Cristian Sârbu (May 14, 1897 – March 9, 1961) was a

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

n poet.

Biography

He was born into a poor peasant family in Buești,

Ialomița County Ialomița County () is a county () of Romania, in Muntenia, with the capital city at Slobozia. Demographics In 2011, the county had a population of 258,669 and the population density was 58.08/km2. Romanians make up 95.6% of the population, t ...

. Sârbu revealed in a short 1959 autobiographical note that his education consisted of five grades of primary school and various courses audited between 1914 and 1916. After moving to the national capital

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

, he became a shoemaker's apprentice, and practiced the trade until 1950, when he was named an editor at ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

''. Sârbu's proletarian life informed his lyric poetry, inspiring most of his volumes. ''Pași spre lumină'', a short book published in 1935, marked his print debut. A further seven volumes of poetry appeared during his lifetime: ''Tablouri și cântece din călătoria mea'' (1938), ''Slove desculțe'' (1939), ''D. Th. Neculuță'' (1940), ''Daruri pentru cocioabe'' (1944), ''Poeme de ieri și de azi'' (1951), ''Cântece pentru Sanda'' (1956) and ''Dragoste de viață'' (1956). Two further books appeared posthumously: ''Pași spre lumină'', a selection of his work; and ''Pasărea de stea'' (1971). His contributions appeared in ''Cuvântul liber'', and after World War II, in ''Gazeta literară'', ''Tânărul scriitor'', ''Tribuna'' and ''Viața Românească''. Sârbu's poems are autobiographical, evocative, descriptive and sentimental. They emerge from an unpolished sensibility, intimately marked by nostalgic memories of the author's native

Bărăgan Plain The Bărăgan Plain ( ) is a steppe plain in south-eastern Romania. It makes up much of the eastern part of the Wallachian Plain. The region is known for its black soil and a rich humus, and is mostly a cereal-growing area. It is bounded on the s ...

, which he sometimes employed to produce successful lyric verse.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. II, p. 540. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarbu, Cristian 1897 births 1961 deaths Romanian poets Romanian magazine editors Proletarian literature writers in the Kingdom of Romania Shoemakers People from Ialomița County