Profira Sadoveanu
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Profira Sadoveanu (pen name Valer Donea; 21 May 1906 – 3 October 2003),
In the early 1930s, Sadoveanu was an aspiring playwright and thespian, working with
The
Biography
Childhood
Born in Fălticeni, Profira was the favorite child[2][5][6] of novelist-politician Mihail Sadoveanu and his wife Ecaterina née Bâlu. Her exact birthplace at No 40 Rădășani Street was part of the Bâlus' dowry.[2] According to her daughter's testimony, Ecaterina had been an aspiring writer, before marrying and dedicating herself to homemaking.[2][7] Profira had an older sister, Despina; her other siblings were Teodora "Didica", famed for her beauty, painter Dimitrie Sadoveanu, and the youngest boy, novelist Paul-Mihu Sadoveanu;[7][8] another brother, Bogdan, died in 1920, at the age of seven.[9] According to a memoir published in the 1980s, her father and mother (whom she called Catincuța) raised her an atheist, though she was never able to suppress her belief in angels.[10] She attended the "girls' school" on Fălticeni's Rădăștenilor Street,[11] then the local Nicu Gane High School (from 1917 to 1918).[12] Some of her earliest memories include seeing her father dressed up in an officer's uniform in preparation for the Second Balkan War.[2]
Shortly after her birth, the family bought a vacant plot from the local pharmacist Vorel[5] (known to Profira as a "German apothecary"),[2] which Mihail turned into an orchard. He also personally designed Profira's childhood home, which included odaia națională ("the room of the nation"), with portraits of historical figures such as Stephen the Great, Michael the Brave, Vasile Lupu, and Alexandru Ioan Cuza.[11] At this second address, she was neighbors with the destitute writer I. Dragoslav.[5] She was additionally schoolmates and best friends with the future mathematician Florica T. Câmpan, who recalls that she had pity for Profira, assuming that Mihail, as a professional writer, must have also been miserably poor.[13] In contrast, Profira viewed her child self as "the happiest being in existence", since she was "free to roam wherever I wished", and could walk everywhere barefoot.[11] Her father introduced her to the staples of Romanian literature, allowing her to memorize large portions of Mihai Eminescu's poetry and of Vasile Alecsandri's drama ("my first love"); she was also an enthusiastic reader of Nikolai Gogol, trying out home-theater adaptations of Gogol's Marriage and "May Night".[2] She followed up with compositions presented in school, and recalled being frustrated by suspicions that Mihail was writing these on her behalf.[2]
Profira's life was interrupted abruptly during the
Debut years
Profira studied at the philosophy section of the literature and philosophy faculty at
The young woman also intended to study the dramatic arts in Paris, but did not obtain Mihail's consent.
By 1935, Profira had married Popa, whose main career was as a translator of English literature.[19] Her first published volume was 1933's Mormolocul ("Tadpole"), introduced as a novel. Its publication was again mediated by her influential father, who personally recommended it, and even carried it with him, for publication at Cartea Românească.[2] Literary scholar Bianca Burța-Cernat in the larger traditionalist ideology of Poporanism, centered on Viața Romînească. As Burța-Cernat notes, Sadoveanu and Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu were mainly Poporanists through their family and background, rather than explicit affiliation; she rates Mormolocul as a "beautiful book".[20] According to critic Constantin Gerota, the novel stood out as a worthy effort, and a sample of adolescent literature better than those by Marta Rădulescu, but was in fact a memoir.[21] Poet and columnist Alexandru Robot described as a "descriptive and elementary book, with no emotional states to speak of."[22]
Burța-Cernat suggests that Sadoveanu and her colleague Otilia Cazimir represented a slightly more rebellious weave in interwar women's literature, which displayed their support for feminism. However, she cautions, "the 'feminist' subversiveness of their prose is extremely low-key", and their association with Viața Romînească meant subservience to a "patriarchal climate".[23] Profira's success was acknowledged by Sadoveanu Sr, who in November 1933 dedicated her one of his own novels as "for my colleague Profira Sadoveanu".[14] As she herself recalled, she was shortlisted for the Femina Prize for women's literature, but snubbed by her own Poporanist aunt, Izabela Sadoveanu-Evan, who asked the jury to vote instead for the aged Elena Farago.[2] Profira also had two other short novels on hand. One of them, Pielea de șarpe ("The Snake Skin"), was rejected by Cartea Românească, who found its subject matter to be "immoral" (this also discouraged her from presenting its sequel, Volley Ball).[2]
Sadoveanu Jr only returned to the genre in 1937, Naufragiații din Aukland ("Shipwrecks of Aukland [
As revealed in a 1935 letter by Topîrceanu (only published in 2014), Domniile lor was actually co-written by Profira and Costache Popa;[19] the latter was well-liked by Sadoveanu Sr for his other activity as an interior designer.[25] From 1935, the Popas had moved to Bucharest, the national capital, which was also Mihail's home after he agreed to take over as director of Adevărul newspaper (in 1936).[5] Co-opted by that institution, Profira had memoirs published in the collective column Femeile între ele ("Women amongst Themselves"), managed by her aunt Izabela (and also featuring authors such as Ticu Archip, Lucia Demetrius, Coca Farago, Claudia Millian, and Sanda Movilă).[26] She also published more reportage pieces, collecting them, alongside prose poems, in the 1940 volume Ploi și ninsori ("Rains and Snowfall", 1940).[2] Burța-Cernat sees it as a "less significant" contribution, centered on the depiction of "yesterday's târguri and patriarchal life."[27]
World War II
In 1939 or 1940, Profira and her husband translated and published the Earl of Lytton's biography of Antony Bulwer-Lytton. It was put out by the official publishing house, Editura Fundațiilor Regale (EFR), in a conscious effort to familiarize Romanians with the more unfamiliar aspects of British society (and also to provide the public with a higher standard of translation from English).[28] The EFR also selected Profira as head editor of her father's novels in what was supposed to be a definitive edition. Five volumes appeared during World War II.[29] From 1936, Profira had been involved with caring for her mother, who was bedridden with illness. Ecaterina died in 1942, after a series of embolisms.[10]
The Sadoveanus' literary activity was threatened in late 1940 and early 1941, when the radically fascist Iron Guard controlled Romania as a "National Legionary State", physically destroying old-regime figures such as Nicolae Iorga. As reported years later by author Mihail Șerban, a period witness, Profira and her husband were living together with Mihail; shocked by news of the Iorga assassination, they took turns guarding the place against any possible Guardist attack.[30] A diary entry by Mihail Sebastian records his meeting with Profira, who confessed that her father was considering membership in the Guard, noting that he was urged to do so by friends Ionel and Păstorel Teodoreanu.[31] In a 1980 interview, Ionel's widow Ștefana Velisar mentions a mock-trial of Mihail Sadoveanu being carried through by a group of Guardists—her husband, a trained lawyer, was present to offer Sadoveanu's defense: "Ionel spoke for four and half hours. When he was done, instead of shooting him, they fired their pistols into the ceiling, and cartridges fell down on their plates."[32]
As the National Legionary State gave way to Ion Antonescu's military regime, Profira was employed by Gorjanul publishing house, translating Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist (announced for publication in December 1943).[33] Sadoveanu's next work was a selection of lyrical poems called Umilinți ("Humiliations", early 1944).[2][34] Most copies, displayed at Cartea Românească, were destroyed in an American air raid.[2] As recounted by Sebastian, in April 1944, as the Red Army was pushing back into Romania, the Sadoveanus were still staunch anti-communists, and presented themselves as supporters of the National Peasants' Party. He renders Profira's worried statement: Tata nu poate înghiți pe bolșevici și de aceea cred că el va pleca în Elveția, dacă ei s-ar apropia de Capitală ("Father can't stand those Bolsheviks, and this is why I believe he'll be departing for Switzerland, should they ever come close to the Capital").[31]
In summer 1944, Profira had left Bucharest for a temporary refuge in the city of
In addition to Scrisori din Sihăstrie, Profira contributed a Romanian version of Adolphe d'Ennery and Eugène Cormon's The Two Orphans, taken up by the National Theater Iași in 1945.[37] She also worked on a translation of Maxwell Anderson's versified social play, Winterset. It was published in 1946 as Pogoară Iarna, and was praised by Anglist Petru Comarnescu for being "so very faithful and relevant" to the source material.[38] In early 1947, Frimu Workers' Theater and Marin Iorda produced Jerome K. Jerome's The Passing of the Third Floor Back, from a translation by Sadoveanu.[39] In collaboration with the Romanian Society for Friendship with the Soviet Union, she issued versions of poems by Ivan Krylov, Mikhail Lermontov, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Nikolay Nekrasov, and Alexander Pushkin, which were not published, but rather recited publicly by children from Bucharest's Lyceum No 50 during a bilingual gala.[40] She also prepared another musical comedy, Țăndărică și Borzacul ("Matchwood Boy and His Imp"), which was in production with the Bucharest puppet theater in December 1948.[41]
Early communism
During the onset of communization, Costache Popa was employed as artistic director by George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra. On Christmas Day 1947, he reacted against political pressures by supporting its conductor, George Georgescu, who had been virtually banned from performing.[42] The communist regime, inaugurated days after, had Sadoveanu Sr as a main literary figure. Seen by literary historian Mircea Iorgulescu as protected in a "gilded shelter",[31] he also served for a while as the republican head of state. Immediately after the regime change, Profira edited a sixth volume of her father's works, this time curated by the new state enterprise, Editura de Stat pentru Literatură și Artă (ESPLA); the project was abruptly interrupted, for unknown causes, and only resumed from 1954.[29] With Valeria Mitru, who had become Mihail's second wife,[12] she was intensely active as a translator. They earned accolades with Alexander Ostrovsky's Wolves and Sheep, which was taken up by Giulești Workers' Theater in January 1950.[43] Alone or in collaboration, Profira also translated Anton Chekhov, Konstantin Ushinsky, Honoré de Balzac,[12] and Peter Neagoe; the latter contributions were described by critic Șerban Cioculescu as "excellent".[44]
Mihail, Valeria and Profira had all transition to
Histriographer Marin Bucur praised the contribution: "Profira Sadoveanu's notes, which are featured in each volume, are always bringing up something new, or in any case very obscure, and some interesting details, providing the sort of material that a critical exegete or a literary historian will surely find useful."[47] In one of the tomes, printed in 1958, she identified the character Levi Tov with Jewish scholar Moshe Duff, who had been her father's close friend. This identification was rejected by journalist Simon Schafferman-Păstorescu, who argued that it had no basis in fact.[48] Among the final events of her father's life, Profira Sadoveanu witnessed and recounted the intellectual drive behind his 1954 novel, Cîntecul mioarei (purposefully conceived as a less "artificial" rendering of the Miorița myth, and in direct opposition to the version standardized by Alecsandri).[49]
Shortly before Mihail's death in 1961, he and Profira returned for a visit to Fălticeni.
Later life
Strongly influenced by her father's literary style, Profira Sadoveanu adopted his florid descriptions—as critic Mihai Zamfir notes, this was to the point of pastiche;[53] however, she infused her writing with a purely feminine sensibility.[12] Her poetry was sometimes directly modeled on Le Testament, by François Villon.[14] Sadoveanu's extensive literary output came to include volumes recalling Mihail Sadoveanu (O zi cu Sadoveanu, 1955; Viața lui Mihail Sadoveanu, 1957, republished in 1966 as Ostrovul zimbrului; În umbra stejarului, 1965; Planeta părăsită, 1970), but also new collections of poems: Somnul pietrei ("The Sleep of Stones", 1971); Cântecele lui Ștefan Vodă ("Songs of Voivode Stephen", 1974); Flori de piatră ("Stone Flowers", 1980); Ora violetă ("The Violet Hour", 1984).[12] In tandem, she specialized in children's verses, published as Balaurul alb ("The White Balaur", 1955) and Ochelarii bunicii ("Grandma's Glasses", 1969).[12] A reprint of Mormolocul came with the announcement that Sadoveanu had presented another volume, Rechinul ("The Shark"), but publication stalled.[2]
Also returning as a translator in 1964, Profira, alongside her sister Teodora, completed the first-ever Romanian rendition of stories by
Sadoveanu was a widow from 18 September 1981, when Costache Popa, still employed by the Philharmonic Orchestra, suffered a fatal accident.[4] In December 1984, România Literară hosted eight of her sonnets, which staff chroniclers at Transilvania magazine described as a "pleasant reminder".[60] The following year, she completed a book of her own stories and memoirs, put out by Editura Ion Creangă as Foc de artificii ("Fireworks"). It was meant to cover biographical detail that Mihail had not been interested in discussing—one partly fictionalized story discusses a literary hoax that her father had attempted in complicity with Topîrceanu and Garabet Ibrăileanu.[7] Another such volume, Planeta părăsită ("Deserted Planet"), was published in 1987 by Editura Minerva—and welcomed by Cioculescu, who read it as an extensive prose poem.[5] Around that time, she and Teodora made return trips to Fălticeni, where her childhood home was turned into a memorial museum in 1987. In 1989, they declared themselves impressed by the town's modernization under communism, and announced that they had considered moving back.[11]
Profira lived through the
References
- ^ "Profira Sadoveanu". catalogue.bnf.fr (in French). Bibliothèque nationale de France. Retrieved 10 March 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab Cornelia Djingola, Profira Sadoveanu, "Biografia debuturilor. 'Evenimentul real, adevărul l-au impresionat întotdeauna pe Sadoveanu, ele erau punctul de plecare în tot ce scria'", in Luceafărul, Vol. XX, Issue 22, May 1977, p. 8
- ^ a b Petre Grancea, "Ecouri dela repetiția generală. Viața din Holywood [sic], redată la Teatrul Național – Date despre piesa Visuri americane", in Opinia, 8 May 1935, p. 1
- ^ România Liberă, 18 September 1981, p. 4
- ^ a b c d e f g Șerban Cioculescu, "Breviar. Planeta părăsită sau geocentrismul familial", in România Literară, Issue 11/1987, p. 7
- ^ Lefter, p. 12
- ^ a b c Monica Spiridon, "Profira Sadoveanu Foc de artificii", in România Literară, Issue 48/1985, p. 10
- ^ Lefter, p. 12
- ^ a b Profira Sadoveanu, "Ionuț", in România Literară, Issue 19/1974, p. 14
- ^ a b Profira Sadoveanu, "Foc de artificii (fragment)", in Foaia Noastră. Organ al Uniunii Democratice a Românilor din Ungaria, Vol. XL, Issue 18, May 1990, p. 5
- ^ Scînteia Tineretului, 11 March 1989, p. 3
- ^ ISBN 973-697-758-7
- ISBN 978-973-644-771-6
- ^ a b c d Al. Raicu, "Autografe. Lîngă inima lui Sadoveanu", in Luceafărul, Vol. XVII, Issue 10, March 1974, p. 8
- ^ Lefter, pp. 12, 13
- ^ Lefter, p. 12
- ^ Imola Katalin Nagy, "Paralele inegale. Sadoveanu și Móricz sau paradoxul coincidențelor", in Vatra, Vol. XXXVII, Issues 468–469, March–April 2010, p. 162
- ^ Mircea Deac, "Cronica plastică. Ion Sava, pionier al expresionismului militant", in Viața Românească, Vol. XXIII, Issue 6, June 1970, pp. 111–113
- ^ a b Nicolae Scurtu, "Restituiri. George Topîrceanu și tinerii săi confrați", in România Literară, Issues 1–2/2014, p. 15
- ^ Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup, pp. 61–62
- ^ Constantin Gerota, "Cărți, reviste. Mormolocul de Profira Sadoveanu. Roman", in Convorbiri Literare, Vol. LXVII, Issue 4, April 1934, pp. 382–383
- ^ Alexandru Robot, "Aspectele actualității literare", in Rampa, 8 April 1934, p. 5
- ^ Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup, p. 45
- ^ Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup, pp. 32, 62
- ^ Ioan M. Kogălniceanu, "Texte și documente. O scrisoare necunoscută a lui Mihail Sadoveanu", in Viața Românească, Vol. LXXVIII, Issue 3, March 1983, pp. 76–77
- ^ (in Romanian) Bianca Burța-Cernat, "'Femeile între ele' în 1937", in Observator Cultural, Issue 290, October 2005
- ^ Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup, p. 62
- ^ Petru Comarnescu, "Înțelesul și actualitatea Bibliotecii Energia", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Vol. VII, Issue 2, February 1939, pp. 443, 445–446
- ^ ISBN 978-606-37-0769-8
- ^ Mihail Șerban, "Întîlniri cu Sadoveanu", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. XIII, Issue 44, October 1965, p. 10
- ^ a b c Mircea Iorgulescu, "Actualitatea. Sindromul tribunalului și istoria literară", in România Literară, Issue 47/1999, p. 3
- ^ Sânziana Pop, Ștefana Velisar Teodoreanu, "Fondul principal al culturii române. Un prieten pentru eternitate", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXIII, Issue 44, November 1980, p. 3
- ^ "Țara culturală. Mozaic Gorjan", in Țara, Vol. III, Issue 758, December 1943, p. 2
- ^ "Claviaturi. Umilință", in Curentul, 17 March 1944, p. 2
- ^ a b Profira Sadoveanu, "Ziua Eliberării", in România Literară, Issue 34/1984, p. 7
- ^ "Doi eroi. Paul-Mihu Sadoveanu", in România Literară, Issue 17/1975, p. 15
- ^ Massoff, p. 355
- ^ Petru Comarnescu, "O tragedie hamletiană, cu material din timpul nostru", in Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Vol. XIII, Issue 10, October 1946, p. 107
- ^ "Caleidoscop. Dela Teatrul Muncitoresc 'I. C. Frimu'", in Adevărul, 8 May 1947, p. 2
- ^ "Curs școlar de recitări în limba rusă", in Universul, 10 December 1948, p. 3
- ^ "In curând la Teatrul de păpuși Piața Senatului 2", in Universul Copiilor, Issue 46/1948, p. 15. See also Massoff, p. 526
- ^ Iosif Sava, "Game. George Georgescu (II)", in Contemporanul, Issue 36/1994, p. 14
- ^ Ion Marin Sadoveanu, "Drama și Teatrul. Teatrul Muncitoresc C.F.R.; Lupii și oile de A-N. Ostrovski, în românește de d-nele Valeria și Profira Sadoveanu", in Universul, 12 January 1950, p. 2. See also Massoff, p. 546
- ^ Șerban Cioculescu, "Personalitatea lui Peter Neagoe", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. VIII, Issue 27, June 1961, p. 8
- ISBN 978-606-8337-27-2
- ^ a b Profira Sadoveanu, "Evocări. Sadoveanu în papuci", in România Literară, Issue 10/1983, p. 8
- ^ Marin Bucur, "O samă de cuvinte. Triumful înțelepciunii", in Luceafărul, Vol. II, Issue 8, April 1959, p. 2
- ^ Alexandru Mirodan, "Dicționar neconvențional al scriitorilor evrei de limbă română. Duff, Moshe", in Minimum, Vol. VII, Issue 70, January 1993, pp. 40–41
- ^ George Macovescu, "Opinii. Cîntecul mioarei", in România Literară, Issue 34/1982, p. 8
- ^ Romeo Soare, "Drum printre oameni. Conu' Mihai [sic] Sadoveanu", in Cuvântul Liber, 31 October 2012, p. 7
- ^ Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup, p. 62
- ^ Tudor Rotaru, "Revista revistelor. Viața Romînească nr. 10/1962", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. IX, Issue 44, November 1962, p. 2
- ^ Mihai Zamfir, "Întoarcerea la cărți. Copiii scriitorilor", in România Literară, Issue 48/2019, p. 3
- ^ Florin Mihai Petrescu, "Comentarii. Marginalii", in Iașul Literar, Vol. XVI, Issue 4, April 1965, p. 74
- ^ "Vă recomandăm: France Anatole, Crinul roșu", in Clopotul, 13 December 1967, p. 2
- ^ Călin Căliman, "Arta și societatea. Filmul românesc și sentimentul istoriei naționale", in Contemporanul, Issue 20/1974, p. 11
- ^ a b Dinu Kivu, "Noi filme românești, în dezbatere. Frații Jderi. Filmul istoric, o datorie de onoare a cinematografiei noastre", in Cinema, Vol. XII, Issue 5, May 1974, p. 7
- Draga Olteanu-Matei, "Lunga călătorie de la cuvîntul scris la speranța de creație", in Flacăra, Vol. XXXVIII, Issue 28, July 1989, p. 15
- ^ I. M., "Radio Televiziune. Simple note", in România Literară, Issue 37/1982, p. 17
- ^ "Cronica lunară. Revista revistelor. Poezie", in Transilvania, Vol. XIV, Issue 2, February 1985, p. 50
- ^ Grigore Ilisei, Zoe Dumitrescu-Bușulenga, "Inedit. 'Să deschidem o fereastră largă, spre o lume care să ne înțeleagă și să înceapă să ne iubească'", in România Literară, Issue 20/2007, p. 16
- ^ Dan Mănucă, "Contribuții documentare. Scriitori bucovineni", in România Literară, Issue 16/1994, p. 19
- ^ Kázmér Vajnovszki, "Cseles díjak", in Erdélyi Napló, 8 January 1997, p. 7
External links
- Bianca Burța-Cernat, Fotografie de grup cu scriitoare uitate: proza feminină interbelică. Bucharest: ISBN 978-973-23-2946-7
- Virgil Lefter, "Restituiri. Un fiu al lui Mihail Sadoveanu – în istoria picturii românești", in România Literară, Issue 27/2001, pp. 12–13.
- Ioan Massoff, Teatrul românesc: privire istorică. Vol. VIII: Teatrul românesc în perioada 1940—1950. Bucharest: Editura Minerva, 1981.