ihai Eminovici (he changed his name to Eminescu when he was 16) was born on 15 January 1850 in the Moldavian village of Ipotesti, near Botosani; he was the 7th of 11 children. He attended grade school in Cernauti (Czernowitz=German, Chernovtsy=Russian). Later he studied at the University of Vienna and Humboldt University in Berlin, but he did not obtain a degree. In 1874 he came to Iasi where the great love of his life, Veronica Micle, lived. He became director of the University Library and an editor of the Iasi newspaper 'Timpul' ('Time'). He was also a member of the literary society 'Junimea' ('Youth')

is first volume of poems was published in 1883 by Titu Maiorescu, who had been a professor in Vienna and was later to become Prime Minister of Romania (1910-1912). Unfortunately, soon after this Eminescu became mentally ill, and never married Veronica Micle (she had been married, but her husband died in 1879); he considered himself too poor. At times he recovered enough from his illness to write. He died on 15 June 1889.

ETURN (REVEDERE), in the folk style

"Forest, trusted friend and true,
Forest dear, how do you do?
SInce the day I saw you last
Many, many years have passed
And though you still steadfast stand
I have travelled many a land."

"Yea, and I, what have I done?
Watched the years their seasons run;
Heard the squalls that through me groan
'Ere my singing birds have flown;
Heard the creaking of my boughs
'Neath the mounted winter snows.
Yea indeed, what have I done?
Done as I have always done;
Felt my summer leaves re-growing;
Heard the village girls who going
By the path that meets the spring
Melancholy *doina* sing."

"Forest, though the tempests blow,
The years come and the years go.
And the seasons wax and wane,
You are ever young again."

"What of seasons, when for ages
All the sky my lake engages;
What of years ill or good,
When the sap mounts in the wood;
What of years good or ill,
When the Danube rolls on still.
Only man is always changing,
O'er the world forever ranging;
We each do our place retain,
As we were, so we remain;
Oceans, rivers, mountains high
And the stars that light the sky,
Saturn with its whirling rings,
And the forest with its springs."

*doina* = sad Romanian folk ballad

HY DON'T YOU COME? (DE CE NU-MI VII?)

See the swallows quit the eaves
And fall the yellow walnut leaves,
The vines with autumn frost are numb,
Why don't you come, why don't you come?

Oh, come into my arms' embrace
That I may gaze upon your face,
And lay my head in grateful rest
Against your breast, against your breast!

Do you remember when we strayed
The meadows and the secret glade,
I kissed you midst the flowering thyme
How many a time, how many a time?

Some women on the earth there are
Whose eyes shine as the evening star,
But be their charm no matter what,
Like you they're not, like you they're not!

For you shine in my soul always
More softly than the starlight blaze,
More splendid than the risen sun,
Beloved one, beloved one!

But it is late in autumn now,
The leaves have fallen from the bough,
The fields are bare, the birds are dumb...
Why don't you come, why don't you come?

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Both poems were translated from Romanian to English by Corneliu M. Popescu, 1958-1977; they are found in a book entitled Mihai Eminescu: Poems (English version), published in 1989 on the centennial of Eminescu's death.
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