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April 22 marks the birthday of Veronica Micle. 22.04.2017
April 22 marks the birthday of Veronica Micle, the poetess and the beloved of the Romanian literary genius Mihai Eminescu. Eugen Doga composed over 40 works to her poems which became part of the music series “Dialogues of Love” about the two poets’ love story.
Veronica’s earlier years were rather ordinary. She went to school. At 14 she was married off to a man of her circle, Stephan Micle, who later became the rector of the Iasi University. The couple came to have two daughters. She brought them up while leading a life appropriate for her status, entertaining guests in her literary salon.
But this earthly destiny concealed another. Let’s diverge from the mundane realm where she had a husband and daughters, a salon and family obligations, and later her husband’s death; whereas he had his journalistic and social work, looking for work, empty pockets and fatigue.
One day, each one of them set off for Vienna, towards the predestined entwinement of their fates. It was year 1872. They met. We do not know how it happened: whether it was vague recognition, thunderbolt-like passion or awakening sympathy, as it happens when among thousands of people we meet the one who seems to have been loved and dear always.
Before meeting Mihai Eminescu she had already been familiar with his poetry and had written about it in verse: “I knew only your name, better if I hadn’t known you. And wished to see you just once. To dedicate my life to you and make you my idol.”
She fell in love with him; they dedicated poems to each other. “Who knows if Eminescu would have been the same as we know him today without this vixen that ruined his life but who, actually, goaded him to create. It is hard to find any place in Eminescu’s work that is not in some way touched by the image of Veronica Micle,” says Eugen Doga.
Her love for him burned constantly, even when it would turn into rage and pain.
Am plecat... (I'm Gone)
I left without regret
And went on without sorrow
To forget such creature as you,
To forget your love.
And having left
I went about the world
Adrift
Not remembering the good days
Not regretting the losses.
If I went along that path for long
I do not know anymore due to so many torments
Because with sorrow and despair
I’m coming back to you
(Veronica Micle, word-for-word translation)
Hate is the other side of love. The more ardent the love, the more shattering the hate that brings down each word like a hammer. Indifference does not generate passions.
Si te urasc (If Only I Could Reach Out and Touch You)
And I hate with such fury
And with some animosity
That if I were capable
I would give you unhappiness
My love full of warmth
If I could only turn back from the path of time
I would extinguish with difficulty
Only the fierce hate
That’s burning in my soul today.
And when I remember you
I am horrified by my feelings…
Perhaps my soul deceives me
And hate is nothing but love!
(Veronica Micle, word-for-word translation)
The reckless spirit of singular love permeates the lines of her poems addressed to him.
De-ai şti iubite... (If Only You Knew, My Darling).
If you only knew, my beloved, how much
I miss the sound of your voice,
You would come on the wings of wind
And say at least one word to me.
If there were a conversation about something
Bad or good,
We would have it together,
You would beholdme, I would look at you,
Words would multiply
You would say one thing to me
I would tell you about many things
Without any sense or intent
But all about love.
Do come to me on the wings of wind
Come to say even just one word to me
Because I yearn so much
For your voice
(Veronica Micle, word-for-word translation)
They never managed to be together. He tragically died at 39, misunderstood, lonely, having lost vitality from back-breaking toil and nervous breakdowns, from what surrounded him and went against his ideals. Life for him became freezing waves that make everything sink.
Her universe shattered. She couldn’t live without him like Juliette without Romeo, like Isolde without Tristan.
Their poems remain in which their feelings are embodied.
Time destroys everything. The only thing that stays is art and the image of life it embodies, life that the human heart strives for. What’s left is a legend about love, one of those that fills your life with light and keeps the world safe from destruction and chaos.
Ochiul tău iubit (Your beloved gaze)
Your beloved gaze
Full of affection
Tenderly shone at me
Until yesterday
Could I really lose you
On this earth
Without you having said to me
At least one word?
Did you really dare,
Did you decide to leave me,
My dear
Genius of the forests?
It’s in vain that the crescent moon
Is shining into the windows
And asking me once again
Where are you?
It would shine on the house
Until you went to bed
Until your tender eyes
Would close.
And it would tremble
Hidden between the leaves
And it would kiss you
Furtively
But it abides day after day
Everywehre
And will find you
Happy.
But I cannot go
Through the clouds and wind
And accompany you
From where I am now
I am not like him
To flit by
Your mirror,
Come down!
To gaze
At your beautiful face
So I would have
At least that
To appear as if in a dream
As that vision
That smiled at me
Until yesterday
(Mihai Eminescu, word-for-word translation)
"I think that these two great personalities in the history of Romanian culture were made for each other. I think that many works would not have been created if these two had not met. Veronica was a brilliant poet ... Stunning poems, so much love, so much warmth, so much hatred, devotion, passion, so much feeling. Nobody in literature has that. These two poets' work was interconnected. For example, "The Tale of the Forest", we find this in Eminescu's, but also in Veronica's work. Their feelings were, in fact, manifested through dialogue," said in an interview maestro Eugen Doga.
1997-2017 (c) Eugen Doga. All rights reserved.