Petre Dulfu (10 March 1856 – 31 October 1953) was an

Imperial Austria The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...

n-born

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

n poet, translator and playwright. Born in Tohat,

Maramureș County Maramureș County () is a county (județ) in Romania, in the Maramureș region. The county seat is Baia Mare. Name In Hungarian language, Hungarian it is known as ''Máramaros megye'', in Ukrainian language, Ukrainian as Мараморо́щ� ...

, his parents were Nichifor Dulfu and his wife Agapia (''née'' Bran), members of the rural intellectual class. From early childhood, his mother inspired a love of stories in him. He attended Hungarian-language primary school and gymnasium in

Baia Mare Baia Mare ( , ; hu, Nagybánya; german: Frauenbach or Groß-Neustadt; la, Rivulus Dominarum) is a municipality along the Săsar River, in northwestern Romania; it is the capital of Maramureș County. The city lies in the region of Maramur ...

from 1864 to 1871, earning top marks, and went to high school in the same town from 1872. In 1876, he graduated from high school in

Cluj ; hu, kincses város) , official_name=Cluj-Napoca , native_name= , image_skyline= , subdivision_type1 = County , subdivision_name1 = Cluj County , subdivision_type2 = Status , subdivision_name2 = County seat , settlement_type = City , le ...

, where he studied for two years. He attended

Franz Joseph University Royal Hungarian Franz Joseph University ( hu, Magyar Királyi Ferenc József Tudományegyetem) was the second modern university in the Hungarian realm of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Founded in 1872, its seat was initially in Kolozsvár (Clu ...

in the latter city, earning a doctorate in philosophy in 1881. His thesis, written in Hungarian, dealt with the work of

Vasile Alecsandri Vasile Alecsandri (; 21 July 182122 August 1890) was a Romanian patriot, poet, dramatist, politician and diplomat. He was one of the key figures during the 1848 revolutions in Moldavia and Wallachia. He fought for the unification of the Romani ...

, surveyed the Romanian literary context and included a dozen poems translated by Dulfu. After graduation, he moved to the

Romanian Old Kingdom The Romanian Old Kingdom ( ro, Vechiul Regat or just ''Regat''; german: Regat or ) is a colloquial term referring to the territory covered by the first independent Romanian nation state, which was composed of the Romanian Principalities: Wallachia ...

and worked as a teacher. After a brief stint in the capital

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, he directed and taught at a school in

Turnu Severin Drobeta-Turnu Severin (), colloquially Severin, is a city in Mehedinți County, Oltenia, Romania, on the northern bank of the Danube, close to the Iron Gates. "Drobeta" is the name of the ancient Dacian and Roman towns at the site, and the modern ...

for the 1881-1882 year. Beginning in 1882, he again taught philosophy and later Romanian in Bucharest; one of the two schools where he worked was for girls. He came to know faculty colleague

Ioan Slavici Ioan Slavici (; 18 January 1848 – 17 August 1925) was a Romanian writer and journalist from Hungary, later from Romania. He made his debut in ''Convorbiri literare'' ("Literary Conversations") (1871), with the comedy ''Fata de birău'' ("The M ...

, as well as

Mihail Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active membe ...

Alexandru Vlahuță Alexandru Vlahuță (; 5 September 1858 – 19 November 1919) was a Romanian writer. His best known work is '' România pitorească'', an overview of Romania's landscape in the form of a travelogue. He was also the main editor of ''Sămănătorul ...

and

Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu ( 26 February 1838 – ) was a Romanian writer and philologist, who pioneered many branches of Romanian philology and history. Life He was born Tadeu Hâjdeu in Cristineștii Hotinului (now Kerstentsi in Chernivtsi ...

. In 1886, he married Elena Mateescu, with whom he had four children and who encouraged his work as a writer. He obtained Romanian citizenship in 1891.Crăciun, p. 10 During World War I, he worked as a postal censor in the temporary capital of

Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the second largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical region of Moldavia, it has traditionally ...

, where an illness claimed one of his daughters. Although normally a disciplined teacher, he lost his composure on 1 December 1918, the day the

union of Transylvania with Romania The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called ''Unification Day''), celebrated on 1 December, is a national holiday in Romani ...

was proclaimed; cutting short the lesson and visibly moved, he explained the significance of the event to his pupils. In 1921, he retired from the girls' school, as the pupils daily reminded him of his deceased daughter.Crăciun, p. 11 His first published work consisted of verses that appeared in '' Familia'' in 1874. His contributions appeared in magazines both pedagogical (''Educatorul'', ''Lumina pentru toți'', ''Revista pedagogică'') and literary (''Amicul familiei'', ''Șezătoarea'', ''Tribuna''). In 1911, he joined the

Romanian Writers' Society The Romanian Writers' Society ( ro, Societatea Scriitorilor Români) was a professional association based in Bucharest, Romania, that aided the country's writers and promoted their interests. Founded in 1909, it operated for forty years before the e ...

. In 1903, he was awarded the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

's Adamachi Prize for his translations of

Euripides Euripides (; grc, Εὐριπίδης, Eurīpídēs, ; ) was a tragedian Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful e ...

('' Ifigenia în Aulida'', 1879; '' Ifigenia în Taurida'', 1880) and for the 1894 ''Isprăvile lui Păcală'', the volume that secured his reputation as a writer. He wrote two plays: the moralizing one-act ''Ceartă pentru nimica'' (1889) and ''Păcală argat'', a dramatization of his favorite character,

Păcală Păcală (Romanian, from ''a păcăli'', "to dupe"; sometimes rendered Pâcală or Pîcală) is a fictional character in Romanian folklore, literature and humor. An irreverent young man, seemingly a peasant, he reserves contempt and irony for th ...

. His final work, ''Cei doi feți-logofeți cu părul de aur'', appeared in 1939. A gifted teacher and a cultural figure concerned with educating the peasantry, his poetic renditions of folklore were deemed "good writings for the common people" by

George Călinescu George Călinescu (; 19 June 1899, Bucharest – 12 March 1965, Otopeni) was a Romanian literary critic, historian, novelist, academician and journalist, and a writer of classicist and humanist tendencies. He is currently considered one of the mos ...

. He died in Bucharest.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 531. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. The Maramureș County library in Baia Mare has borne his name since 1992.Istoric
at the Petre Dulfu Maramureș County Library

Notes

References

*Cristiana Crăciun, "Tabel Cronologic", in Petre Dulfu, ''Isprăvile lui Păcală'', p. 7-12. Bucharest: Editura Litera Internațional, 2001. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dulfu, Petre 1856 births 1953 deaths People from Ulmeni, Maramureș Romanian Austro-Hungarians Austro-Hungarian emigrants to Romania Naturalised citizens of Romania Franz Joseph University alumni Romanian poets Romanian translators 19th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights Romanian schoolteachers Romanian censors 20th-century translators 20th-century Romanian civil servants 19th-century Romanian civil servants 19th-century translators