In contextul primei ediţii a “Conferinţei transatlantice online Eminescu – Poe” (organizată pe 14 iunie 2021, de către Uniunea Ziariştilor Profesionişti din România, la iniţiativa Fundaţiei culturale HESPERUS), există ecouri pe ambele maluri ale Atlanticului. Profesorul Dr. Ioan Iacob, Preşedintele Fundaţiei culturale HESPERUS, a obţinut de la Prof. univ. Dr. Amy Branam Armiento – Frostburg State University, Maryland, USA, în exclusivitate pentru Mangalia News – un punct de vedere privind conexiunea dintre cei doi mari poeţi şi MARE.
1) Dear Professor Amy Branam Armiento, you are the President of the Poe Studies Association. Eminescu wrote a poem / ‘Mai am un singur dor’ / ‘I have one more wish’
Mai am un singur dor,
În liniștea serii,
Să mă lăsați să mor
La marginea mării…
‘I have one more wish
In the quiet of the evening
Let me die
At the edge of the sea’…
And Poe began ‘Annabel Lee’:
‘It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea…’
How do you comment the link between these two great poets, Poe and Eminescu, and THE SEA ?
I am enamored with the nineteenth-century poets use of the sea as setting and metaphor. I think in the cases of Poe and Eminescu the in-between spaces indicated by the “edge of the sea” and “by the sea” symbolize their own roles in society — observers nearby but apart from the rest of humankind. It’s a romantic trope for the poet to describe the world and the human condition in ways that others do not necessarily register but once readers hear the poet’s observations, they cannot help but feel that the poet has expressed something that they have always known but could not articulate themselves. These poems express their speakers’ desires to remain in the place that is in-between. Between the land and the sea is to be between the finite and the eternal, the known and the unknown, the tamed/civilized space and the turbulent/sublime space, the quotidian mindset and the fantastic imagination.
2) Would you like to send a message to readers of ‘Mangalia News’, many of them loving what Poe and Eminescu wrote?
I hope readers will continue to read Poe and Eminescu as complementary writers. Since at least 1867 when Titu Maiorescu favorably reviewed Poe’s “The Raven” and “The Philosophy of Composition” in one of his critical essays, Poe has been known to Romanian writers. More recently, many readers may have encountered Liviu Cotrău’s translations, Annabel Lee şi alte poeme and Prăbuşirea Casei Usher. Similarly, U.S. readers can access English translations of some of Eminescu’s poems. I look forward to future discoveries regarding both writers — as individuals and as kindred spirits.
3) Dear Professor Amy Branam Armiento, I’d like to thank you for your beautiful sensitive answers and I wish you a beautiful vacation in Arizona!
Ioan Iacob, iulie 2021, București.
Urmăriți aici: Personalităţi care au participat la prima Conferinţă transatlantică EMINESCU – POE. MN: Mangalia News are onoarea de a fi partener media oficial în Proiectul transatlantic ”EMINESCU – POE”, încă de la lansarea sa de către domnul Prof. Dr. Ioan Iacob.
Mangalia News, 16.07.2021.
