175 Years Since Mihai Eminescu’s Birth: Exploring The Complex Personality Of Romania’s National Poet

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January 15, 2025, marks the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mihai Eminescu, widely regarded as the most prominent and influential figure in Romanian literature. Renowned for masterpieces such as Luceafărul, Odă (în metru antic), and the Five Letters (I, II, III, IV, V), Eminescu’s legacy endures as a symbol of artistic and intellectual brilliance.

Mihai Eminescu, born Mihail Eminovici on January 15, 1850, in Botoșani, Romania, is celebrated as the last great Romantic poet of Europe. He spent his childhood in Botoșani and Ipotești, where he experienced a sense of freedom that profoundly influenced his later works.

His early education began at Orthodox primary schools, including one in Cernăuți, where he excelled academically. By 1860, he had enrolled at the German High School in Cernăuți, a prestigious institution that benefited from the intellectual rigor provided by Austrian professors. Eminescu initially thrived, receiving high marks in Romanian and other subjects, although he struggled with Latin and mathematics, which he attributed to ineffective teaching methods.

In 1863, despite his academic potential and commendable grades, Eminescu left school permanently. The reasons for his departure remain uncertain, but it is known that he never returned after spending spring break at home in Ipotești. By 1864, he sought financial support from the Ministry of Education in Bucharest to continue his studies, but his request was denied due to a lack of available scholarships.

Eminescu’s path soon turned toward civil service, where he briefly worked at the Botoșani Courthouse and the county administrative office. However, he quickly grew disenchanted with bureaucratic duties. In the autumn of 1864, he relocated to Cernăuți to become the caretaker of Aron Pumnul’s library. Pumnul, a Romanian scholar and one of Eminescu’s early mentors, had a significant impact on the young poet’s intellectual growth.

From 1869 to 1872, Mihai Eminescu studied in Vienna. He attended the Faculty of Philosophy and Law as an “extraordinary auditor,” also taking courses from other faculties. Active in the student society, he participated in organizing a celebration and a student congress at Putna to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the monastery built by Stephen the Great.

In 1872, Eminescu likely met the love of his life, Veronica Micle in Vienna. On February 10th of that year, he wrote a letter to his parents expressing his struggles with illness, which had left him in a low emotional state, further exacerbated by distressing news from home. On March 18th, he lamented that “this year is truly an unlucky year” due to his ongoing health issues and various hardships. By April 8th, he requested money to enroll in the second semester and mentioned his need for a coat. Under these circumstances, he decided to leave Vienna and return home.

He became a close friend of Ion Creangă, whom he encouraged to write and introduced to the Junimea society. However, his financial situation was unstable, and he faced family tragedies, with several of his brothers dying, followed by his mother.

While in Bucharest, he befriended and became romantically involved with Mite Kremnitz, a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elisabeth, whom he met through Maiorescu. Nevertheless, Veronica Micle remained the love of his life.

On August 6, 1879, Professor Ștefan Micle, Veronica’s husband, passed away. As a widow, she came to Bucharest and asked Eminescu to help expedite her pension. They made several marriage plans together, but none ever materialized.

In a letter from 1880 to his sister Henrieta, Eminescu expressed his frustration about having too much work and being physically ill, but more so emotionally. He received only reproaches from his family, especially from his father. He had neither the time nor the inclination to even congratulate his brother Matei, who had sent him a wedding invitation.

In 1877, he moved to Bucharest, where he worked as an editor and later as editor-in-chief of the newspaper Timpul until 1883. During this time, he engaged in remarkable journalistic activities that ultimately took a toll on his health. It was also during this period that he wrote some of his greatest poems, including Letters and The Morning Star.

I.L. Caragiale offers the most insightful psychological analysis of Mihai Eminescu. After the poet’s death, he published three short articles on the subject: În Nirvana (In Nirvana), Ironie (Irony), and Două note (Two Notes). Caragiale observed that Eminescu’s defining characteristic was “a temperament of excessive inequality.” Eminescu’s life was marked by a constant oscillation between introverted and extroverted behaviors.

“This is how I knew him then, and this is how he remained until the very last good moments: cheerful and sad; communicative and surly; gentle and harsh; content with nothing and always dissatisfied with everything; here in the abstinence of a hermit, there greedy for life’s pleasures; fleeing from people and seeking them out; indifferent like an old Stoic and irritable like a nervous girl. A strange mixture! – fortunate for the artist, unfortunate for the man!”

Literary critic Titu Maiorescu, who supported Eminescu both morally and financially throughout his life, particularly after the onset of his illness, also wrote about his poetry in two articles.

The first, Direcția nouă în poezia și proza românească (The New Direction in Romanian Poetry and Prose), focused on several poems published in the magazine Convorbiri literare up to that point: Venere și Madonă (Venus and Madonna), Mortua Est (She is Dead), and Epigonii (The Epigones). After Eminescu’s death, Maiorescu revisited the complete collection of poems published during the poet’s lifetime in his study, Eminescu și poeziile sale (Eminescu and His Poems), which was published shortly after Eminescu’s untimely passing.

Perhaps the most heartfelt document is the letter Maiorescu sent to Eminescu while the poet was receiving medical treatment at a sanatorium in Vienna. In this letter, Maiorescu reassured Eminescu that his volume of poems, Poesii, published by Editura Socec in 1883, was well received. It was enjoyed not only by the residents of the Tirchilești neighborhood but also by the ladies at Queen Carmen Sylva’s Court, who were admirers of the poet. Queen Carmen Sylva even intervened with King Carol I to award Eminescu the “Bene Merenti” distinction, which he ultimately refused for political reasons.

In the portrait Maiorescu painted of Eminescu in his study Eminescu și poeziile sale (1889), he highlights the poet’s dominant introverted traits. Maiorescu carefully crafted the image of a dreamer detached from reality, one who remained unaffected by the material conditions of his life and indifferent to both the ironies and praises from others. His defining characteristic was “abstract serenity.”

To explore the life and work of Mihai Eminescu, see Poems and Prose of Mihai Eminescu, edited by A.K. Brackob, available from the Center for Romanian Studies and Histria Books.