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Petőfi and Eminescu

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 August 2018

László Gáldi
László Gáldi*
Affiliation:
University of Budapest
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Extract

Discussion of the parallel characteristics of Petõfi and Eminescu is not new in the comparative history of East European literatures, but those who have investigated the problem failed to grasp the common Danubian peculiarities of these two great poets and thinkers. Their analyses were bound to fail, because they compared more or less isolated poetic details and purely literary resemblances or contrasts; in brief, they were limited to aesthetic considerations. Nobody has tried to present the whole personality, the whole human attitude, of the two eminent writers, although the most important aspects of their literary and political activities can be understood only by a thorough knowledge of their intellectual and emotional reactions. The aim of this study is, not only to fill this gap, but also to attract the attention of foreign readers to the parallel phenomena of Middle and East European cultural life.

Type
Articles
Information
American Slavic and East European Review , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , April 1948 , pp. 171 - 179
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies 1948

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References

1 In Eminescu's case we can remember the two lovers, Hyperion and the page, who appear in the “Evening Star” (Luceafărul) as two characteristic aspects of his personal aspirations in love.

2 M. Vörösmarty, Csongor and Tünde.

3 For instance I do not consider the use of the love-metamorphosis motive in Petõfi's two poems in popular style (“I'd Be a Tree”; “MyLove”) as well as in a love-song of the young Eminescu (“Replies”) as a common peculiarity (cf. Magali's song in Mistral's “Mireio”: a lover ready to metamorphose, if this kind of assimilating himself with his sweetheart is the only way to approach her). In this case we must not forget that the source of inspiration can be not only Goethe's “Divan,” but also the popular poetry of many peoples and—at least for Eminescu and other Transcarpathian poets—modern Greek lyricism (Christopoulos). We also must consider as an interesting but unessential detail the fact that in the poem “Mortua est,” Eminescu's dirge upon the death of his Beatrice or Sophie (Novalis seems to be nearer to him than Dante), we find again the same anapestic rhythm, which Hungarian readers know from Petõfi's funeral march on human love and infidelity (“At the End of September”).