Centre for Romanian Studies

Romanian Dictionary of Quotations, Selected & Translated by Constantin ROMAN: Letter ‘G’

Generation:
“The young generations expand the Universe.”
(Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), dramatist)
(“Exit the King”)

Genius:
“It is an accepted fact that the most important and the highest poetical, artistic or philosophical oeuvres of Western Europe do not necessarily belong, from the spiritual point of view, to the most gifted nations. The Germans who produced Goethe or Kant or the English with the genius of Shakespeare do not reach the average level of aptitudes of the French or Italians. From the point of view of a normal spiritual average such comparison would not favour the English or the Germans. The mystery of the birth of such geniuses as Goethe or Shakespeare, within the framework of a spiritual average of little imposing relevance could be possibly explained rather from a stylistic perspective. It follows then, without any doubt that the complexity and the stylistic means of the English and the Germans are superior to those of other peoples, who are perhaps gifted with a greater intelligence, talent and even life environment .”
(Lucian Blaga, (1895-1961), Philosopher and Poet)
(Reception Speech to the Romanian Academy, 5 June 1937)

George VI:
“The King has just broken into my reverie with a message of good will but I refuse to be disturbed.”
(Marthe Bibesco, (1886-1973), Writer, Socialite, Exile)

Germany:
“Germany? – Administration, army, the arts, sciences, literature, tramways, railways, hackneys, waiters, hairdressers, public, shops, houses, monuments, food, everything, absolutely everything – bad, stupid, imbecilic.”
(Barbu Stefanescu Delavrancea (1858, Bucharest-1918),
Dramatist, Lawyer, Politician)
(quoted by Ion Luca Caragiale ,
“Letters and Documents”, Bucharest, 1963)

Goethe:
“Goethe? – A practical German, a gardener from Erfurt.”
V.A. Urechia, (1834-1901), Writer, Dramatist and Historian
(quoted by Titu Maiorescu, (1840-1917), Literary Critic)

Good:
The Saints are the limit. After them come the Heroes, then the Seniors and last are stumbling the daring of the Good, somehow ridiculous and halting, still it is not to be spurned.
We know that when we are doing good we stain it, but we do not do evil. This does not bestow on us the purity of the Saints, but at least we do something to absolve us from the ranks of the sinners.”
Nicolae Steinhardt, (1912-1989), Philosopher, Orthodox Monk,
“Jurnalul Fericirii”)

Grace:
“ I’ll be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me.”
Eugene Ionesco (1912-1994), Dramatist, Exile

Guernica:
“Where they trample by with their damp imagination
the lichen and reindeer bloom,
lamps swallow wicks in disgust
like wise men tongues before the tyrant,
but the gods born in the hum of the coffeehouse
vanish some night on south bound freight trains
sentenced without witness to a tangled and forced mythology
to seek the seed of the flute in who knows what swamps’ reeds,
under the rains to hollow out their graves
so we can stumble upon an exit to the sea…
O, vulnerable gods, vulnerable gods,
death is a country without newspaper.s”
(Mircea Dinescu (b. 1953), Poet)
(from: “Exquisite Corpse – A Journal of Letters and Life”
translated by Julian Semilian and Sanda Agalidi)

Guilty:
“You are guilty of the spiritual impoverishment of the individuals, of their intellectual sterility, of the stifling of their personal duty, as well as of the creativity and inventiveness with which our people have been endowed. When they are treated as objects, deprived of their dignity, locked up in existentialist structures which do not suit them, paralised by the fear of the repressive regime, . Human beings end up behaving as objects. You are responsible for the physical debility of millions of citizens whom you have constrained through unheard of deprivations – of foodstuff, of heating, of medicines. The degrading of the human factor (the subversion of values, the egocentricity, the corruption) has jointly contributed, together with your political and economic errors, to the decadence of institutions, to the bankruptcy of trade and Industry, to the ruin of agriculture. Furthermore, you are also responsible for the demolition of churches and of prestigious historical monuments, of the falsifying and destruction of our past and lately of the destruction of our villages and of our rural traditions. In the historical past, our princes were building churches, after each military victory and perhaps sometime even after their defeat. You yourself, you are demolishing them, instead.”
(Doina Cornea (b. 1930), University Lecturer, Dissident)
(Open Letter to Nicolae Ceausescu, 23rd August 1988,
broadcast the same day on “Radio Free Europe” and published in Doina Cornea’s “Liberte?”, Eds Criterion, Paris, 1990)

AUTHORS:
Marthe BIBESCO, Lucian BLAGA, Doina CORNEA, Barbu Stefanescu DELAVRANCEA, Mircea DINESCU, Eugene IONESCO, Titu MAIORESCU, Nicolae STEINHARDT, V.A. URECHIA,

KEYWORDS:
Generation, Genius, George VI, Germany, Guernica, Grace, Good, Goethe, Guilty,

(Rendered in English by Constantin ROMAN, London,
© 2013 Copyright Constantin ROMAN)