H. Bonciu, or Horia Bonciu (; reportedly born Bercu, Beniamin or Hieronim Haimovici, Alina Ianchiș, "Un excentric cu pretenții: H. Bonciu", in Caiete Silvane , August 2010Irimescu, p.49Florina Pîrjol, "Neaparat cîte un exemplar în liceele patriei!", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 279, July 2005Rotman, p.174 also known as Bonciu Haimovici, Haimovici Bonciu;Ornea, Anii treizeci, p.451 May 19, 1893 – April 27, 1950), was a Romanian novelist, poet, journalist and translator, noted especially as an atypical figure on his country's avant-garde scene. His work, comprising several volumes of poetry and two novels, is a mixture of influences from the diverse literary schools of Europe's modernism, and, unusually in the context of Romanian literature, borrows heavily from German-born movements such as Expressionism. The autofictional and cruel detail in Bonciu's narratives makes him a senior figure among Romania's own Trăirist authors, while its capture of the unnaturally grotesque also finds him as one of the country's Neoromantics and Surrealists.
Opposed by the literary establishment when his erotic subjects became more widely known, and further marginalized for his Jewish origin, H. Bonciu was even prosecuted in the 1930s on grounds of "pornography". His work was banned by the local fascist movements, and later selectively censored by the communist regime. The controversy, like his refusal to rally with any particular cultural movement of the interwar, has touched the critical reception of his work, and has introduced a decades-long debate about its contextual value. While some scholars find Bonciu a necessary addition to the modern literary canon and a forerunner of postmodern literature, others describe him as mediocre or pretentious.
Biography
Bohemian life Bonciu was born in Iași to the Jewish couple Carol Haimovici and Ghizela Nadler.Călinescu, p.900; Rotman, p.174 Little is known about his childhood other than the family's move to Bucharest, which happened when he was still a toddler; it was in Bucharest that he completed his primary and secondary education. Bonciu may have been enrolled at the Frederick William University of Berlin.Călinescu, p.900 Beyond this uncertain affiliation, it is known that Bonciu must have spent part of his youth in the German Empire and Austria-Hungary, and that such a cultural encounter shaped his entire approach to literature. Geo Șerban, "H. Bonciu între experiment și experiență", in Contemporanul, Nr. 3/2009, p.11 (republished by România Culturală )Glăvan, p.262, 264-265, 266, 267, 272-274 In a 1997 article, literary historian Ovid Crohmălniceanu assessed: "among the Romanian writers, only H. Bonciu has had the occasion to encounter proper Jugendstil" (see Symbolist movement in Romania).Glăvan, p.264
As a young adult, Bonciu obtained his main income from trading in umbrellas and curtains. He made his literary debut in 1912, when he published in Bucharest's theatrical magazines Rampa and Cortina. There was a pause in activity during most of World War I, when Romania fought against Germany and the other Central Powers—he was possibly in enemy territory,Glăvan, p.262 but, judging by references in his novels, he may also have seen action in the Romanian Land Forces. One other story places Bonciu in Vienna during much of 1917. According to this account, the expatriate Romanian salesman met and closely befriended the Hungarian poet-activist Endre Ady.
Bonciu was probably back in Bucharest in early 1918, as Romania was negotiating a peace with Germany (see Romania during World War I). His poems and translations from Peter Altenberg were taken up by the theatrical daily Scena, put out in German-occupied Bucharest by dramatist A. de Herz. It has been suggested that Bonciu's avant-garde sympathies and stylistic rebellion has its roots in the period, making him part of the same wave as Tristan Tzara (Romanian inventor of Dadaism), but that he lost momentum by only making public his avant-garde work after 1930.
In 1920, Bonciu resumed his contribution to Rampa, where he published his translation of poems by Anton Wildgans. That year, he also returned to Vienna, but was still included as a member of Rampas editorial staff; in 1921, he inaugurated a long period of activity with another Romanian-based literary newspaper, Adevărul Literar și Artistic. Having established his reputation as a journalist, Bonciu became a regular columnist: his letters, headlined Mișcarea artistică de la noi și din străinatate ("The Art Movement in Our Country and Abroad"), ran in several national newspapers. Constantin Radinschi, "Cuviosul vin roșu de la Uricani" , in Evenimentul, June 22, 2002 Among the major periodicals who hosted his work over the next decade are Viața Românească, Facla, Azi, Meridian, and Isac Ludo's ADAM review. He also began using a number of pen names, including, in addition to H. Bonciu, Sigismund Absurdul ("Sigismund the Absurd")—effectively, his literary alter ego. Ion Simuț, "Atentat la canonul interbelic" , in România Literară, Nr. 44/2005Crohmălniceanu, p.505-506; Irimescu, p.49 The other pseudonym he used was Bon-Tsu-Haș.
In 1924, Bonciu married a Gabriela Kimmel, living, until 1934, in relative isolation from the literary scene. Early in the 1930s, the family had moved back to Iași, where Bonciu set up a new business in the production and distribution of Moldavian wine. On his vineyard, covering some 15 hectares outside of Miroslava, the writer created sweet "Uricani wine", seen by some oenologists as one of Romania's finest, and a very popular drink throughout the country. The passion for wine-making later resulted in a friendship between Bonciu and celebrated actor-satirist Constantin Tănase; the latter acclimatized Uricani trunks at his own villa, in Balotești. Bonciu was a regular gambler and drinker, who supplied the bohemian society of Iași with affordable wine. Humorist Păstorel Teodoreanu, who attended this society, recalls: "Old folks in Iași may still remember Bonciu's devout wine, that every Iași inhabitant back in the day would gorge on at their own will, in Tuflii Café, for 2,50 lei a bottle. [...] Just about every afternoon, the cart would stop on the dot at Unirii Square, facing Traian Café, where [Bonciu] would habitually play a game of chess. Waiting for his master, the gray-haired cart driver would fall asleep on his seat".
Main writing period According to his journalist colleague Emil Cerbu, Bonciu's return to Rampa was both a literary revelation and the birth of a new poetic style: "He had sent in a poem a few days before. A sonnet made remarkable by the brutal force of its imagery. They told him it could not be published, because of one crude word that harmed the entire sonnet. The poet thereafter turned into another person, with another kind of poems. All of these had an internal structure never before seen in Romanian lyrical literature." It was during the Rampa years that observers began referring to Bonciu's synthesis as a local manifestation of Expressionism, the German current having already found a dedicated promoter in Cerbu.Grigorescu, p.384-385, 416 From this context were born H. Bonciu's poetry collections Lada cu năluci ("A Crate of Apparitions", 1932) and Eu și Orientul. Douăzeci și cinci de sonete ("I and the Orient. Twenty-five Sonnets", 1933). Both were published with Editura Vremea company.Călinescu, p.1024; Crohmălniceanu, p.632 Lada cu năluci was printed in only 1,000 copies, each featuring Bonciu's autograph and a portrait of his by Tyrolese artist Alfons Walde. Simona Vasilache, "Carne și vînt" , in România Literară, Nr. 30/2009
With time, Bonciu became especially noted as the translator of works by Expressionists, Symbolists and Neoromantics from the area of German culture. Among others, they include Ady, Richard Beer-Hofmann, Klabund, Erich Mühsam, Alfons Petzold, Rainer Maria Rilke, Richard von Schaukal and Carl Spitteler. Of these, his rendition of Rilke's "What Will You Do, God, When I Die?" has been singled out for its beauty by critic Simona Vasilache. Additionally, Bonciu published versions of poems by France's pre-Symbolist Charles Baudelaire. Adrian Grănescu, "Traduceri și traducători – note de lectură – însemnări de cititor", in Vatra, Nr. 8-9/2010, p.110
His full translation of Wildgans' Die Sonette an Ead, with the title Poeme către Ead, came in 1933, also with Editura Vremea.Călinescu, p.1024; Crohmălniceanu, p.632; Glăvan, p.262 The work won praise from essayist and literary chronicler Ovidiu Papadima, who wrote for the magazine Gândirea that Bonciu was a "precious" and thoughtful translator, whose versions were more polished than Wildgans' originals. Ovidiu Papadima, "Cronica măruntă. Poemele către Ead", in Gândirea, Nr. 4/1934, p.160 (digitized by the Babeș-Bolyai University Transsylvanica Online Library)
Bagaj... ("Luggage"), also known as Strania, dubla existență a unui om în patru labe ("The Strange Double Life of a Man on His All Fours")Crohmălniceanu, p.632 or Confesiunile unui om în patru labe ("The Confessions of a Man on His All Fours"), was first published in 1934, marking Bonciu's beginnings as an eccentric novelist. Published by Editura Librăriei Leon Alcaly, its original jacket carries an enthusiastic introductory note, by the modernist doyen, poet and journalist Tudor Arghezi.Glăvan, p.263 The originals were liberally illustrated with reproductions of paintings and drawings by the late Vienna Secession artist Egon Schiele.
Allegedly, the novel was a commercial flop, only published in 500 copies. Outside the modernist circles, Romanian critics were generally uninterested in Bagaj..., or unaware that it even existed. Nevertheless, Bonciu continued to write and, in 1936, Alcaly issued his second novel: Pensiunea doamnei Pipersberg ("Mrs. Pipersberg's Boarding House").
Obscenity scandal and arrests The following period brought Bonciu into the spotlight, as soon as the traditionalist and far right sections of the media began depicting him as one of the most obscene modern Romanian authors. This controversy was in effect sparked by culture critic Nicolae Iorga and his Neamul Românesc journal.Glăvan, p.261-262; Ornea, Anii treizeci, p.444-446 The scandal intensified with time, and Bonciu saw himself included in lists of "pornographers", alongside some major or minor modernist writers: Arghezi, Geo Bogza, Mihail Celarianu, Mircea Eliade etc. One such directory, in Neamul Românesc, had Bonciu as the No. 1 obscene writer, with Bogza in second place and N. D. Cocea in at third. Gheorghe Grigurcu, "Despre pornografie" (II) , in România Literară, Nr. 3/2007 In Bonciu's case, the accusations mingled anti-modernism and antisemitism, Paul Cernat, "Blasfemia și drepturile artei", in Dilema Veche, Nr. 119, May 2006Glăvan, p.261-262; Ornea, Anii treizeci, p.421-465 only focusing on Bagaj... and simply ignoring the equally provocative content of Pensiunea.
The accusations found some backing among government officials. Reportedly, Bonciu was first arrested for a short while in 1932, together with Bogza. Paul Cernat, "Sesto Pals, avangardistul subteran", in Observator Cultural, Nr. 179, July–August 2003 Adina-Ștefania Ciurea, "Scriitori în boxa acuzaților" , in România Literară, Nr. 33/2003 They were held in Văcărești Prison, outside of Bucharest, and joined there by the avant-garde youth of Alge magazine, all of them disciples of Bogza. Two years later, the case was being revisited by his peers inside the Romanian Writers' Society, where Bonciu's defense was taken by novelist Zaharia Stancu and critic Șerban Cioculescu. Around that date, Constantin Angelescu, Romania's Minister of Public Instruction, imposed state censorship on Pensiunea.