Eminescu in English words

An important cultural event will take place today at 12.30 at the headquarters of the Writers’ Union. A new translation in English from Mihai Eminescu’s “Selected Poems” will find its way towards the readers. It is Adrian George Sahlean’s attempt to “invent a language that will contain the sweet Eminescu breath.” “My original intention was to suggest in English Eminescu’s style specifics and sonority and not to force him into the pattern of expectancy. It came as a surprise that this approach actually facilitated the accuracy of his poems. Eminescu’s music had to be re-invented to fit the English mold,” said Adrian George Sahlean. His effort came from an understanding of Eminescu’s poetry closed in the English structures. To celebrate his success, Adrian George Sahlean received the Commemorative Medal “150 years since Mihai Eminescu’s birth” on June 15 at Ipotesti, the poet’s birth town. He was seconded by Ion Caramitru, who recited with him “Oda.” Discovering these poems in English, the reader will observe the translator’s concern to accurately render the poems’ spirit. “Selected poems” was published by the Univers Publishing House in a bi-lingual edition. “The legend of the evening star,” “With yearning last I sigh,” “Over treetops,” “With my thought, images plenty” and a few other poems bring a “Read-out-loud Eminescu” to the public. Adrian George Sahlean was born in Bucharest in 1951. He graduated from the Bucharest University in 1975, with a degree in philology and a UNESCO specialisation for translations (English and Spanish). Since 1985, he has been a US resident and he received a Master’s Degree in Psychoanalysis in 1995. Adrian George Sahlean is a member of the “LiterArt XXI” Romanian Writers and Artists International Association since 1997 and a member of the Romanian Writers and Artists Physicians Union.