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Entries Tagged as '“Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”'

Dictionary of Romanian Quotations – Letter “M”

November 12th, 2016 · Comments Off on Dictionary of Romanian Quotations – Letter “M” · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Translations

“I wished that [my interrogator] would carry a sack with all his dead. I wished his hacked-off hair would smell like a newly mown graveyard whenever he sat at the barber’s. I wished his crimes would reek when he sat down at the table with his grandson after work. That the boy would be disgusted by the fingers that were feeding him cake”.
(Herta Müller, (b. 1953, Banat, Romania) “The Land Of Green Plums”)

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Synopsis of “The Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women” Selected and introduced by Constantin Roman

October 2nd, 2016 · Comments Off on Synopsis of “The Blouse Roumaine – An Anthology of Romanian Women” Selected and introduced by Constantin Roman · Books, Communist Prisons, Diaspora, Education, Famous People, History, International Media, OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, POLITICAL DETENTION / DISSENT, quotations, Reviews, Science, Translations

These sketches are displayed like a series of miniatures in a virtual National Portrait Gallery: they are all glittering stars from Western galaxies and Eastern nebulae, in all 160 of them…

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Poetry in Translation, (CCC): ANONYMOUS, ROMANIA: “Christmas Carol”

September 15th, 2014 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation, (CCC): ANONYMOUS, ROMANIA: “Christmas Carol” · Diaspora, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations, Translations

Father Christmas we do beg
Bring us butter, bring us egg.
If you ever come on foot
Bring some cabbage, or beetroot.
If your bag is large enough
Add some maize and garlic cloves.
Christmas Father don’t miss either
The potatoes and the flour.
Should you come, though, in a sleigh,
Don’t forget, for the New Year,
Toilet paper that’s so sparse,
To wipe at least our arse.”

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They came by Orient Express – Cameos of Times Past by Constantin ROMAN (I)

January 13th, 2013 · Comments Off on They came by Orient Express – Cameos of Times Past by Constantin ROMAN (I) · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, quotations, Reviews, Translations

It must have taken the future English bride infinitely longer to get used to her picturesque, yet desperately primitive, adopted country. The couple got married, in spite of the many differences that separated them – Antoine being Elizabeth’s senior by 19 years and Elizabeth herself still being rather bruised from an emotional relationship with a previous English suitor. In the event it was quite understandable that the Asquith parents, while finding the Romanian prospect quite charming, would still have preferred their daughter to marry an Englishman of the best type. Nevertheless, the wedding to the Romanian diplomat, Prince Antoine Bibesco, took place in London’s fashionable St. Margaret’s church Westminster, in April 1919. It was a time when the Romanian nobility married frequently into French, German or Italian aristocratic families. The Bibesco-Asquith wedding was London’s wedding of the year, with the great and the good attending, from Queen Mary to George Bernard Shaw.

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Comrade Jonathan Swift’s “subversive” Gulliver and the “Genius of the Carpathians”

June 3rd, 2011 · Comments Off on Comrade Jonathan Swift’s “subversive” Gulliver and the “Genius of the Carpathians” · Books, International Media, PEOPLE, quotations

“Publishing Swift’s satires in 1985, I myself fought a lot with the censor in order to include “A Modest proposal” concerning eating Irish children, which had become subversive here on account of meat shortage in Romania. Faced with the alternative of not publishing the book at all, or doing it without the famous text, I gave it up. The supreme level of censorship was a department of the (Communist) Party Central Committee.”
source of quotation:
http://www.blouseroumaine.com

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1980 – Thirty Years ago – Romania’s Communist Christmas

December 22nd, 2010 · 1 Comment · OPINION, PEOPLE, Poetry, quotations

“I got up early, at the crack of dawn, to secure a place, by 6 AM, in an interminable queue, in the hope of buying milk and eggs for our silver wedding anniversary, but I came home empty handed. That afternoon I went again on an errand to see if I could buy anything for our dinner at our local market place. This was an open air market where peasants with a tiny plot of land could bring their vegetables. These were a luxury as they were so expensive, so I thought I had a better chance of finding something. The stalls made of wooden planks on struts were absolutely empty and in the fine rain they looked desolate and dirty. I scanned the stalls, as the last peasants were about to leave, for their villages, outside Bucharest. It was winter time and dark was falling early in the day. As I was about to give up, looking down, carefully to avoid the pot holes full of rain water, I just noticed a few potatoes which fell on the ground, under the stall, so I asked the peasant if I could pick them up. As I knelt on the ground, with difficulty, at my old age, because of my arthritis, I put them in my plastic bag and asked how much he wanted. He did not want to receive any money, in deference to my advanced age. I must have looked pityfull and exhausted. I hurried home with just an empty bag with three potatoes covered in mud. As I entered our block of flats I met this young neighbor of mine, who exclaimed in surprise: madame, she said, ‘where have you found these potatoes, because I looked the whole day and found none… and I have a young baby at home who has nothing to eat. I am desperate.’ So, I handed over to her the three potatoes, which were visible through the plastic bag and came home with nothing: but was glad to have done a good deed.” (Jenny Velescu, personal communication, 1981)
(Extract from the Anthology: “Blouse Roumaine – The Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”)

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Poetry in Translation (LXXV)”: Constantin ROMAN – “In Memoriam Smaranda BRAESCU”, Pioneer Pilot, Parachutist and anti-Communist Fighter (1887-1948)

September 22nd, 2010 · Comments Off on Poetry in Translation (LXXV)”: Constantin ROMAN – “In Memoriam Smaranda BRAESCU”, Pioneer Pilot, Parachutist and anti-Communist Fighter (1887-1948) · PEOPLE, Poetry, Translations

Extract from: “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”
http://www.blouseroumaine.com
With the advent of WWII, Smaranda Bràescu enrolled with other women pilots in the ‘White Squadron’, active on the Eastern front, where Romania was trying to retrieve from the Soviets the provinces taken by Russia as a result of the Hitler-Stalin Pact. After 1944, Bràescu joined the 13th squadron, which was fighting the Germans on the Western front, first in Transylvania, then in Hungary (Nyiregyhaza, Miskolc) and Czechoslovakia (Rimaska Sabota, Trencin and Piestany). Although a war hero Smaranda Bràescu soon fell foul of the communist puppet régime which was installed in Romania by Stalin’s armies. She protested to the United Nations about the legality of the 1946 elections and her letter of protest to the Allied Command in Romania fell into the hands of a Russian general. Thereafter Smaranda Bràescu became a pariah and had to join the underground resistance in order to escape imprisonment and certain death. She operated under an assumed name, first from a convent and then as an anti-communist resistance fighter. She died of cancer at the age of 51, and was buried in Cluj, under her assumed name of Maria Popescu, in a grave on which her merits and real identity could not be spelled out. The people who helped her were hounded out and given long prison sentences, including the doctors who looked after her in hospital.

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Curierul Romanesc, Suedia (nr 4, 2009): Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu autorului Antologiei ‘Blouse Roumaine -the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ (partea III-a):

February 13th, 2010 · Comments Off on Curierul Romanesc, Suedia (nr 4, 2009): Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu autorului Antologiei ‘Blouse Roumaine -the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ (partea III-a): · Books, Diaspora, PEOPLE, Reviews

Pentru cititorul strain Antologia este menita sa demonstreze ca Romania a avut in mod permanent un rol activ in contributia unor valori asa cum a avut si in asimilarea unor valori din exterior.

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Curierul Romanesc, Suedia (nr 4, 2009): Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu autorului Antologiei ‘Blouse Roumaine -the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ (partea II-a):

February 13th, 2010 · Comments Off on Curierul Romanesc, Suedia (nr 4, 2009): Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu autorului Antologiei ‘Blouse Roumaine -the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’ (partea II-a): · Books, Diaspora, OPINION, PEOPLE, Reviews, Uncategorized

Cum a întâmpinat Institutul Cultural Român si alte institutii de cultura din România aceasta lucrare? Ai primit vreun sprijin?

C.R.: Institutului Cultural Român si editurile din România au aratat un dezinteres total!Explicati-mi, va rog, ce anume s-a schimbat în mentalitatea Tranzitiei, chiar dupa ce am intrat cu oistea româneasca în gardul Europei?

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Curierul Romanesc, Suedia – Interviul luat de Silvia Constantinescu despre ‘Blouse Roumaine’ – o Antologie a Femeilor din Romania (Partea I-a)

February 13th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Books, Diaspora, International Media, PEOPLE, Reviews, Uncategorized

Silvia Constantinescu, editor, “Curierul Romanesc”: În meseria mea de bibliotecar de informatie în Suedia, am întâlnit zilnic elevi, studenti, cercetatori care s-au izbit de lipsa de informatii despre acea Romanie care n-a fost creatia ”partidului comunist si a lui Ceausescu, fiului cel mai iubit al poporului”, ci despre adevarata Românie, care dainuie de secole, înaintea comunismului si a ”eliberarii” tarii de catre armata rosie.”
Lucrarea lui Constantin Roman si-ar fi capatat, desigur, un loc în istoria literaturii române, dar ar fi ramas limitata la aria limbii române, falindu-ne noi între noi cu personalitatile feminine din istoria noastra. Lucrarea lui Constantin Roman si-ar fi câstigat, desigur, un loc în istoria literaturii române, dar pe plan international n-ar fi ajutat sa se împrastie ignoranta cititorilor despre o tara despre care informatiile existente sunt numai despre ”Dracula, Ceausescu, orfelinate, coruptie si infractiune”, informatii primite prin scurtele buletine de stiri din ziare, de la radio sau TV.

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