, he entered the Bucharest Commercial Academy, and by 1940 was hosted at a dormitory on Cuza-Vodă Street. He eventually interrupted his business training in order to attend the Bacău reserve officers' school from 1940 to 1941. Dragomir also returned to publishing with short poetry collections: ''Rugă de ateu, adică vorbe despre orânduieli și cârmuitori'' ("An Atheist's Prayer, Which Is to Say a Talk of Regimes and Rulers", 1938) and ''Înger condeier'' ("Scribbling Angel", 1939). Magazines that published his work include ''Universul Literar'', '' Luceafărul'', ''Revista Fundațiilor Regale'', ''Viață și Suflet'', ''Năzuința'', ''Junimea Dobrogeană'', ''Raza Literară'', ''Cadran'', ''Festival'', ''Păcală'', and ''Epigrama''. He first used the pen name Mihu Dragomir in ''Flamura'' in 1938.

The late 1930s witnessed a rise of the Iron Guard and other fascist groups; this political setting touched Dragomir's debut years, leading to controversy. In early 1938, ''Viață și Suflet'', managed by Capagea-Rosetti, had already been described in ''Cuvântul'' as one of "two good Guardist publications put out from Brăila." In 2005, literary historian Geo Șerban spoke of Dragomir's admiration for the Guardist leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, as a "juvenile conviction that poetry will gain its vitality once it embraces the arsenal of Codrenist ideology." A proof of "indisputable adherence to Guardism", such contributions "vanished from ragomir'sbibliography". Paul Bărbulescu and Virgil Treboniu, former members of a Guardist splinter group called "Crusade of Romanianism", had set up a poetry circle, ''Adonis''. Its eponymous magazine hosted Dragomir's writing; his poems were also featured in the ''Adonis'' anthology of love poems, out in late 1939. In 1940, when Dragomir a poem named for Edgar Allan Poe, it was published by ''Adonis'' and the Ionescu-Tămădău printing press. Those months brought Dragomir's debut as a translator, with versions of poems by Poe (in an edition seen by critic Aurel Martin as "excellent")Aurel Martin, "Dimitrie Stelaru", in ''România Literară'', Issue 10/1992, p. 7 and Charles Baudelaire. By January 1940, Dragomir was present for Bărbulescu's literary sessions, which were also attended by a literary celebrity, Tudor Arghezi. In later years, allegations surfaced that Dragomir himself had affiliated with the Crusade. Paul Cernat
"Anii '50 și ''Tînărul Scriitor''"
in ''Observator Cultural'', Issue 285, August 2005

The modernist magazine ''Prepoem'', which was in print during early 1940 and had an anonymized editorial staff, hosted and celebrated Dragomir as a highly valuable talent; as noted in a 1960 polemical letter by the more senior poet Vintilă Horia, Dragomir was in fact its editor-in-chief, infusing the journal with the fascist agenda.Nicolae Florescu, "Reevaluări. Vintilă Horia și utopia narativă (II)", in ''Acolada'', Issue 6/2013, p. 19 At ''Prepoem'', he announced at the time that he had prepared over six volumes of verse. The Iron Guard ascended to power in late 1940, establishing a "National Legionary State" that lasted to January 1941. This regime was supported by Dragomir and his ''Flamura'', in particular after it emerged that a more senior poet, Ion Barbu, was a Guard affiliate. On December 1, 1940, Dragomir wrote about the "green pennon of the Guard, and the azure pennon of eternal Poetry", flying side by side.Geo Șerban, "Ion Barbu în ecuația anului 1940", in ''România Literară'', Issue 38/1994, p. 13 Barbu acknowledged his new disciple with a thank-you letter, but (Șerban notes) seemed not to know, not to ultimately care, that Dragomir was himself a poet. Dragomir survived the civil war of 1941, in which the Guard was chased out by ''Conducător'' Ion Antonescu. He resumed university classes in 1942, but was mobilized in 1943 and saw action in World War II until 1945. His service overlapped with the coup of August 23, 1944, which saw Romania abandoning the Axis Powers and aligning itself with the Soviet Union—in his later poems, Dragomir described this as an act of national liberation.

Communist reemergence

Dragomir continued his studies, with interruptions, until graduating in 1948. His return to journalism came in late 1944, when Ștefan Baciu hosted his pieces, signed as Miguel y Caramba, in his ''Humorul'' magazine. From 1945 to 1946, he was cultural officer in the Romanian Communist Party-affiliated Organization of Progressive Youth (UTP), while his wife, known as "Titi", was employed in an identical position by the Union of Antifascist Women. In November 1945, after clashes with the anti-communist National Peasantists and National Liberals, he represented he UTP at a rally in Brăila, as one of the speakers who demanded that the two "fascist" groups be outlawed. Starting in 1946, he was a practitioner of socialist realism. He first stated his new aesthetic goals in a manifesto he wrote alongside G. Climatiano, and which he presented for review in the Communist Party newspaper, ''Scînteia''. Paul Cornea, "Viața culturală. In legătură cu un manifest pentru o poezie nouă", in ''Scînteia'', March 28, 1947, p. 2 An editor at the Brăila newspaper ''Înainte'' from 1946 to 1948, he wrote to Vrînceanu that he was "studying Leninism", that he had attempted to set up a circle of Esperanto speakers, and that he considered entering academia or the diplomatic service. He finally moved to a similar editorial position at '' Viața Romînească'' of Bucharest, maintaining it from 1948 to 1954—in the early years of the communist regime.

During that interval, Dragomir debuted as an exegete of the national poet, Mihai Eminescu. According to literary scholar Niculae Stoian, samples of his work in the field include an Eminescu lecture at Bucharest's Dalles Hall, as well as an "extremely courageous" study of ''Doina'', hosted by ''Înainte'' in 1949.Niculae Stoian, "Eminesciana. Un admirator și exeget al Poetului național", in ''Contemporanul'', Issue 22/1989, p. 6 In 1950, Dragomir had published reportages—sponsored by the Writers' Union of Romania (USR), and asked by it to follow a Soviet model. In 1951, he published his translation of poems by Alexey Surkov, largely dealing Surkov's experience in the Russian Civil War. Dragomir's own scattered contributions from Romania's early communist period feature a hymn to Joseph Stalin, with music by Anatol Vieru. Writing in 1950, critic Mihai Gafița claimed that "the masses know and sing that song", which "contributes toward deepening their love for comrade Stalin." At ''Viața Romînească'', Dragomir was interested in the overall development of propaganda through song. In a December 1952 piece, he panned lyricists such as Constantin Ghiban, Ștefan Tita, Nicolae Nasta, and Harry Negrin, whom he saw as cultivating the staples of vaudeville. By then, he had attended USR meetings which introduced the new and strict directives of literary Stalinism, with reference to Georgy Malenkov's speeches. He agreed with Malenkov's rejection of literary "glumness", noting that "glum" images had appeared in poems by Nina Cassian and Victor Tulbure.

From 1954 to 1956, Dragomir was editor-in-chief of ''Tânărul Scriitor'', put out by the USR as a trade magazine for young communist authors. The poetry books he put out during the time were ''Prima șarjă'' ("The First Assault", 1950), ''Stelele păcii'' ("Star of Peace", 1952), ''Războiul'' ("The War", 1954), '' Tudor din Vladimiri'' (1954), ''Pe struna fulgerelor'' ("On the String of Lightnings", 1955), ''Versuri alese'' ("Selected Verse", 1957), and ''Odă pământului meu'' ("An Ode to My Land", 1957). In November 1954, the USR staged a ceremony to mark Neculuță's 50-year commemoration. Dragomir gave a lecture, while Demostene Botez and Ioanichie Olteanu read out from Neculuță's ''Spre țărmul dreptății''. With Veronica Porumbacu and Mihail Petroveanu, he also authored a screenplay called ''Cheia văii'', but complained that the "relevant authorities in cinema" were unwilling to film it."Răspundem cititorilor. La ce lucrează poetul Mihu Dragomir", in ''Flacăra'', Vol. III, Issue 22, November 1954, p. 22 Around that time, Editura Cartea Rusă received his translations of poems by Vladimir Mayakovsky and Konstantin Simonov, as well as the entirety of Alexander Yashin's ''Alena Fomina'' (the latter as a collaboration with C. Argeșeanu). His renditions formed a significant portion of a Simonov edition which came out in late 1955, but he was criticized by a fellow writer, Dimitrie Florea-Rariște, for not capturing the "plenitude of imonov'slyricism". He also penned other translations from socialist contributors to Russian and Bulgarian literature—Nikola VaptsarovWriters' Union of Romania, "Mihu Dragomir", in '' Luceafărul'', Vol. VII, Issue 8, April 1964, p. 8 and Nikolai Tikhonov.Pompiliu Caraioan, "Scriitori și cărți. Mihu Dragomir: ''Pe drumuri nesfîrșite''", in ''Flacăra'', Issue 30/1959, p. 20 He had abandoned his work in the promotion of Esperanto, describing that language as "artificial and cold, practically useless."

Dragomir was rewarded by the communist state. He twice a recipient of its State Prize, one of which was in 1955, for ''Războiul''. More secretly, his loyalty to communism was being assessed by the Securitate staff and the Communist Party's Agitprop section. As early as 1949, a classified document of the latter discussed "Mihu Dragomir, a former Guardist", as being in permanent contact with an " enemy group" formed around Andrei Ciurunga. The anonymous author alleged that Dragomir had once misplaced his personal papers in a public area, upon which the Securitate had stumbled upon evidence that he had been a wartime informant, involved with "staking out" a communist activist, Manole H. Manole. Dragomir's career suffered during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, when the Romanian communist leadership became alarmed about the local spread of liberal socialism. This was noted by novelist and defector Petru Dumitriu, who informed the Central Intelligence Agency on the status of cultural dissent. Dumitriu assessed that Dragomir and Tulbure, alongside Alexandru Andrițoiu, Francisc Munteanu, and Titus Popovici, were being perceived as direct threats by Communist-Party potentates.

Dragomir's supposed engagement in the Crusade became a topic of denunciation and debate during the Young Writers' Conference of 1956. By contrast with Dumitriu, the liberal-communist poet Miron Radu Paraschivescu wrote in his secret diary that Dragomir was one of the "most business-minded elements on the right", who had infiltrated a genuine revolution after having "suckled at the tit of each regime and each budget"; Paraschivescu's category of far-right "covert agents" also included Florea-Rariște, Anatol E. Baconsky, and Eusebiu Camilar. In his 1960 text, the self-exiled Horia remarked that Dragomir and Camilar, like Mihai Ralea and Costin Murgescu, still managed to become communist "collaborators" despite their early engagement with fascism. Literary scholar Eugen Negrici argues that, as one "recovered from the right-wing areas", Dragomir suffused literary communism with echoes from clerical fascism and the Iron Guard's Orthodox mysticism.

Marginalization and ''Luceafărul''

After his association with ''Tânărul Scriitor'' ended, and down to 1958, Dragomir worked as editor-in-chief at the script-writing section of the Bucharest Cinematographic Center. In preparation for a national commemoration of the peasants' revolt of 1907, he proposed to film '' The Thistles of the Baragan'', based on a novel by Istrati. His project was accepted and Louis Daquin was taken in as its director, with Struțeanu providing the screenplay. The three of them together sailed the Danube in the location scouting phase of 1957, but Dragomir handed in his resignation during the production stage. He was soon affiliated with the relaunched ''Luceafărul'', serving on its editorial board from July 15, 1958 to 1960. Though sometimes credited as the editor-in-chief, he was in fact barred from taking on that role. In a 1988 piece, literary historian Lucian Chișu reports that this was due to "adverse circumstances", when Dragomir was the man most responsible for the magazine's existence; Dragomir had drafted the earliest project for a publication appealing to "young talents", for which he had proposed the name of ''Miorița''.Lucian Chișu, "''Luceafărul'' – 30. Mihu Dragomir și revista ''Luceafărul''", in '' Luceafărul'', Vol. XXXI, Issue 15, April 1988, p. 3 When this was approved, with a change of titles and with a transfer of staff from ''Tânărul Scriitor'', Petru Vintilă, "''Luceafărul'' – 30. După treizeci de ani, privesc înapoi cu tandrețe...", in '' Luceafărul'', Vol. XXXI, Issue 16, April 1988, p. 3 he handled three specialized columns. One was dedicated to poetics, and the other two, which were "feverishly read" by the general public, introduced new poetic talents, some of whom became local celebrities. He is credited with having helped discover Constanța Buzea, Adrian Păunescu, and Alexandru Ivasiuc.

Staff colleagues included poet Petru Vintilă, who recalled in 1988: "Mihu Dragomir, with his dark complexion and fleshy lips, led our meetings, watching us through eyes covered by I couldn't tell you how many diopters of lenses .. I had been his friend for a long time, I loved him for his inimitable humanness, ..and, obviously, I was amazed to discover in him the consummate editor-in-chief, willing to accept any new idea". Overall, however, he "preserved a rather academic and traditional line" when it came to the magazine's content. Vintilă and Fănuș Neagu were both co-editors and contributors, and sometimes took over for Dragomir in going over the readers' submissions. Neagu claims that, after going over 18,000 letters containing no publishable poem, they burned the accumulated stash—resulting in Dragomir halving their salaries for two weeks. According to Vintilă, Dragomir finally quit ''Luceafărul'': "If I recall correctly, he was being subjected to an annoying obstruction by some hangers-on."

Dragomir continued to publish his own poetry in various installments: ''Pe drumuri nesfîrșite'' ("On Endless Roads", 1958), ''Întoarcerea armelor'' ("Weapons-turning", 1959), ''Poveștile bălții'' ("Stories of the Pond", 1959), ''Stelele așteaptă pămîntul'' ("Stars Await the Earth", 1961), and ''Inelul lui Saturn'' (" Saturn's Ring", 1964). His work as a translator also covered H. G. Wells