Maria Banuș | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Marioara Banuș (1914-04-10)April 10, 1914 |
| Died | July 14, 1999(1999-07-14) (aged 85) Bucharest, Romania |
| Resting place | Filantropia Cemetery, Bucharest |
| Occupation | Poet, essayist, prose writer, translator |
| Alma mater | University of Bucharest |
| Genre | Socialist realism |
| Years active | 1928–1989 |
| Notable awards | Order of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic Herder Prize |
Maria Banuș (bornMarioara Banuș; April 10, 1914 – July 14, 1999)[1] was aRomanian poet, essayist, prose writer, and translator.
She was born into aJewish family inBucharest, and her parents were Max Banuș, an accountant and later a director at the Carol Street branch ofMarmorosch 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 theUniversity of Bucharest's faculties of law and literature. She made her published debut as an adolescent, with the poem "14 ani", which appeared inBilete de Papagal in 1928, under her birth name Marioara Banuș. In 1932, while she was a student, her poems appeared inZaharia Stancu'sAzi magazine, as did her translations fromRainer Maria Rilke andArthur Rimbaud. It was Stancu who changed her given name to Maria.[2]
Her first book,Țara fetelor, appeared to cordial reviews in 1937. The 1939Poeme 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 bannedRomanian Communist Party, an experience recalled in the diary of which she published fragments in 1977, asSub camuflaj.[2] TheWorld War II-eraIon Antonescu regime officially banned her entire work as "Jewish".[3]
After the war and with the rise of thecommunist regime, she entered opinion journalism, writing forGazeta literară,Contemporanul,Steaua andViața Românească. Her booksBucurie (1949),Despre pământ, (1954),Ție-ți vorbesc, Americă (1955), andSe arată lumea (1956) were expressions of the regime's officially sanctionedsocialist realism. She used animal epithets to depict the former elite of the "bourgeois-landlord regime," from politicians to industrialists andkulaks, 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").[4]: 48–9 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 asDumitru Micu, but alsoTudor Vianu. During this period, she translated poets favored by the authorities (Pablo Neruda,Nâzım Hikmet,Nikola Vaptsarov), as well as fine versions of classic authors such asWilliam Shakespeare,Alexander Pushkin andJohann Wolfgang von Goethe. She wrote several short poetry books in the same style:Torentul (1957),Poezii (1958),Magnet (1962),Metamorfoze (1963), andDiamantul (1965).[2]
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 withTocmai ieșeam din arenă (1967),Portretul din Fayum (1970) andOricine și ceva (1972), and throughOrologiu cu figuri (1984) orCarusel (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 1980Himera 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 theRomanian Academy's George Coșbuc Prize in 1949, the State Prize in 1951, theOrder of the Star of the Romanian Socialist Republic 3rd class in 1971,[5] the special prize of theRomanian Writers' Union in 1986, and theHerder Prize in 1989.[2]
Banuș died in Bucharest in 1999[1] and was buried in the city's Filantropia Cemetery.[6]
