Barbu Nemțeanu (pen name of Benjamin Deutsch; October 1, 1887Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31 – May 30, 1919) was a Romanian poet, humorist and translator, active on the modernist wing of the Romanian Symbolist movement. Of Jewish Romanian background, he lived much of his life in the port city of Galați, which provided him with poetic inspiration, but whose provincial life sparked in him intellectual revolt. Orphaned and leaving school at an early age, then diagnosed with tuberculosis, he found meager employment as a clerk, but, throughout, maintained confidence in his poetic genius. Nemțeanu's Symbolism blended with socialism, but also with a lasting admiration for his adoptive Romanian culture, allowing him to publish pseudonymous work in traditionalist-antisemitic reviews such as Neamul Românesc. He was also one of the Symbolists who frequented the Convorbiri Critice circle, becoming personal friends with its leader, Mihail Dragomirescu.
Nemțeanu was prolific as a translator of Weimar classics, German romanticists, and Yiddish literature, and then expanded his reach, learning French and contribution Romanian renditions of works by Charles Baudelaire, Tristan Klingsor, and Oscar Wilde. He continued to write despite his mounting financial problems, a bankruptcy audit, and recurrent hospitalization, even contributing a set of sanitarium-themed elegies. Sponsored by his literary friends, he survived through World War I, but died only months after the November Armistice, while recovering from surgery on his lungs. In its final stage, his Symbolism had transitioned into one of the "intimist" poems, unpretentiously versifying the rhythms of bland life, but on a progressively experimental pattern. Published by mainstream reviews such as Flacăra, they were for a while the center of a literary controversy, attacked by the classicist Duiliu Zamfirescu, and ridiculed by the more radical modernists.
Biography Debut years Nemțeanu was born Benjamin Deutsch into a Jewish family, either in GalațiIrina Petraș, "Nemțeanu Barbu", in Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. II, p. 214. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. or, according to other records, to the south of it, in Călărași.Călinescu, p. 709; Rotman, p. 174 His parents were Iacob Deutsch, who taught at the Israelite School, and his wife Sanina, also a teacher. As reported by editor H. Fischer-Galați, who was the poet's close friend, Barbu was "small and pale", with the "unfortunate heredity of a drunkard father".Guy, "Poetul Barbu Nemțeanu. Amintirile prietenului său Fischer-Galați", in Adevărul, April 28, 1934, p. 2 Benjamin considered himself assimilated, to the point of espousing Romanian nationalism. As Fischer-Galați recounts, Nemțeanu stated that he felt jealousy toward natives and antisemites such as A. C. Cuza, because they could claim Romania as their country.
After his father died prematurely, ca. 1901, Nemțeanu was the family's sole breadwinner, finding employment as an office intern. He managed to attend high school in Galați, his first published work appearing in the local weekly Înainte, in 1904, followed by contributions in the Bucharest review Dumineca.Podoleanu, p. 97 He continued to educate himself at night school although, by then, he was already showing signs of tuberculosis. An optimist, he believed that he would eventually be cured. Nemțeanu also frequented the local literary circles of Galați and Western Moldavia at large, befriending writers Avram Steuerman-Rodion and Ion Pribeagu, and later also Barbu Lăzăreanu, Eugeniu Botez and Constantin Graur.Ionescu (2013, I), p. 30 He wanted to achieve literary fame on his own, and organized a poetry festival with funds collected from the community of merchants and artisans. When one complained that the tickets were expensive, at 5 lei a piece, Nemțeanu answered back: "pay 5 now or in two years you'll be paying 20 for my statue." According to a 1921 note in Cele Trei Crișuri, "dropped into a world of misery from his adolescent years, he took all that fate threw at him with the resignation of his kind soul and with a gentle smile—that was often ironic, jaded—on his apparently serene face.""Note. Barbu Nemțeanu", in Cele Trei Crișuri, Issue 12/1921, p. 384
At Viața Literară, Ilarie Chendi published Deutsch's translations from Friedrich Schiller.Gherghel, p. 286 According to literary historian Alexandru Piru, his own work was more glaringly influenced by Heinrich Heine, and as such had established a common ground with Romanian traditionalists of the Sămănătorul school.Alexandru Piru, "Un heinean: B. Nemțeanu", in România Literară, Issue 30/1973, p. 13 Nemțeanu sent some of his first poems to Cuza's political partner (and Sămănătorul founder) Nicolae Iorga, who reportedly enjoyed them. Some were published in Neamul Românesc, with Nemțeanu hiding under the pen name Cireșeanu, followed by samples from Goethe's elegies in Floarea Darurilor, where he used the names Ion Corbu or Vasile Crângu.Gherghel, p. 354 By then, Nemțeanu was a reporter at the Galați-based Tribuna Liberală newspaper, then a clerk, putting out his own socialist magazine, Pagini Libere ("Free Pages"), from July 1908. The latter was noted for featuring N. D. Cocea's defense of social realism, which, according to philologist D. D. Șoitu, was modeled on an article by Vladimir Lenin.D. D. Șoitu, "Magazin. Poetul Barbu Nemțeanu", in Viața Nouă. Organ al Comitetului Regional P.M.R. și al Sfatului Popular Regional Galați, January 11, 1964, p. 2 It was also a scathing rejection of the Romanian Symbolist movement as "befitting a capitalist class weakened by overindulgence".Remus Zăstroiu, "Elemente de critică literară în periodicele socialiste dintre 1900 și 1916", in Anuar de Lingvistică și Istorie Literară, Vol. 18, 1967, pp. 135, 138
In Bucharest and Switzerland For a while, Nemțeanu lived in Ploiești, and relocated his magazine there. When one of his Pagini Libere poems was panned in the Convorbiri Critice magazine, Nemțeanu visited the editor Mihail Dragomirescu in Bucharest.Ionescu (2013, II), p. 31 They soon became friends, with Dragomirescu impressed, as he put it, by Nemțeanu's "elegance" and "nobility"; Nemțeanu became a regular of the affiliate circle, taking notes on how to improve his language and expand his range. Moving to Bucharest in 1910,Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31; III, p. 30 Nemțeanu had a stint at Adevărul, where he mainly contributed to the humor supplement (using the pen names Barbu Exoticul and Germanicul Galitiensis). Now embraced by the Symbolist movement, his poetry, signed Luca Zimbru, also saw print in Vieața Nouă.Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31; Lovinescu, p. 225; Podoleanu, p. 97 His translations, original verses, prose, articles and reviews were also hosted in, among others, Flacăra, Rampa, Noua Revistă Română, Dimineața, Belgia Orientului, Floare Albastră, and in the socialist venues România Muncitoare, Facla, Viața Socială, and Viitorul Social.Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31; Podoleanu, p. 98 His pseudonyms also included B. Askenazi, I. Tedescul, and Tedesco.Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31; Podoleanu, p. 97
Nemțeanu's first standalone book was Poezii alese ("Selected Poetry", 1910). This included his versions of seven Roman Elegies, as well as samples from Schiller, Heine, Nikolaus Lenau, and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing.Gherghel, pp. 354–355 It was followed by O călătorie în lumea albinelor ("A Journey into the Land of the Bees", 1911) and Stropi de soare ("Sun-drops", 1915). As noted by critic Irina Petraș, these placed him among the "troubadour and humorist" authors, illustrating a sentimental-ironic lyric verse. Nemțeanu, she notes, bridged Symbolism with modernism. Nemțeanu's inspiration from children's folklore was seen as distasteful by several reviewers from the Poporanist school: Mihail Sevastos called such pieces "weak verse about the wee ones", while Garabet Ibrăileanu was persuaded by them that children's topics "should never serve as artistic material".Mihail Sevastos, "Amintiri despre Tudor Arghezi", in Viața Romînească, Vol. XIII, Issue 5, May 1960, p. 34 By contrast, Stropi de soare was much appreciated by the proletarian poet Cristian SârbuHoria Zilieru, "Cristian Sîrbu", in Iașul Literar, Vol. XII, Issue 4, April 1961, p. 38 and by the future avant-garde novelist Ion Călugăru (known for a while as "Barbu Călin", as a partial tribute to Nemțeanu).Sașa Pană, "Ion Călugăru, din amintiri și din texte. La zece ani de la moartea scriitorului", in Viața Românească, Vol. XIX, Issue 5, May 1966, pp. 116–117
These poetry works were complemented by a volume of prose, undated, called Povestea unei idile ("History of an Idyll"), and by undated translations from Max Bernstein (Der goldene Schlüssel) and Paul Heyse.Podoleanu, pp. 97, 98 In 1911, under contract with Biblioteca pentru toți, Nemțeanu produced a version of Hans Christian Andersen's Garden of Paradise."Cărți și reviste", in Adevărul, May 10, 1911, p. 1 Also that year, Editura Lumen company issued a book comprising two of his translations from Leo Tolstoy: After the Ball and My Dream."Efemeride. Știri literare", in Gazeta Ilustrată, Issue 1/1911, p. 16 At some point in this period, Nemțeanu also went into business as a clothing retailer, but ended up overspending. Sued by his creditors, Fischer-Galați claims that he was only spared bankruptcy by a sympathetic judge, who enjoyed his poetry. By then, Nemțeanu's disease was interfering with his lifestyle, causing him to write in the supine position, on couches, as the only way in which he could prevent exhaustion. His friends and readers pooled their money and sent him to a sanitarium in Lausanne, where he arrived in November 1913.Ionescu (2013, I), p. 31; II, p. 30 For a couple of months afterward, he wrote at home to his female friend, Emilia Weissbluth, keeping her informed of his health. This correspondence ended abruptly, possibly because her parents rejected his marriage proposal.Ionescu (2013, II), p. 30
In Lausanne, Nemțeanu learned French and began writing poetry in that language, producing scattered or undated translations from Tristan Klingsor and Oscar Wilde. His poetry took a more experimental and markedly modernist turn ca. 1915, when he published free verse with unusual imagery, becoming relatively famous for his metaphor of "chocolate cows".Iorga, p. 242; Lovinescu, pp. 224–225 The work, often taken up in the mainstream review Flacăra, infuriated classicist poet Duiliu Zamfirescu, who used it as his focal point for a critique of modernist tendencies.Ionescu (2013, III), p. 51; Iorga, pp. 242–243; Lovinescu, p. 225 Modernist colleagues, however, were also unsure about Nemțeanu—perplexed by his mundane "bourgeois" subjects, rather than his poetic formats.Paul Cernat, Avangarda românească și complexul periferiei: primul val, pp. 107–108. Bucharest: Cartea Românească, 2007. The radical Symbolists at Chemarea parodied his railway themed poetry: the "victorious" lyrical ego visits the hopper toilet, reflects on whether defecation makes him lose weight, and (as a political statement) wipes himself on the Bukarester Tagblatt. According to literary historian Paul Cernat, this inversion of Nemțeanu's themes is "the first scatological 'poem' in modern Romanian literature".
Wartime and death