Eminescu: "My Only Desire"
Romania's greatest romantic poet, Mihai Eminescu, was born at Ipotesti, in Moldova and he attended elementary and secondary school in Cernauti. He made his literary debut in Familia (The Family); from then on most of his poems were published in Convorbiri Literare (Literary Talks).
In 1872, the poet enrolled as a student at the University of Berlin. It was there that he wrote such famous poems as: Angel and Demon, Emperor and Proleterian.
"My only desire" is an elegy, a poem which has melancholy as a dominant mood and tone. The title is suggestive , expressing the poet's desire of getting out of all moral sufferings, the unique solution being death, which is seen as a relief. This elegy reflects the poet's life. Living in the heart of a cruel and unfair society, this great poet cherishes feelings of deep sufferings and grief, as his ideals – the truth the beautiful, the fairness cannot be achieved.
All along the poem, there are some motives frequent in Romanian literature: the motif of desire and of the sleep, of the sea and of the spring, of the forest and of the lime. The forest is the symbol of eternity and the "clear, gleaming sky" is a source of light.
The poet refuses to be buried ostentatiously, he insists on being buried in the middle of the nature: "Nor torches, a rich bier or flags my heart allows".
Another fact which can be noticed is the moment of death chosen by Eminescu, "o, evening’s spelling calmness", a moment of the day characterized by silence, lack of noise and activities.
In Eminescu's poems there is often noticed an antithesis between undying things (the nature, space) and the human beings who are ephemeral.
Two different plans can be noticed; there are not only gloomy pictures ("the foliage dried"); but also shining ones("gleaming sky", "the moon") emphasizing the confrontation between two feeling: the serenity before death and the melancholy which dominated the poet in that period of his life.
Usually, the idea of death arises fear, sadness, but the poet looks on death like an escape, death being assimilated to idea of a "deep sleep".
Silviu Draganescu
