Doina (Eminescu)

Doina, or Doină (sometimes translated as "Lament"),[1] is a political poem by the Romanian Mihai Eminescu. It was first published in 1883 and is therefore seen by some as Eminescu's final work in verse, although it may actually be an 1870s piece, inspired or enhanced by the perceived injustice of the Berlin Treaty. A variation of the doina (plural: doine), picked up from Romanian folklore, it is noticeably angry to the point of rhetorical violence, a radical expression of Romanian nationalism against invading "foreigners", noted for its hints of ecopoetry and "anti-technicist" discourse. Doina delineates the ideal geographical space of Greater Romania, at a time when Romanian-inhabited regions were divided between an independent kingdom and multinational empires. Its final lines call on Stephen the Great, depicted as a sleeping hero, to take up the cause of Romanians and chase foreigners out with the sound of his horn. The same basic themes appear in another poem by Eminescu, the anthem-like La arme ("To Arms"), which is sometimes discussed as a variant of Doina.

Doina

by Mihai Eminescu
Ipolit Strâmbu's illustration of Stephen the Great sounding his horn, for the 1914 A. C. Cuza edition
Written	1870?–1883
Country	Kingdom of Romania
Language	Romanian
Genre(s)	doina political poetry ecopoetry
Meter	iambic tetrameter
Rhyme scheme	aabb
Publisher	Convorbiri Literare
Publication date	July 1, 1883 (1883-07-01)
Lines	61–62
Read online	"Doina" at Wikisource

Expressly anti-Russian, also read as antisemitic, anti-German, anti-Greek, anti-Hungarian, and anti-Ukrainian, Doina has been described as "chauvinistic" and "minor" by some critics, "beautiful" by others. It has been present in the Romanian curriculum since the 1890s, while also serving as subversive literature among Romanian communities in the Russian Empire. During the interwar, with Greater Romania established as a political reality, Doina became a rallying call for revolutionary nationalists and fascists. It was deemed problematic and censored during the communist period, although tacitly endorsed under the regime's latter, national-communist, phase. It returned in focus during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and after, when it also became a public symbol of Romanian identity in Moldova.

Outline

Doina opens with a localization of the Romanian space, highlighting regions which were at the time in Russia and Austria-Hungary:

De la Nistru pân-la Tisa Tot românul plânsu-mi-s-a Că nu mai poate străbate De-atâta străinătate.	From the Dniester to the Tisza, All Romanians have complained to me, That they could not succeed Because of all the foreigners.

—translation by Mirela Adăscăliței, in Oișteanu, p. 199

Eminescu moves focus on Bessarabia, depicted as raided by "muscali" on horseback; on Bukovina, with foreigners as "caterpillars" and stalkers of the local Romanians; then on Transylvania, crossed by the foreigners' "inroads". Overall, the projected country is aflush with intruders and the Romanian is a "foreigner in his own land"; birds are chased away, songs are extinguished, and the forest, "brother of the Romanian", is depleted. The description of this desolate landscape ends in imprecation:

Cine-au îndrăgit străinii Mânca-i-ar inima câinii [...]	He to whom foreigners are dear Let the dogs eat his heart [...]

—translation by James Christian Brown, in Boia, p. 59

The ending of Doina is Eminescu's contribution to a "trans-historical"[2] cult of Prince Stephen:

Ștefane, Măria Ta, Tu la Putna nu mai sta, [...] Tu te-nalță din mormânt Să te-aud din corn sunând Și Moldova adunând! De-i suna din corn o dată Ai s-aduni Moldova toată, De-i suna de două ori Îți vin codrii-n ajutor, De-i suna a treia oară Toți dușmanii or să piară, Din hotară în hotară [...]	Stephen your Highness, Do not stay in Putna [...] Rise up from your grave That I may hear your horn sounding And Moldavia gathering. If the horn sounds once, You will gather all Moldavia, If it sounds twice, The woods will come to your aid, If it sounds three times, All the enemies will perish From border to border [...]

—translation by Brown, in Boia, pp. 194–195

Background

"What they take, and what they give", cartoon of July 1878 expressing a Romanian take on the Berlin Treaty. At the top, the Budjak, shown as a prosperous region with inhabitants wearing Romanian dress; Northern Dobruja, received in exchange by Romania, appears as a desolate and beastly marshland

A poet as well as a folklorist, Eminescu was well acquainted with the traditional forms of Romanian poetry, and wrote several poems in folkloric style—his Transylvanian enemy, Alexandru Grama, could therefore claim that Eminescu had simply plagiarized Transylvanian doine.[3] As noted by Eminescu expert Perpessicius, one of his first published works, taken up by Familia in the 1860s, was a "type of doina" or a "pseudo-doina".[4] Another variation on that pattern is addressed to "His Majesty, The Forest" (Codrule, Măria ta), with the poet asking to be turned into a tree branch, rocking into eternal slumber.[5] Seen by scholars as an early draft of Doina, it was described as "hollow" and "rudimentary" by critic Constanța Marinescu.[6] However, according to Călinescu, such works sound less "gauche" than actual folk poetry, as polished for print by Vasile Alecsandri.[7] Contrarily, Perpessicius asserts that Eminescu was less talented that Alecsandri, never matching his work as a folklorist or folklore-inspired versifier.[8] According to scholar Marin Bucur, Marinescu is essentially wrong in treating the draft as an actual poem, and also in failing to see why Doina itself is a worthy piece.[9]

Eminescu's interest in doine only peaked after 1877, when he was living as a journalist in Bucharest, and began systematic readings from collections of folk poetry.[10] They were integrated into a vast fund of drafts and versions for Doina, which, as noted by Perpessicius, cannot realistically be published together as a critical instrument.[11] In its final form, Doina is popularly associated with the unveiling at Iași in June 1883, of a monument to Prince Stephen. Eminescu was by then erratic and fatigued, displaying, already from May 1883, the early stages of a mental breakdown.[12] Lodging with Ion Creangă in Iași, he shocked his old friend by brandishing a revolver, explained by the poet as a defense against unspecified enemies.[13] He never actually attended the unveiling of Stephen's statue, only showing up for parallel ceremonies at Junimea society. It was there that he first read his Doina, on June 4.[14] The audience was reportedly enthusiastic, and moved in to hug Eminescu.[15] Doina was first published by the Junimist monthly Convorbiri Literare on July 1.[16]

An emotional Creangă later claimed that his friend had written the poem over those few days, at Creangă's own home, the peasant-style Bojdeuca.[17] Scholar Dumitru Caracostea similarly believes that Doina is the last of Eminescu's poems, composed just before "his collapse in 1883".[18] This is contradicted by other accounts. Researcher D. Murărașu believes that Eminescu had actually completed the poem 13 years before, while present at Putna for Prince Stephen's commemoration, and merely reused it for the 1883 feast.[19]

Eminescu expert Dumitru Irimia groups Doina and Luceafărul into Eminescu's "final effort". He proposes that Eminescu, sensing his "mental equilibrium" slipping away, concentrated on finishing up both works, which outline his universal and social queries.[20] However, he dates the earliest recognizable drafts of Doina to 1878, and Eminescu's anger over the Berlin Treaty, which awarded the Budjak to Russia, noting parallels with the author's political columns, taken up by Timpul in the early 1880s.[21] According to Perpessicius, while the poem's references to rail transport may correspond to the unraveling of the Strousberg Affair, Doina is the product of 1878, written "a day after [the Budjak's] cession [...], five years before the celebrations in Iași". He believes that Doina was in any event completed in December 1882, which was the original date set for the inauguration of Stephen's statue.[22]

Themes

Xenophobia debate

Himself a nationalist, Nicolae Iorga described the piece as both "beautiful" and "political", marked by Eminescu's "hatred of an unrelenting foreign invasion".[23] Without endorsing the political message, critic Nicolae Manolescu also found Eminescu's piece aesthetically pleasing.[24] Other commentators disagree with these verdicts. Constantin Coroiu describes Doina as "not a masterpiece, not even a small one",[25] while Z. Ornea includes it among Eminescu's lesser poems, a "modest work in verse".[19] Essayist Nicolae Steinhardt took an intermediary position. While he recognized Doina as inferior to Eminescu's philosophical poetry, he proposed that the verse still had "beauty bubbling like geysers", the beauty of "Thracian rocks collapsing".[26]

Grama, who saw himself as a fellow nationalist, accused Eminescu of insincerity, noting that the message of Doina contrasted first and foremost with Eminescu's own recourse to "cosmopolitan" themes in his other work.[27] Also according to Grama, the "idiotic" poet wrote apocalyptic verse at a time when Romanians' fates were actually improving.[28] This verdict is not shared by other commentators. In 1934, critic Mihail Dragomirescu argued that Doina and Scrisoarea III contained Eminescu's "innermost thoughts", which led to Simion Bărnuțiu, "Romanianism", and "national mysticism".[29] Caracostea defines the poem as an "excruciating ethnic elegy", and a sample of the "liveliest indignation"—reserved by Eminescu for politics and social commentary.[30] According to scholar Lucian Boia, Eminescu's poetry is overall the best expression of an "anti-cosmopolitan" drive in Romanian nationalism. Boia sees Doina as sketching out Eminescu's "dream": "a pure Romanian civilization, untouched by foreign influences and still less by the effective presence of foreigners."[31] Irimia notes the work for "absolutely confound[ing]" the poetic self with national identity,[32] "taking on the historical being of the Romanians [and] harmonizing it with the sacred dimension of the universal being."[33] According to musicologist Carmen Manea, both Doina and Scrisoarea III resemble in intent Frédéric Chopin's Polonaises.[34]

Romania overrun by the Jews and the Foreigners, in an 1875 allegory by Alexandru Asachi

The poem is one of "national revival", looking forward to a Greater Romania comprising all the Romanian-inhabited regions and, as argued by comparatist Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, is "explosive" in "deplor[ing] the alienation of Romanians in their own lands".[35] Literary historian John Neubauer notes Doina's "chauvinistic remarks",[36] while Bernard Camboulives refers to its "notes of xenophobia", stemming from a "growing intellectual despair". These, Camboulives notes, "might shock those readers who are unfamiliar with Romanian history".[37]

The opening lines vaguely mention "foreigners", but the portion may refer to the situation in Eminescu's own Bukovina, specifically to relatively recent presence there of Germans, Ukrainians, and especially Bukovina Jews.[38][39] According to scholar Petru Zugun, there is nothing specifically xenophobic or antisemitic about Doina, whose introductory portion is simply a critique of "unproductive foreigners", some of whom happened to be Jews, immigrating to Bukovina. Zugun further argues that Eminescu was even more critical of his co-nationals, when these were unproductive.[38] Manolescu acknowledges that background is xenophobic, targeting Russians, Jews and Hungarians. However, he argues that the poem, unlike Eminescu's articles, can be appreciated without such "sociological" hints.[24] Critic Alex. Ștefănescu explains Doina as "sentimental, not ideological", to be understood as a declaration of love to Romania. He also notes that Eminescu was writing after "century-long dramas" provoked by "foreign occupations or by foreigners peacefully infiltrated, but never really integrated, into Romanian society, never giving up on their ethnic solidarity."[40] As noted by culture critic Garabet Ibrăileanu, Eminescu was a xenophobe who, overall, preferred the Jews to the Romanian liberals, viewing the former as more honest and reliable.[41]

Literary historian Leon Volovici also sees Eminescu as guided by an economic theory, but notes his vision of an "objective conflict" between Romanians and foreigners, including in particular Jews (assimilated or not) and Greeks; the "apocalyptic" Doina formed part of that discourse.[42] Romania's Jews, Eminescu insisted, were most removed from the authentically Romanian peasantry, and therefore "could not merge with our people."[43] Draft versions of the poem make explicit mention of "Stephen's Romanians" being "in kike hands", and record with alarm the spread of Yiddish in Bukovina.[44] Another manuscript proclaims specific curses against the perceived enablers of Jews, Greeks, and Russians; for instance:

Cine ne-au adus Jidanii N'ar vedea ziua cu anii Ci să-i scoată ochii corbii Să rămâe'n drum cu orbii[45]	Whoever brought us the kikes May the crows tear out his eyes His sight may he never find, May he roam along the blind

The Bukovina themes had appeared in several Eminescu doine, notably including an 1877 stanza in which Eminescu, or his peasant inspiration, describes the region at "the mercy of the foreigner, which is like a thistle's shadow".[46] The latter metaphor is also found in Doina, suggesting "the image of poverty sweeping over the country [...]. In times of drought, the thistle's shadow is more desolate than no shadow at all, a mock-offering to the heat-stricken people."[47] A specific reference to the village of Boian, in Doina's ninth line, has contributed to that locality's notoriety in a Romanian cultural context.[38][48] Another discernible issue is anger over the plight of Romanians in Russia's Bessarabia Governorate, which included the Budjak.[38][49] As noted by Irimia, the two occupations appear as a continuum in Eminescu's lyrical universe.[50] The Bessarabian topic is addressed in a parallel poem, referring to the Russians as "dog-headed" and "dog-hearted" Kalmyks, likely to "tear out the tongues" of Romanian-speakers.[51] The early versions of Doina still made mentions of "Tatar and Kalmyk hordes".[52] Also from the period, La arme ("To Arms"), sometimes seen as a Doina variant,[53] urges Romanians to answer the call of "gentle Bessarabia", "our younger sister", "awaiting to be murdered by dogs".[54]

Traditionalism and biblical echoes

According to Steinhardt, the central message is not xenophobic, but "ecological", "anti-technicist", and "obviously Heideggerian", its violence being Eminescu's attempt to fend off an "ancient curse". This reading refers in particular to a line which mentions the "iron road" (the Austrian rail company) bringing in foreigners to "kill all the songs", as well as to the claim that the forest and the Romanian are like "brothers".[55] The same lines are also highlighted by critic Barbu Cioculescu: "That Eminescu was our first environmentalist is an established fact, beyond all debate [...]. The construction of railways across the country's virgin plains, centenary forests, and murmuring waters drove him to despair".[56] Ștefănescu rejects literal readings of the "iron road" verse, noting that Eminescu stood not for an aversion to progress, but rather against the "brutal destruction of a slowly emerging harmony", an "irreversible destruction of beautiful things."[47] Trains have first appeared as instruments of corruption in Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu's "Iron Road" (1864), which exegets such as Liviu Marian saw as "quasi-identical" with the passage in Doina, and which is primarily about the Strousberg scandal.[57]

Several commentators focus on the poem's prophetic outbursts and their literary sources. Some see Doina as primarily a curse, similar to Saint Basil's exorcism[55] or to the Kosovo curse, in the Vuk Karadžić version.[58] As noted by Ștefănescu, Eminescu changes the meaning of words, turning the mere fondness of strangers into a punishable crime: "[He] can make words into soft twigs, sketching on the surface of water, and also into daggers."[40] Al. Andriescu, the Biblical scholar, argued that the central themes, of national perdition and redemption, are echoes of the Psalms, arriving at Eminescu through his readings from Dosoftei.[59] Building on this verdict, Ukrainian researcher Volodymyr Antofiychuk proposes that Doina is a parallel to Taras Shevchenko's own psalmodic verse. Both authors, Antofiychuk notes, invoked the Bible specifically against Russian expansionism.[60]

Although rejecting Eminescu's overall contribution, including most of Doina, Grama reserved praise for this final scene, calling it a "masterpiece", when viewed separately: "most Romanians cannot fail to be moved" by it.[61] Comparatist Grete Tartler proposes that the "famous invocation" deepens folkloric accounts about Stephen as a sleeping hero, on par with Ogier the Dane and Frederick Barbarossa.[62] Camboulives explains his presence in these lines as an appeal to Stephen's standing as a powerful enemy of the Ottoman Empire, and defender of "the whole of Christendom."[63] Similarly, Ștefănescu argues that Eminescu appealed primarily to the "Romanian mythology", of Stephen as an "unvanquished hero".[40]

Legacy

Becoming a symbol

Doina was included by Titu Maiorescu in his first-ever critical edition of Eminescu's poems, published at Editura Socec as the author had withdrawn from public life. The "classic" selection and arrangement, which place Doina right before "One Wish Alone Have I", were praised by Perpessicius as particularly tactful.[64] Nevertheless, critics were flummoxed by Maiorescu's apparent carelessness, which, in poems such as Doina, proliferated known typos.[65] The Socec collection is known for missing an entire line of the poem, alluding to the foreigners' reliance on the "iron road".[66] The corrected version of Doina was published in February 1884 by Maiorescu's rivals at Contemporanul.[67] Socec itself amended the text in its revised edition of 1895.[68] La arme remained unpublished until 1902, but was widely known through its musical adaptation by Eduard Caudella, which is probably from 1883.[53] Caudella himself believed that the work was a suitable anthem, "the Romanians' Marseillaise".[53] Another version, circulated in the Banat by Liviu Tempea, was sung to the tune of Chant du départ.[69]

The first use of Doina as an object of study in academia was I. Manliu's manual of poetics, published in 1890 and heavily indebted to Maiorescu's observations, closely followed in 1893 by Enea Hodoș's reader, aimed at Romanian schoolteachers in the Banat, and by Gheorghe Adamescu's chrestomathy.[70] In the Kingdom of Romania, three literature textbooks for schoolchildren included Doina before 1900.[70] The poem was also part of the theatrical repertoire, recited during intermissions by Aristizza Romanescu.[71] Iorga's associate A. C. Cuza, who published in 1914 a "people's edition" of Eminescu's work, set apart a section for the doine.[72] The cover had art by Ipolit Strâmbu, depicting the final scene of Doina, with Stephen sounding his horn.[73] As noted at the time by Ibrăileanu, nationalism permeated the reading of Eminescu's work: while Doina and Scrisoarea III could still "serve nationalism", most of his poetry could not. Ibrăileanu argues that this realization prompted Ilarie Chendi and others to seek the publication of Eminescu's other, lesser and unfinished, prose works.[74] The poem, and especially its reference to the "iron road", was also popular with the socialist Revista Socială, which saw the old gentry and the peasants as equally threatened by modernization.[75]

By 1900, Eminescu's posthumous followers included Duiliu Zamfirescu, who wrote a Doina-like poem specifically about Bukovina,[25] and the Bukovinan Radu Sbiera. According to Ibrăileanu, the latter, being an "untalented Eminescian", was inspired by Doina to the point of plagiarism.[76] In 1902, Doina also inspired the critically acclaimed debut of Octavian Goga, a Transylvanian.[77] The poem was already an established political symbol, circulated clandestinely in Bessarabia by Ion Pelivan. Pelivan was arrested by the Special Corps of Gendarmes in 1903. During the inquiry, Pelivan reports, the Gendarmes produced an incompetent translation of Doina into Russian, missing out on its more inflammatory rhetoric.[78] Doina was subsequently used as a rallying call in 1912, during the centennial of Bessarabia's annexation by Russia. Its recitation headlined the "festival" organized in Bucharest by the Cultural League for the Unity of All Romanians.[79] The respite of censorship following the Russian Revolution of 1905 ultimately produced a blossoming of the Romanian Bessarabian press, including Cuvânt Moldovenesc—which, in 1913, put out an Eminescu selection, featuring both Doina and Codrule, Măria ta.[80] Meanwhile, Volovici notes, Eminescu's rhetoric partook in "exacerbat[ing] the negative image of the foreigner and stimulated xenophobia."[43] As reported by writer Avram Axelard (A. A. Luca), Doina had also become an anthem for "Christian boys" in Bukovina, who used it as a justification to punch him and other Jews.[81]

In Greater Romania

Two years after the Cuza edition, the Romanian Kingdom entered World War I as an Entente country; the alliance favored the Russian Empire over Austria-Hungary, and the cause of Transylvania over that of Bessarabia. During the subsequent campaigns. La arme was a soldiers' anthem, used for instance during Nerva I. Paul's charge on German positions (October 1916).[82] Nevertheless, Romania contemplated defeat in early 1918. Writing at the time in Chemarea, the Jewish critic Benjamin Fondane reminded Iorga and other nationalists of the anti-Russian content of Doina, which, he argued, had been proven right.[83]

The following months and years saw the creation and consolidation of Greater Romania, beginning with the union of Bessarabia with Romania. The culmination of the process was a "Great Union Day" (December 1, 1918), during which Romanians from Transylvania and satellite regions expressed their wish to join the country. Though invoked on the day, the slogan "From the Dniester to the Tisza" caused some controversy, as delegates from Northern Maramuresh found that it excluded their homeland. The matter was addressed by a Transylvanian delegate, Ștefan Cicio Pop, who endorsed the new slogan: Trăiască România Mare de la Nistru și până dincolo de Tisa! ("Long live Greater Romania from the Dniester to the Tisza and beyond!").[84]

In interwar Bessarabia, Doina continued to have an especially strong presence as a political symbol and poetic model, while La arme was quoted as an opening text by the literary review Viața Basarabiei.[85] Doina was also a major of influence on the anti-Russian poetry published at the time by Ion Buzdugan.[86] In contrast, the left-wing Emilian Bucov parodied the poem, revising its central message:

De la Bugeac până la Bărăgan mi s-a plâns orice țăran sărman că nu mai poate străbate și nu de "străinătate"... Căci chiar neaoșii stăpâni fură-al nostru miez de pâini și ne lasă pustiiți, nemâncați și jefuiți.[87]	From Budjak to the Bărăgan Plain all laborers will complain that they can never succeed, blaming not the "foreign breed"... It's our very own elite stealing from the bread we eat, leaving us with empty hand, famished, pillaged where we stand.

Eminescu's poem had become universally present in literature textbooks, and was for the first time made accessible to the youngest cohorts by the reading aids of Gheorghe Bogdan-Duică.[70] It also influenced sculptor Ion Schmidt-Faur, who in 1929 added a Doina-inspired relief, of Stephen and his horn, at the base of his Eminescu statue in Iași.[88] Before and during and World War II, the work was several times transposed into foreign languages. In 1927, Ramiro Ortiz put out an Eminescu reader in Italian, which included Doina.[89] A Hungarian-language Doina was completed by Sándor Kibédi in 1934.[90] The Bukovina Czech Božena Șesan published a translation into her native language in 1944.[91]

From ca. 1927, Doina was also especially popular with the Iron Guard, a fascist movement which similarly "express[ed] the ancestral, somehow atemporal, sense of Romanian purity and solidarity among Romanians" and gave Stephen an "exceptional position" in its propaganda works.[92] The poem was also invoked by the National Christian Party, which shared the Guard's antisemitism and was sometimes allied with it. Its leader was the poet Goga, who used the lyrics to justify crimes committed by the Guard's Captain, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, calling Doina a "gospel of Romanianism."[93] The same appropriation happened with La arme. "Almost confiscated [...] by far-right groups",[53] it reportedly inspired Codreanu to designate the basic Iron Guard cells as cuiburi ("nests").[94] By 1936, Stelian Popescu of the nationalist paper Universul was reusing the "dogs-eating-hearts" line, in red lettering, against his Jewish and left-wing rivals at Adevărul, accusing them of being a front for the Romanian Communist Party.[95] As recalled by Cioculescu, during the National Legionary State the same slogan was "plastered all over the walls" of Romanian cities, "as if the Guard didn't have its own foreigners!"[96]

Stephen with his horn and the Moldavian military forces, Ion Schmidt-Faur's relief at the base of Eminescu's statue (1929). With empty discolored slot left by the removal of Doina quotation

Communist censorship

In late 1944, shortly after King Michael's Coup and the onset of Soviet occupation in Romania, La arme was banned.[53] At the time, Iron Guard commandos, supported by Nazi Germany, used Doina as a password.[97] Under the subsequent Romanian communist regime, Doina was also targeted by political censorship: already in 1946, the quotation from Doina was removed from Schmidt-Faur's relief.[88] The poem could not be published in Bessarabia, which was included in the Soviet Union as the Moldavian SSR. In both countries, it was "banned and recited only in private readings because it named Russia as one of the imperial powers that had oppressed the Romanian nation."[98] Also uncomfortable were its "strident nationalism" and its mention of the Dniester, "at the time in the territory of the Soviet Union."[99] Philologist Petru Creția also argued that Doina upset the communist rulers because they themselves were mostly "foreigners [...], extremely offended by the things one read in there".[25]

In Western countries, the anti-communist Romanian diaspora still published and discussed the poem. Diaspora journalist Virgil Ierunca noted at the time that Eminescu was both praised and censored with the acquiescence of a compliant intelligentsia. He highlighted this against the oppression experienced by the other social groups, quoting Doina's "all Romanians have complained to me".[100] The poem's nationalist prestige was preserved by the self-exiled Iron Guard poet, Aron Cotruș, who wrote many pieces which allude to Eminescu's, in both style and intertexual references, updated to refer to communism and the Soviets.[101]

Dissidents at home also maintained a cult of the poem. As noted by Creția, Doina had a psychological appeal: "those who hid it under a bushel were mistaken, with this poem preserving a latent life in the national psyche; thus, the censors, instead of attenuating an obsession, have maintained it."[25] Historian Zoe Petre recalls having been taught Doina as a youth, "in the summer of '44", which was already a gesture of defiance from her family.[102] One theory claims that the disillusioned communist poet Nicolae Labiș openly recited Doina at a Bucharest locale in autumn 1956, the sign of his conversion to nationalism—a departure for which he was allegedly assassinated.[103] Reportedly, at around the same time the left-wing Victor Eftimiu expressed a wish to expunge Doina from collective memory, "for its xenophobia".[104] Dumitru Irimia recalls that, in the early 1960s, Eminescu was la secret ("under lock and key"), primarily quoted with his "Emperor and Proletarian", but also that his high school teacher privately advised him to read Doina.[105] Linguist Tatiana Slama-Cazacu also remembers that volumes containing Doina could not be checked out of public libraries.[106]

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 brought anti-Russian sentiment to the forefront, allowing Sabin Drăgoi to compose and circulate a third musical version of La arme.[53] At around the same time, Eftimiu revised his stance, reciting Doina to his fellow writers at a meeting in Bragadiru Hall, Bucharest.[107] Censorship again intervened in 1969, when a treatise of Romanian history by Polish author Juliusz Demel had to be withdrawn from Romanian bookshops for featuring the first two lines of Doina as a motto.[108] In the 1970s, following the deterioration of contacts between Romania and the Soviet Union, communist leader Nicolae Ceaușescu became more lenient toward Doina. At a Communist-Party plenary meeting early that decade, he reportedly cited the imprecation about dogs "eating the hearts" of xenophiles.[109]

In 1976, Ceaușescu proposed to publish a collection of Eminescu's "national" poetry, headlined by Doina's apparent claim to Bessarabia.[110] Actor Ludovic Antal was reportedly the first in his profession to test censorship by publicly reciting Doina, at some point before his death in 1979.[111] References to Doina were still stripped from the 1977 Romanian edition of an Eminescu study, by the Frenchman Alain Guillermou.[33] A French translation was done by Jean-Louis Courriol,[112] but, as Courriol himself recalled, could still not be published in Romania in 1984.[113] At around that time, Cezar Ivănescu wrote a pastiche of Doina with a covert critique of communism; this was detected, then eliminated, by the censors.[114]

By then, Adrian Păunescu of Cenaclul Flacăra was staging public readings of Doina in Romania. Sometimes broadcast by radio, these were also followed by Romanian activists in the Moldavian SSR.[115] There, the poem had remained banned in the Brezhnev Era, with Nicolae Lupan threatened and ultimately expelled from the country for having circulated it.[116] With the onset of Perestroika reforms in the Soviet republic, the magazine Nistru published all versions of Doina in its first issue of 1988,[117] an initiative credited to poet Dumitru Matcovschi.[118] From her home in the Latvian SSR, Maria Macovei-Briedis published the Romanian magazine Glasul, which also took up Doina in 1988.[119]

Recovery

At the Eminescu centennial, some eleven months before the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Doina was publicly quoted in Ceaușescu's own address. As noted by Slama-Cazacu, the message was read at the Romanian Athenaeum by Emil Bobu, who happened to be "one of [Ceaușescu's] least cultured ministers."[106] The issue of Doina came up during long debates over the publication of Eminescu's complete works. The project was endorsed by philosopher Constantin Noica, who proposed putting out facsimiles from Eminescu's manuscripts. He acknowledged in 1977 that some were problematic for the regime, "xenophobic, anti-Russian", and suggested to "leave Doina out of it [...], we'll do it like type-writer girls—this we erase, the rest can appear."[120] In 1989, Ceaușescu ultimately allowed Creția to republish Doina in a lithographic edition which reproduced the Maiorescu original.[109][121] According to Petre, this was originally planned as a regular-type edition, but Creția, who defended the inclusion of Doina, struggled with censorship for several years. During one episode of this exchange, he proposed changing "from the Dniester to the Tisza" to "from the Istros to the Tisza", which excluded reference to Bessarabia; "Dniester" would only be clarified in the erratum.[102]

The poem was again fully accessible during the revolutionary events, its opening lines used by the National Salvation Front in its first appeals to the Iași populace.[122] Also then, actor Victor Rebengiuc walked into the Romanian Television building and recited the poem in a live broadcast, changing stress from its condemnation of foreigners to read like an attack on people associated with the old regime.[123] According to Eminescu expert Cornelia Viziteu, there followed a period of "overtly nationalist" readings with "evidently superficial commentary", including popularization of Doina through other television broadcasts.[124] Doina was again standard reading for seventh-grade students, a matter which, according to journalist Sorin Șerb, contributes to their cultural isolation: "The Romanian schoolchild doesn't live on Earth, in a universe filled with wonder, but within the borders of a 'national, sovereign, independent, unitary and indivisible state'".[125] In the 1990s, Doina was featured on Romanian Orthodox icons, by a Comănești priest calling for Eminescu's canonization,[126] and also reclaimed by Iron Guard revivalists.[19] It was then controversially sourced by the Social Democratic politician, Nicolae Bacalbașa, during the presidential race of 2014, read as an attack on Klaus Iohannis (who is a Transylvanian Saxon).[127]

Eminescu is also revered in the post-Soviet Republic of Moldova, where he has a status equivalent to that of "national poet", within the larger debate about Moldovan identity. This status is seen by scholar Wim van Meurs as "artificial" and "completely false", in particular because it has to override his Greater Romanian nationalism, "expressed in the first lines of his poem Doina".[128] On the "Moldovenist" side of the debate, the issue was brought up in the 1990s by author Ion Druță. Druță suggested that both Eminescu and Doina are not representative for the Moldovan ethos, which, he argues, relies on other elements.[129]

In 1998, Ioana Both noted that Doina was instrumented as a slogan by the Moldova–Romania unionist movement.[130] Writing in 2016, historian Robert D. Kaplan suggested that its first line continues to be quoted, "with its misty inoperable longing for a Greater Romania."[131] La arme, in the Caudella version, was also recovered as an anthem by Moldovan unionists in the early 1990s.[53] This issue was highlighted in November 1993, just before Romania's national holiday, when a Moldovan Supreme Soviet delegate recited Doina in Parliament. The ambassadors of Hungary and Ukraine left the hall in protest, sparking a debate that also involved intellectuals on either side.[132] At the time, the Hungarian teacher Lajos Ötvös wrote a piece giving contextual justification for Doina's rhetoric.[132] In parallel, Doina continues to be of interest to Eminescu translators in other neighboring countries, with a Ukrainian version completed by Ivan Kideshuk.[133]

Notes

1. Mihăilescu, p. 92; Neubauer, p. 14
2. Boia, p. 194
3. Grama, pp. 204–205
4. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 142, 414
5. Călinescu, pp. 195, 220–221
6. Bucur, p. 375
7. Călinescu, p. 220
8. Perpessicius (2001), p. 427
9. Bucur, pp. 375–376
10. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 325, 441–442
11. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 395, 401
12. Călinescu, p. 165; Perpessicius (1944), p. 3
13. Călinescu, p. 165
14. Călinescu, p. 165; Grama, pp. 203–206; Irimia (1984), pp. 1–2
15. Grama, pp. 204–205; Irimia (1984), p. 1; Perpessicius (1944), p. 3
16. Perpessicius (1944), p. 1
17. Arthur Gorovei, Alte vremuri. Amintiri literare, pp. 62–63. Fălticeni: J. Bendit, 1930
18. Caracostea, p. 291
19. (in Romanian) Z. Ornea, "Un doctrinar legionar de azi", in România Literară, Nr. 37/2000
20. Irimia (1984), pp. 1–3
21. Irimia (1984), pp. 2, 4 & (2003), pp. 140–142
22. Perpessicius (1944), p. 2
23. Nicolae Iorga, Istoria literaturii românești contemporane. I: Crearea formei (1867–1890), p. 293. Bucharest: Editura Adevĕrul, 1934
24. (in Romanian) Daniel Cristea-Enache, Nicolae Manolescu, "Autobiografice. Despre bucuria lecturii", in Literatura de Azi, November 27, 2015
25. (in Romanian) Constantin Coroiu, "Duiliu Zamfirescu, Basarabia și Bucovina", in Cultura, Nr. 389, September 2012
26. (in Romanian) "N. Steinhardt către I. Negoițescu: Trei scrisori inedite", in Apostrof, Nr. 2/2013
27. Grama, pp. 40–41, 90–91, 203–204
28. Grama, pp. 90–91
29. Mihail Dragomirescu, Istoria literaturii române în secolul XX, după o nouă metodă. Sămănătorism, poporanism, criticism, pp. 11–12. Bucharest: Editura Institutului de Literatură, 1934
30. Caracostea, pp. 244, 291
31. Boia, p. 59
32. Irimia (1984), p. 2
33. Irimia (2003), p. 140
34. (in Romanian) Nicolae Mareș, "Eminescu și Chopin – similitudini și paralele", in România Literară, Nr. 24/2016
35. Mihăilescu, pp. 91–92
36. Neubauer, p. 14
37. Camboulives, p. 115
38. (in Romanian) Petru Zugun, "M. Eminescu—'Poetul național', nu scriitor xenofob, antisemit și rasist. Argumentare lingvistică și stilistică", in Convorbiri Literare, January 2012
39. Oișteanu, pp. 197–200
40. (in Romanian) Alex. Ștefănescu, "Lecturi la prima vedere din Eminescu (XXXIX)", in Ziarul Financiar, November 20, 2015
41. Ibrăileanu, I, pp. 158–159
42. Volovici, pp. 11–13
43. Volovici, p. 13
44. Perpessicius (1944), pp. 5–6
45. Perpessicius (1944), pp. 17–18
46. Irimia (2003), pp. 140–141
47. (in Romanian) Alex. Ștefănescu, "«Și cum vin cu drum de fier...»", in Literatura de Azi, January 1, 2016
48. Ștefan S. Gorovei, "Ion Neculce și tradițiile Putnei", in Analele Putnei, Vol. I, Issue 2, 2005, p. 62; Ibrăileanu, II, p. 42
49. Cazacu, pp. 6, 8; Irimia (2003), pp. 140–141; Pleșca, passim
50. Irimia (2003), p. 141
51. Pleșca, p. 43
52. Perpessicius (1944), pp. 4–6, 11
53. Letiția Constantin, "Eminescu muzical. Partituri aflate în Colecțiile Speciale ale Bibliotecii Naționale a României", in Conferințele Bibliotecii ASTRA, Nr. 144/2011, p. 10
54. Burlacu, p. 382; Irimia (2003), p. 140
55. Zaharia Sângeorzan, Nicolae Steinhardt, "Dialog cu monahul de la Rohia. 326", in Convorbiri cu Zaharia Sângeorzan și Nicolae Băciuț, [n. p.]. Iași: Rohia Monastery & Polirom, 2015. ISBN 978-973-46-5594-6
56. (in Romanian) Barbu Cioculescu, "Bătrânul și ploaia", in România Literară, Nr. 42/2005
57. Perpessicius (1944), pp. 1–2
58. Tom Gallagher, Outcast Europe: The Balkans, 1789–1989: From the Ottomans to Milošević, pp. 57–58. London & New York: Routledge, 2001. ISBN 0-415-27089-8
59. Antofiychuk, p. 8; (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Resursele psalmilor", in România Literară, Nr. 31/2005
60. Antofiychuk, pp. 7–8
61. Grama, pp. 203–204
62. (in Romanian) Grete Tartler, "Națiuni pragmatice: identitatea daneză", in România Literară, Nr. 45/2001
63. Camboulives, p. 116
64. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 73–74, 348–349
65. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 351–357
66. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 352, 355–356
67. Perpessicius (2001), p. 353
68. Perpessicius (2001), pp. 357–358
69. (in Romanian) Constantin-T. Stan, "Un lugojean pe urmele lui Eminescu: pianistul-compozitor Liviu Tempea (2)", in Actualitatea, September 28, 2015
70. (in Romanian) Mircea Anghelescu, "Eminescu în manualele școlare", in România Literară, Nr. 11/2000
71. Ștefan Cervatiuc, Istoria teatrului la Botoșani: 1838–1944. Vol. 1: 1838–1900, p. 201. Botoșani: Quadrant, 2008. ISBN 978-606-8238-88-3
72. Bucur, p. 129
73. Perpessicius (2001), p. 366
74. Ibrăileanu, II, pp. 232–233
75. Ibrăileanu, I, pp. 164–165
76. Ibrăileanu, II, pp. 38, 41–42
77. (in Romanian) Ion Simuț, "Octavian Goga – 125 – Mesianism național", in România Literară, Nr. 18/2006
78. Ion Constantin, Ion Negrei, Gheorghe Negru, Ioan Pelivan: istoric al mișcării naționale din Basarabia, p. 369. Bucharest: Editura Biblioteca Bucureștilor, 2012. ISBN 978-606-8337-39-5
79. Cazacu, p. 8
80. Petre V. Haneș, Scriitori basarabeni, 1850–1940, pp. 290–300. Bucharest: Editura Casei Școalelor, 1942. OCLC 935507473
81. Oișteanu, p. 199
82. (in Romanian) Victor Durnea, "Profesorul, criticul și scriitorul Ioan Paul. Itinerar biografic", in Cultura, Nr. 322, May 2015
83. (in Romanian) B. Fundoianu, "Recenzii: Mihail Eminescu, Poezii. Inscripții", in România Literară, Nr. 26/2017
84. Ana-Felicia Diaconu, Cristina Țineghe, "Istorii puțin știute. Cum s-a unit Maramureșul cu țara", in Magazin Istoric, December 1999, p. 23
85. Burlacu, pp. 382, 387–388
86. Burlacu, p. 388; Iordan Datcu, "Ion Buzdugan și cântecele din Basarabia", in Philologia, Vol. LV, 2013, p. 50
87. Burlacu, p. 384
88. (in Romanian) "85 de ani de la dezvelirea statuii lui Mihai Eminescu", in Curierul de Iași, June 13, 2014
89. (in Romanian) Florian Copcea, "Transpuneri în limbile europene ale liricii eminesciene", in Philologia, Vol. LV, September–December 2013, p. 92
90. (in Romanian) Lajos Sipos, "Acum 70 de ani – Primul Eminescu în limba maghiară", in România Literară, Nr. 48/2004
91. Constantin Poenaru, "Leca Morariu — cu redacția în pribegie", in Raduț Bîlbîie, Mihaela Teodor (eds.), Elita culturală și presa (Congresul Național de istorie a presei, ediția a VI-a), p. 89. Bucharest: Editura Militară, 2013. ISBN 978-973-32-0922-5
92. Boia, p. 213
93. (in Romanian) Nicolae Manolescu, "Octavian Goga (1 aprilie 1881–7 mai 1938)", in România Literară, Nr. 14/2011
94. Constantin Iordachi, "God's Chosen Warriors: Romantic Palingenesis, Militarism and Fascism in Modern Romania", in Constantin Iordachi (ed.), Comparative Fascist Studies. New Perspectives, p. 339. London & New York: Routledge, 2010. ISBN 978-0-415-46222-8
95. Dumitru Lăcătușu, "Procesul Anei Pauker de la București și Craiova (27 februarie 1936 și 5 iunie–7 iulie 1936)", in Adrian Cioroianu (ed.), Comuniștii înainte de comunism: procese și condamnări ale ilegaliștilor din România, p. 246. Bucharest: Editura Universității București, 2014. ISBN 978-606-16-0520-0
96. (in Romanian) Barbu Cioculescu, "Diagrama unui mit", in Acolada, Nr. 1/2016, p. 4
97. (in Romanian) Manuel Stănescu, "Generalul Avramescu, trădător sau victimă a NKVD?", in Historia, April 2012
98. Neubauer, p. 18
99. Kaplan, p. 268
100. Mihaela Albu, "Virgil Ierunca — A Prestigious Voice of the (Literary) Romanian Exile", in Adina Ciugureanu, Ludmila Martanovschi, Nicoleta Stanca (eds.), Ovid, Myth and (Literary) Exile. Conference Proceedings, pp. 259–260. Constanța: Ovidius University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-973-614-559-9
101. (in Romanian) Florin Manolescu, "Scriitori români în exil — Un rapsod modern: Aron Cotruș", in Viața Românească, Nr. 3–4/2015
102. Zoe Petre, "De la Nistru pân' la Tisa...", in Toamna căpitanului, [n. p.]. Iași: Adenium, 2014. ISBN 978-606-742-038-8
103. (in Romanian) Petru Ursache, "Calea Doinei", in Convorbiri Literare, September 2013
104. (in Romanian) C. D. Zeletin, "Amintirea lui Victor Eftimiu", in Acolada, Nr. 7–8/2010, p. 6
105. (in Romanian) Maria Șleahtițchi, "Lumini și umbre. Eminescu în interpretarea lui Dumitru Irimia", in Contrafort, Issues 9–10/2009
106. (in Romanian) Tatiana Slama-Cazacu, "Un text din 'epoca de aur'", in România Literară, Nr. 17/2000
107. Maria-Magdalena Ioniță, "Cafenelele Bucureștilor sub regim comunist", in Magazin Istoric, March 2020, pp. 55–56
108. Nicolae Mareș, "Profesorul Juliusz Demel istoric al românilor", in Magazin Istoric, July 2019, p. 55
109. (in Romanian) Nicolae Manolescu, "Cenzura comunistă și literatura", in România Literară, Nr. 51/2016
110. (in Romanian) "Stenograma Ședinței Comitetului Politic Executiv al CC al PCR din ziua de 5 mai 1976", in România Literară, Nr. 13–14/2014
111. (in Romanian) Valeriu Birlan, "Scrisoare inedită – Veturia Goga", in Convorbiri Literare, November 2008
112. Camboulives, pp. 115–116
113. (in Romanian) Iulian Ciocan, Scriitorii din Moldova nu se deosebesc de scriitorii din România, chiar dacă au o altă experiență și trăiesc într-o altă lume (interview with Jean-Louis Courriol), Radio Free Europe, November 8, 2013
114. (in Romanian) Ion Buzași, "Jurnalul unui editor", in România Literară, Nr. 35/2014
115. Nicolae Dabija, "Poetul și Basarabia", in Literatura și Arta, June 18, 2013, p. 1
116. (in Romanian) Igor Cașu, "'Revoluția silențioasă': revizuirea identității naționale în Moldova Sovietică la apogeul 'dezghețului' lui Hrușciov (1956–1957)", in Plural, Vol. 3, Issue 1, 2015, pp. 120–121
117. Valeriu Matei, "25 de ani de la adoptarea legislației lingvistice", in Akademos, Nr. 3/2014, p. 14
118. (in Romanian) Petru Paraschivu, "Dumitru Matcovschi – portret în timp", in Biblio Polis, Vol. 39, Issue 2, 2011
119. (in Romanian) Tudor Nedelcea, "Flori duhovnicești pentru mitropolitul Nestor Vornicescu", in Ramuri, Nr. 5/2007
120. (in Romanian) Cassian-Maria Spiridon, [v "Noica și Eminescu (II)"], in Convorbiri Literare, January 2009
121. (in Romanian) Eliza Dumitrescu , "Centenarul morții poetului național", in Jurnalul Național, June 15, 2009
122. (in Romanian) Laurențiu Ungureanu, "Iași: cronica unei revoluții care n-a existat", in Adevărul, May 16, 2011
123. (in Romanian) Ovidiu Șimonca, " 'Încă nu mă consider un actor mare' " (interview with Victor Rebengiuc), in Observator Cultural, Nr. 412, February 2008
124. Cornelia Viziteu, "Argument", in Ioan Constantinescu, Cornelia Viziteu (eds.), Studii eminescologice, p. 5. Cluj-Napoca: Editura Clusium, 1999. ISBN 973-555-214-0
125. (in Romanian) Sorin Șerb, "Cine bântuie școlile?", in Revista 22, Issue 1111, June 2011
126. Both, p. 46
127. (in Romanian) Ovidiu Albu, "Lider PSD: Klaus Iohannis reprezintă interese străine. Cine o îndrăgi străinii, mânca-i-ar inima câinii", in Evenimentul Zilei, November 5, 2014; Cristian Andrei, "'Doina' lui Eminescu intră în campanie, la PSD în ușă se recită: 'Cine-a îndrăgit străinii/ Mânca-i-ar inima câinii'. Dragnea vorbește despre pericolul ce paște unitatea națională", in Gândul, November 5, 2014
128. Wim van Meurs, The Bessarabian Question in Communist Historiography, pp. 324–325. Boulder: East European Monographs, 1994. ISBN 0-88033-284-0
129. (in Romanian) Maria Șleahtițchi, "În reflector: Ion Druță. Publicistica lui Ion Druță sub semnul manipulării", in Contrafort, Nr. 9–10/2002
130. Both, pp. 36, 46
131. Kaplan, p. 220
132. (in Romanian) Tudor Cristea, "Spectacolul tranziției fără sfârșit", in Litere, Nr. 3/2006
133. Antofiychuk, p. 8

References

• (in Ukrainian) Volodymyr Antofiychuk, "Псалом у творчості Тараса Шевченка та Міхая Емінеску: компаративістичний аспект", in Nash Holos, Vol. XXII, Issue 214, 2012, pp. 6–8.
• Lucian Boia, History and Myth in Romanian Consciousness. Budapest & New York: Central European University Press, 2001. ISBN 963-9116-96-3
• Ioana Both, " 'Mihai Eminescu – Poète National Roumain.' Histoire et anatomie d'un mythe culturel", in The New Europe College Yearbook, 1997–1998, 2000, pp. 9–70.
• Marin Bucur, Istoriografia literară românească. De la origini până la G. Călinescu. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1973. OCLC 221218437
• Alexandru Burlacu, "Poezia basarabeană și antinomiile ei. Anii '20–'30", in Ofelia Ichim, Florin-Teodor Olariu (eds.), Identitatea limbii și literaturii române în perspectiva globalizării, pp. 379–404. Iași: Institutul de Filologie Română A. Philippide & Editura Trinitas, 2002. ISBN 973-8179-12-2
• George Călinescu, "Mihai Eminescu", in Șerban Cioculescu, Ovidiu Papadima, Alexandru Piru (eds.), Istoria literaturii române. III: Epoca marilor clasici, pp. 159–242. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1973.
• Bernard Camboulives, La Roumanie littéraire. Paris: Éditions Le Manuscrit, 2005. ISBN 2-7481-6120-3
• Dumitru Caracostea, Creativitatea eminesciană. Bucharest: Fundația Regală pentru Literatură și Artă, 1943. OCLC 247668059
• Nicolae Cazacu, "Condamnarea raptului Basarabiei", in Anuarul Catedrei de Științe Socioumane, 2012, pp. 4–14.
• Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer (eds.), History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and Disjunctures in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Volume IV: Types and Stereotypes. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2010. ISBN 978-90-272-3458-2. See:
  • John Neubauer, "Figures of National Poets. Introduction", pp. 11–18.
  • Călin-Andrei Mihăilescu, "Mihai Eminescu: The Foundational Truth of a Dual Lyre", pp. 86–96.
• Alexandru Grama, Mihail Eminescu. Studiu critic. Cluj-Napoca: Napoca Star, 2014. ISBN 978-606-690-067-6
• Garabet Ibrăileanu, Opere. I. Spiritul critic în cultura românească; II. Scriitori români. Bucharest & Chișinău: Editura Litera International, 1997–1998. ISBN 9975-904-14-9
• Dumitru Irimia,
  • "1883 — anul Eminescu", in Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară, Vol. XXIX, 1984, pp. 1–7.
  • "Identitatea și unitatea românească în două oglinzi: Eminescu și Alexei Mateevici", in Revista Limba Română, Vol. XIII, Issues 6–10, 2013, pp. 138–144.
• Robert D. Kaplan, In Europe's Shadow: Two Cold Wars and a Thirty-Year Journey through Romania and Beyond. New York: Random House, 2016. ISBN 978-0-8129-9681-4
• Andrei Oișteanu, Inventing the Jew. Antisemitic Stereotypes in Romanian and Other Central East-European Cultures. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8032-2098-0
• Perpessicius,
  • notes to Mihai Eminescu, Opere, Vol. III. Poezii tipărite în timpul vieții; Note și variante: Dela Doina la Kamadeva. Bucharest: Fundația Regele Mihai I, 1944. OCLC 491449490
  • Studii eminesciene. Bucharest: Museum of Romanian Literature, 2001. ISBN 973-8031-34-6
• Nae-Simion Pleșca, "Basarabia în publicistica și poezia lui Eminescu", in Philologia, Vol. LVI, May–August 2014, pp. 39–43.
• Leon Volovici, Nationalist Ideology and Antisemitism. The Case of Romanian Intellectuals in the 1930s. Oxford etc.: Pergamon Press, 1991. ISBN 0-08-041024-3