EMINESCU, MICHAIL (1849-1889), the greatest Ru manian poet of the 19th century, was born on Dec. 20, 1849 in Ipateshti near Botoshani, Moldavia. He was of Turco-Tatar origin, and his surname was originally Emin. He studied at Czer nowitz, and joined a roving theatrical company where he played in turn the roles of actor, prompter and stage-manager. After a few years spent in this way, he went to Vienna, Jena and Berlin, where he attended lectures, especially on philosophy. In 1874 he was appointed school inspector and librarian at the university of Jassy, but was soon turned out through the change of govern ment, and took charge, as editor-in-chief, of the Conservative paper Timpul (Times). In 1883 he had the first attack of the insanity hereditary in his family, and in 1889 he died in Bucharest. In 187o his great poetical talent was revealed by two contribu tions to the Convorbiri literare, the organ of the Junimist party in Jassy; these were the poems "Venera si Madona" and "Epi gonii." Other poems followed and he was recognized as the first among the modern poets of his country. Mystically inclined and himself of a melancholy disposition, he lived in the glory of the mediaeval Rumanian past ; he rebelled against the conventionality of society and his surroundings. Over all his poetry hangs a cloud of sadness, the sense of coming doom. Simplicity of language, masterly handling of rhyme and verse, deep thought and plastic expression made Eminescu the creator of a school of poetry which dominated the thought of Rumania and the expression of Ru manian writers and poets at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 2oth.
Five editions of his collected poems appeared after 189o. Some of them were translated into German by "Carmen Sylva" and Mite Kremnitz, and others have also been translated into several other languages. Eminescu also wrote two short novels, real poems in prose ( Jassy, 189o) .