Centre for Romanian Studies

 

Dictionary of Romanian Quotations – Letter “M”

 

  Marriage:
“She was surprised to have nothing to do: marriage was a misfortune, but not an occupation.”
(Marthe Bibesco, (1886-1973), Writer, Socialite)

 

  Martyrs:
“…We are now witnessing an evident return to God, and this is happening in countries where faith is persecuted. Today the communist countries are giving the world new martyrs for Christ…”

(Fr. Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa (1925-2006), Dissident Orthodox Priest)

 

  Memory:
“Memory is not absolutely reliable – it makes an arbitrary selection of what it wants to preserve and it discards what it dislikes, it hoists the emotions to the fore, it transfigures and it destroys.”
(Gregor von Rezzori, (1914-1998), Writer, Exile)

 

  Mentality Change:

“If the Romanians would like to become a people, rather than remain a pupulace with an eternal rural mentality, if the Romanians would like to have their qualities and good deeds acknowledged, then they might need starting to acknowledge their own own                                                                                                                                                                    defects and misdeeds”.

Paul Goma, (b. 1935), Writer, Dissident, Political prisoner,

Exile in France)

 

  Menuhin, Yehudi:
“Wasn’t it a joy to give advise to Yehudi Menuhin? If I were to say that I had formed him I would be wrong, because he was already marvellous when I took him in hand.”
(Georges Enesco, (1881-1955) composer, conductor, violinist, exile)

 

  Micle, Veronica:
Longing:
“How often may I not have hoped
At each and ev’ry movement
So longing that you might appear
You, sweetest human being?

And then how oft’ have I not cried
For hours, in the night,
To snuffl’ alone the candlelight
Without my love in sight?

(Veronica Micle, poem dedicated to Mihai Eminescu)
(Copyright Translation by Constantin Roman, 2002)

  Mirror:
“She turned her back on the mirror, hating the mirror’s vanity.
(Paul Celan (1920-1970), Poet, “Backlight”, “Collected Prose”, 1986)

 

 

 

  Miricioiu, Nelly:
“…Nelly Miricioiu sang with a tremendous palette of colours, a delicate touch with the coloratura, and plenty of old-fashioned intensity…”
(Robert Thicknesse, The Times, London, 28 October 2003)

 

 

  Mistress:
“Let me through, I am the Pope’s mistress.”
(Countess Starjensky, née Princess Bibesco, ca 1900,

exhorting the Swiss Guards to let her enter the Vatican)

 

                                                                                                                     

Modern:
“I am not a modern painter, I am timeless”
Theodore Pallady (1871-1956), Painter, Exile)

 

Monitoring:
“Monitoring the thoughts of the entire Romanian population

has been Ceausescu’s major domestic policy goal,

for which he has spared no expense or manpower.”
(Gen. Ion Pacepa, Securitate chief, defected to the US,
“Red Horizons”, Heinemann, London 1988)

 

Music:
“Music is the refuge of souls ulcerated by happiness.”
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer, exile)
(“Syllogismes de l’amertume”)

Mystery:
“Mystery – a word which we use to trick the others, to make them believe that we are more profound than they are.”
(Emil Cioran (1911-1995), philosopher, writer, exile)
(“Syllogismes de l’amertume”)

                                          

Müller, Herta’s Wish:
“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”)