Maria Banuș (born Marioara Banuș; April 10, 1914 – July 14, 1999) 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, essayist, prose writer, and translator. She was born into a

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

family in

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 ...

, and her parents were Max Banuș, an accountant and later a director at the Carol Street branch of Marmorosch Blank Bank, and his wife Anette (''née'' Marcus). Due to her fragile health, she began primary school with private lessons, taking tests at the Lucaci Street School from 1920 to 1923. She attended high school at the Pompilian Institute from 1923 to 1931, and from 1931 to 1934, studied at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest (UB) () is a public university, public research university in Bucharest, Romania. It was founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princely Academy of Bucharest, P ...

's faculties of law and literature. She made her published debut as an adolescent, with the poem "14 ani", which appeared in ''

Bilete de Papagal ''Bilete de Papagal'' was a Romanian left-wing publication edited by Tudor Arghezi, begun as a daily newspaper and soon after issued as a weekly satirical and literary magazine. It was published at three different intervals: 1928–1930, 1937–1938 ...

'' in 1928, under her birth name Marioara Banuș. In 1932, while she was a student, her poems appeared in

Zaharia Stancu Zaharia Stancu (; October 7, 1902 – December 5, 1974) was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher. He was also the director of the National Theatre Bucharest, the President of the Writers' Union of Romania, and a titular memb ...

's ''Azi'' magazine, as did her translations from

Rainer Maria Rilke René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an Idiosyncrasy, idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as ...

and

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he s ...

. It was Stancu who changed her given name to Maria. Her first book, ''Țara fetelor'', appeared to cordial reviews in 1937. The 1939 ''Poeme'' includes selections of her own verses as well as translations from Rilke. At that point, she ceased writing and entered the anti-fascist movement that unfolded under the aegis of the banned

Romanian Communist Party The Romanian Communist Party ( ; PCR) was a communist party in Romania. The successor to the pro-Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave an ideological endorsement to a communist revolution that would replace the social system ...

, an experience recalled in the diary of which she published fragments in 1977, as ''Sub camuflaj''. The

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

-era

Ion Antonescu Ion Antonescu (; ; – 1 June 1946) was a Romanian military officer and Mareșal (Romania), marshal who presided over two successive Romania during World War II, wartime dictatorships as Prime Minister of Romania, Prime Minister and ''Conduc� ...

regime officially banned her entire work as "Jewish". After the war and with the rise of the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

, she entered opinion journalism, writing for ''Gazeta literară'', ''

Contemporanul ''Contemporanul'' (''The Contemporary'') was a Romanian literary magazine published in Iaşi, Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukrain ...

'', ''Steaua'' and ''

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. ...

''. Her books ''Bucurie'' (1949), ''Despre pământ'', (1954), ''Ție-ți vorbesc, Americă'' (1955), and ''Se arată lumea'' (1956) were expressions of the regime's officially sanctioned socialist realism. She used animal epithets to depict the former elite of the "bourgeois-landlord regime," from politicians to industrialists and

kulak Kulak ( ; rus, кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈɫak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned over ...

s, and foreign enemies, with a place of honor reserved for British and American "imperialists" ("the packs hungry for a new war", "cursed high-born dogs ready to murder", "let the ravens learn", "nothing scares me, neither the snakes, nor the jackals"). These writings brought her prizes and medals, public recognition, publication in schoolbooks and translation into foreign languages, as well as lavish praise from subservient critics such as Dumitru Micu, but also

Tudor Vianu Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary criticism, literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translation, translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Liter ...

. During this period, she translated poets favored by the authorities (

Pablo Neruda Pablo Neruda ( ; ; born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto; 12 July 190423 September 1973) was a Chilean poet-diplomat and politician who won the 1971 Nobel Prize in Literature. Neruda became known as a poet when he was 13 years old an ...

Nâzım Hikmet Mehmed Nâzım Ran (17 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish people, Turkish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. ...

Nikola Vaptsarov Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov (; ; 7 December 1909 – 23 July 1942) was a Bulgarian poet and Bulgarian Communist Party activist. Working most of his life as a machinist, he only wrote in his spare time. Despite the fact that he only ever published o ...

), as well as fine versions of classic authors such as

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin () was a Russian poet, playwright, and novelist of the Romantic era.Basker, Michael. Pushkin and Romanticism. In Ferber, Michael, ed., ''A Companion to European Romanticism''. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. He is consid ...

and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang (von) Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German polymath who is widely regarded as the most influential writer in the German language. His work has had a wide-ranging influence on Western literature, literary, Polit ...

. She wrote several short poetry books in the same style: ''Torentul'' (1957), ''Poezii'' (1958), ''Magnet'' (1962), ''Metamorfoze'' (1963), and ''Diamantul'' (1965). In the mid-1960s, Banuș underwent a significant break with her earlier style, causing her to re-evaluate her politics as well as the proper role of the artist. The subsequent volumes, starting with ''Tocmai ieșeam din arenă'' (1967), ''Portretul din Fayum'' (1970) and ''Oricine și ceva'' (1972), and through ''Orologiu cu figuri'' (1984) or ''Carusel'' (1989), showcase some of her recurring themes, but also emphasize the presence of a profoundly altered universe, expressed tragically or playfully and underscoring the extent of her lyricism. Her 1980 ''Himera'' includes short evocative prose pieces, essays and confessions; her two plays (''Ziua cea mare'', 1951; ''Oaspeți de la mansardă'', 1978) are insignificant. She published anthologies of German poetry (1969), modern Austrian poetry (1970) and worldwide love poetry (1974; 1987). She won the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ) 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 bylaws, the academy's ma ...

's George Coșbuc Prize in 1949, the State Prize in 1951, the

Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic The Order of the Star of the Socialist Republic of Romania (), from 1948 to 1965 the Order of the Star of the Romanian People's Republic (), was the second-highest honor bestowed by the Socialist Republic of Romania (known as the Romanian People's ...

3rd class in 1971, the special prize of the

Romanian Writers' Union The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by taking ...

in 1986, and the

Herder Prize The Herder Prize (), named after the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder (1744–1803), was a prestigious international prize awarded every year from 1964 to 2006 to scholars and artists from Central and Southeast Europe whose life and wor ...

in 1989.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 104. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Banuș died in Bucharest in 1999 and was buried in the city's Filantropia Cemetery.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banus, Maria 1914 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Romanian diarists 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Romanian poets 20th-century Romanian translators English–Romanian translators French–Romanian translators German–Romanian translators Herder Prize recipients Jewish Romanian writers banned by the Antonescu regime 20th-century Romanian women writers Romanian anthologists Romanian Communist Party politicians Romanian women poets Russian–Romanian translators Socialist realism writers Translators of Alexander Pushkin Translators of William Shakespeare University of Bucharest alumni Women anthologists Writers from Bucharest Recipients of the Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic Translators of Rainer Maria Rilke