Mihu Dragomir (pen name of Mihail Constantin Dragomirescu; April 24, 1919 – April 9, 1964) was a Romanian poet, prose writer and translator. A native of Brăila on the Bărăgan Plain, he was heavily influenced by the worldview of an older novelist, Panait Istrati, as well as by the poetic works of Mihai Eminescu and Edgar Allan Poe. He debuted in his early teens, and, before turning 19, had self-published his first volume of verse, also putting out the literary magazine Flamura. The late 1930s and early '40s saw his sympathy for, and finally engagement with, Romanian fascism—he joined the literary circle Adonis, founded by former members of the Crusade of Romanianism, and, during the "National Legionary State" of 1940, openly adhered to the Iron Guard. Rebelliousness interfered with Dragomir's educational path, but he recovered enough to train as a sapper, then as a junior officer, in the Romanian Land Forces. He fought in their ranks for the remainder of World War II, witnessing events which were retold in his poetic cycles (including a verse novel) and short-story collections.
The coup of August 1944 and the Soviet occupation of Romania were celebrated in Dragomir's poems as inaugural evens in a national revolution. He was joined he mass organizations of the Romanian Communist Party, moving from generic progressivism to Leninism, and then to explicit Stalinism. His political poetry pioneered the conceptions of socialist realism from as early as 1946; from 1948, the cultural authorities of Communist Romania employed him as editor of Viața Romînească, literary expert, translator of Russian literature, and purveyor of agitprop—though he was also excluded from the Party, and deemed ideologically unreliable, in 1950. His lyrical contributions were published in quick succession in the 1950s, and were celebrated at the time by the communist establishment—though they came to be seen as shameful by later scholarship, which examined their mediocre versification and their support for land collectivization. Dragomir continued to write poems that post-Stalinist reviewers upheld as more genuine, or even brilliant; he generally kept these for private use, or, when he published some of them, was attacked by his peers as an "escapist".
Dragomir was always seen as a suspicious figure by Communist Party cadres. These either viewed him as an infiltrator planted by post-fascist "enemy groups", or were alarmed by his alleged embrace of liberal socialism. He was isolated and sidelined after the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, upon which he was sent to work as a consultant for the local film industry, during which time he inspired The Thistles of the Baragan, adapted from Istrati's work. In July 1958, he became founder and main editor of the revived Luceafărul, though the regime would not allow him full credits for his work there. His main contribution to that venue, and to Romanian literature in general, was as a discoverer and promoter of new talent. In his late thirties and early forties, Dragomir also contributed to the Romanian science fiction scene and, upon witnessing the first manifestations of national-communism, inaugurated his own transition to philosophical, largely non-political, poetry; this included publishing work that he had authored in previous decades. His death from a heart attack at age 44 interrupted this effort, though six posthumous volumes were issued by his wife, into the 1980s.
Biography Humorist, fascist, soldier The future poet was born in Brăila to a family of teachers—Constantin Dragomirescu and his wife Octavia-Olimpia (née Rădulescu).Aurel Sasu (ed.), Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române, Vol. I, p. 515. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Musician Claudiu Moldovan claims that, due to his "brown complexion" and familiarity with Lăutari songs, Mihu Dragomir was mistakenly seen by Romanies as belonging to their own ethnic community.Claudiu Moldovan, "Evocări. O întîlnire literară", in Ramuri, Issue 12/1980, p. 15 According to a memoir by film director Alexandru Struțeanu, he was always passionate about the Brăila-born and left-wing novelist Panait Istrati—viewing himself as a living version of Istrati's main character, Adrian Zografi.Struțeanu, p. 13 Upon reaching maturity, he was adverse to organized religion, praising poet Dumitru Theodor Neculuță for not giving in to "bourgeois institutions" such as the Romanian Orthodox Church.Mihu Dragomir, "La centenarul lui D. Th. Neculuță. Contribuții", in Gazeta Literară, Vol. VI, Issue 41, October 1959, p. 6
Young Dragomir attended primary school in his native city, followed by Nicolae Bălcescu High School from 1929 to 1933. In 1933, he studied at Bucharest's Gheorghe Șincai High School, returning to Brăila for the Commercial High School from 1934 to 1936. Dragomir's first newspaper article appeared in Revista Tineretului Creștin in 1933; other contributions followed in the crossword magazines Revista Jocurilor, Rebus and Curentul Jocurilor, where he used the pen names Jules Limah, Dr. M. C., Mihail, Mișu Brăilițeanu and M. C. Dragomirescu. His first poems appeared in print in 1936, in the Silistra-based Valuri Dunărene. That year, he self-published his first book of poems, Gânduri prăfuite ("Dusty Thoughts"), in 200 copies. In summer 1936, he traced Istrati's steps together with his friend Niță Vrînceanu, organizing a riotous party in Baldovinești together with Moș Dumitru (whose life had been fictionalized by Istrati).Al. Oprea, "Scriitori în mișcarea muncitorească. Răspuns unor cititori și un apel", in Luceafărul, Vol. VIII, Issue 16, July 1965, p. 11
Expelled out of school for a "nihilist" attitude, Dragomir re-enrolled in autumn 1936, and graduated at the top of his class in 1939. He also founded Flamura ("The Pennon") magazine in Brăila in 1937, handing its management to Ștefan Topcea (known then as Mac Antoniu) and Gheorghe Capagea-Rosetti in early 1939.Vrînceanu & Andronic, p. 49 By May 1939, he had been drafted into the Romanian Land Forces as a sapper, and was assigned to a garrison in Brăila; he was considering quitting school and emigrating to Antwerp. That summer, after a short stay in northern Moldavia, he eventually passed his baccalaureate in Galați.Ion Larian Postolache, "L-am cunoscut pe Arghezi. Prima întîlnire", in Luceafărul, Vol. XXII, Issue 5, February 1979, p. 8 The same year, he entered the Bucharest Commercial Academy, and by 1940 was hosted at a dormitory on Cuza-Vodă Street. He eventually interrupted his business training in order to attend the Bacău reserve officers' school from 1940 to 1941. Dragomir also returned to publishing with short poetry collections: Rugă de ateu, adică vorbe despre orânduieli și cârmuitori ("An Atheist's Prayer, Which Is to Say a Talk of Regimes and Rulers", 1938) and Înger condeier ("Scribbling Angel", 1939). Magazines that published his work include Universul Literar, Luceafărul, Revista Fundațiilor Regale, Viață și Suflet, Năzuința, Junimea Dobrogeană, Raza Literară, Cadran, Festival, Păcală, and Epigrama. He first used the pen name Mihu Dragomir in Flamura in 1938.
The late 1930s witnessed a rise of the Iron Guard and other fascist groups; this political setting touched Dragomir's debut years, leading to controversy. In early 1938, Viață și Suflet, managed by Capagea-Rosetti, had already been described in Cuvântul as one of "two good Guardist publications put out from Brăila.""Panopticum. Bloc", in Cuvântul, February 10, 1938, p. 2 In 2005, literary historian Geo Șerban spoke of Dragomir's admiration for the Guardist leader Corneliu Zelea Codreanu, as a "juvenile conviction that poetry will gain its vitality once it embraces the arsenal of Codrenist ideology." A proof of "indisputable adherence to Guardism", such contributions "vanished from [Dragomir's] bibliography".Geo Șerban, "Degetul pe rană", in Contemporanul, Vol. XVI, Issue 7, July 2005, p. 17 Paul Bărbulescu and Virgil Treboniu, former members of a Guardist splinter group called "Crusade of Romanianism","Dela Cruciada Românismului", in Adevărul, September 10, 1936, p. 7 had set up a poetry circle, Adonis. Its eponymous magazine hosted Dragomir's writing; his poems were also featured in the Adonis anthology of love poems, out in late 1939. In 1940, when Dragomir composed a poem named for Edgar Allan Poe, it was published by Adonis and the Ionescu-Tămădău printing press. Those months brought Dragomir's debut as a translator, with versions of poems by Poe (in an edition seen by critic Aurel Martin as "excellent")Aurel Martin, "Dimitrie Stelaru", in România Literară, Issue 10/1992, p. 7 and Charles Baudelaire. By January 1940, Dragomir was present for Bărbulescu's literary sessions, which were also attended by a literary celebrity, Tudor Arghezi. In later years, allegations surfaced that Dragomir himself had affiliated with the Crusade. Paul Cernat, "Anii '50 și Tînărul Scriitor", in Observator Cultural, Issue 285, August 2005
The modernist magazine Prepoem, which was in print during early 1940 and had an anonymized editorial staff, hosted and celebrated Dragomir as a highly valuable talent;Rahova, p. 195 as noted in a 1960 polemical letter by the more senior poet Vintilă Horia, Dragomir was in fact its editor-in-chief, infusing the journal with the fascist agenda.Nicolae Florescu, "Reevaluări. Vintilă Horia și utopia narativă (II)", in Acolada, Issue 6/2013, p. 19 At Prepoem, he announced at the time that he had prepared over six volumes of verse. The Iron Guard ascended to power in late 1940, establishing a "National Legionary State" that lasted to January 1941. This regime was supported by Dragomir and his Flamura, in particular after it emerged that a more senior poet, Ion Barbu, was a Guard affiliate. On December 1, 1940, Dragomir wrote about the "green pennon of the Guard, and the azure pennon of eternal Poetry", flying side by side.Geo Șerban, "Ion Barbu în ecuația anului 1940", in România Literară, Issue 38/1994, p. 13 In 1976, researcher Nicolae Florescu, who published Barbu's thank-you letter, but not Dragomir's original article, calls the latter "rather confusing in its exaltation".Nicolae Florescu, Ion Barbu, "Din dosarul unei existențe. 'Ce mai înseamnă bietele teorii ale poeziei...?'", in Manuscriptum, Vol. VII, Issue 4, 1976, p. 130 As Șerban notes, in his response Barbu seemed not to know, and not to ultimately care, that Dragomir was himself a poet.
Communist reemergence Dragomir survived the civil war of 1941, in which the Guard was chased out by Conducător Ion Antonescu. He resumed university classes in 1942, but was mobilized in 1943 and saw action in World War II until 1945. His service overlapped with the coup of August 23, 1944, which saw Romania abandoning the Axis powers and aligning itself with the Soviet Union—in his later poems, Dragomir described this as an act of national liberation.Catrina, p. 143 He continued his studies, with interruptions, until graduating in 1948. His return to journalism came in late 1944, when Ștefan Baciu hosted his pieces, signed as Miguel y Caramba, in his Humorul magazine.I. Cremer, "Ștefan Baciu și revista Humorul", in România Literară, Issue 34/1990, p. 7 From 1945 to 1946, he was cultural officer in the Romanian Communist Party-affiliated Organization of Progressive Youth (UTP), while his wife, known as "Titi", was employed in an identical position by the Union of Antifascist Women.Vrînceanu & Andronic, p. 52