Radu Gyr

Radu Gyr (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈradu ˈd͡ʒir]; pen name of Radu Ștefan Demetrescu [ˈradu ʃteˈfan demeˈtresku]; March 2, 1905, Câmpulung-Muscel – 29 April 1975, Bucharest) was a Romanian poet, essayist, playwright and journalist.

Biography

Early life

Gyr was the son of actor Ștefan "Coco" Dumitrescu. When he was 3, his family moved to Craiova, where he did his secondary studies at the Carol I High School. Starting in 1924, he studied at the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Bucharest, where he received his Ph.D. in Literature and became a Senior Lecturer. In 1927 he married Flora, with whom he had a daughter, Simona Luminița.

Iron Guard membership

In the 1930s he joined the Iron Guard fascist movement, becoming in time its commander in the Oltenia region. When the Iron Guard was repressed by the regime of King Carol II, Gyr was arrested and imprisoned at Tismana.

After the National Legionary Government came to power in September 1940, he was appointed General Manager of the Romanian Theatres. Under his administration, the Barașeum Jewish Theater (later State Jewish Theater) was founded. The creation of the Jewish Theatre was accompanied by an interdiction for Jewish actors to play anywhere else in Romania, as such the creation of the theatre being a purge of all Jewish people from all theatres across the country.

In prison

Gyr was imprisoned for 20 years and he was never completely rehabilitated as a writer. In January 1941, after the Legionnaires' rebellion was put down by the Ion Antonescu regime, he was sentenced to 12 years in prison, for inciting the crowd. His first years as a political prisoner began as soon as the Iron Guard lost their battle with Antonescu. After spending time at Aiud Prison, Gyr was sent to fight on the Eastern Front (a form of punishment which was reserved for former Legionnaires) and was gravely wounded at the battle of Vinogradov. After the 1944 Romanian coup d'état he was re-arrested, and condemned to 12 years of hard labor. Sent back to Aiud, he was later transferred to a prison in Brașov.

In 1958 he was sentenced to death by the Communist authorities because of his poem, considered subversive by the regime, "Ridică-te Gheorghe, ridică-te Ioane!" ("Arise Gheorghe, Arise Ioan!"). The poem asked for peasants and Romanians at large, given generic names, to rise against the communist dictatorial regime: it had been issued as the last wave of brutal collectivization was taking hold of rural Romania (a process which lasted between 1949–1962). It is primarily a poem pleading for freedom. Romanians, generically named George and John, are called upon to arise "not for a heaped shovel of ruddy hot bread, nor barns full of grain, nor for fields full of corn / instead for your heavens to be free of dread..."; for their "song, nailed on a cross" and "for the ears of your sun, imprisoned... enchained"; for "a heap of horizons and a hatful of stars", but following is the whole poem, in the translation of Daniel Ioniță:

Not for a heaped shovel of ruddy hot bread,
nor for barns full of grain, nor for fields full of corn,
instead for your heavens to be free of dread
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

For the blood of your folk flowing red through the drains,
for your beautiful song which was stifled at morn,
for the tears of your sun, left imprisoned in chains,
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

Not so that your fury sinks teeth into bars,
but to sing as you fill, on the crest of the dawn,
a heap of horizons and a hatful of stars,
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

So that freedom you drink, flowing fresh from the pail,
and to heavenly whirlpools be mightily drawn,
while apricot buds shake on you, merry hail,
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

And so, as you kindle your kisses on fires,
on thresholds, on doors, and on icons forlorn,
on all that is free, and to freedom aspires,
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

Rise up now Gheorghe on chains and on ropes!
Rise up now Ion on flesh and on bone!
And high, to the storm-light which shines on your hopes,
rise up now Gheorghe, rise up now Ion!

(From Romanian Poetry from its Origins to the Present - Daniel Ioniță - Australian-Romanian Academy Publishing - Sydney, 2020)

His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, but he served only six years, two of which (at Aiud Prison) with chains at his feet. Although severely ill (hepatitis, TBC, haemophilia, gangrened rectal prolapse), he was refused any medical assistance, was starved and tortured. Altogether he served 16 years in communist prisons (1945–1956; 1958–1964). In 1963–1964 all surviving political prisoners had to be released, upon pressure from the West.

Collaboration with the Securitate

After his release from prison in 1963 he was constantly tailed by the Romanian secret police, the Securitate. Convinced to use their expertise in ethnocracy, Radu Gyr and Nichifor Crainic wrote propaganda articles to Glasul Patriei (The Voice of the Fatherland) – later called Tribuna României – a newspaper published by the Securitate targeting exiled Romanians abroad.

Published works

• Plânge Strâmbă-Lemne (roughly: "The Wood Bender Crieth"; 1927)
• Cerbul de lumină ("A Deer of Light"; 1928)
• Stele pentru leagăn ("Stars for the Cradle"; 1936)
• Cununi uscate ("Dried-up Wreaths"; 1938)
• Corabia cu tufănici ("The Ship of Chrysanthemums"; 1939)
• Poeme de război ("War Poems"; 1942)
• Balade ("Ballads"; 1943) - as well as a series of lyricised tales.

Presence in English-language anthologies

• 2019 - Testament - 400 Years of Romanian Poetry / 400 de ani de poezie românească - Minerva Publishing 2019 - Daniel Ioniță (editor and principal translator) assisted by Daniel Reynaud, Adriana Paul and Eva Foster. ISBN 978-973-21-1070-6
• 2020 - Romanian Poetry from its Origins to the Present - bilingual edition - Daniel Ioniță (editor and principal translator) with Daniel Reynaud, Adriana Paul and Eva Foster - Australian-Romanian Academy Publishing - 2020 - ISBN 978-0-9953502-8-1 ; LCCN - 2020907831

External links

• (in Romanian) Poems by Radu Gyr