Doina, or Doină (sometimes translated as "Lament"),Mihăilescu, p. 92; Neubauer, p. 14 is a political poem by the Romanian Mihai Eminescu. It was first published in 1883 and is therefore seen by some as Eminescu's final work in verse, although it may actually be an 1870s piece, inspired or enhanced by the perceived injustice of the Berlin Treaty. A variation of the doina (plural: doine), picked up from Romanian folklore, it is noticeably angry to the point of rhetorical violence, a radical expression of Romanian nationalism against invading "foreigners", with additional hints of ecopoetry and "anti-technicist" discourse. Doina delineates the ideal geographical space of Greater Romania, at a time when Romanian-inhabited regions were divided between an independent kingdom and multinational empires. Its final lines call on Stephen the Great, depicted as a sleeping hero, to take up the cause of Romanians and chase foreigners out with the sound of his horn. The same basic themes appear in another poem by Eminescu, the anthem-like La arme ("To Arms"), which is sometimes discussed as a variant of Doina.
Expressly anti-Russian, also read as antisemitic, anti-German, anti-Greek, anti-Hungarian, and anti-Ukrainian, Doina has been described as "chauvinistic" and "minor" by some critics, "beautiful" by others. It has been present in the Romanian curriculum since the 1890s, while also serving as subversive literature among Romanian communities in the Russian Empire. During the interwar, with Greater Romania established as a political reality, Doina became a rallying call for revolutionary nationalists and fascists. It was deemed problematic and censored during the communist period, although tacitly endorsed under the regime's latter, national-communist, phase. It was recited in more or less formal contexts by Ludovic Antal, Victor Eftimiu, and Adrian Păunescu, and subject to several admiring nods from President Nicolae Ceaușescu. The poem returned in focus during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 and after, when it also became a public symbol of Romanian identity in Moldova.
Outline Doina opens with a localization of the Romanian space, highlighting regions which were at the time in Russia and Austria-Hungary: —translation by Mirela Adăscăliței, in Oișteanu, p. 199
Eminescu moves focus on Bessarabia, depicted as raided by "muscali" on horseback; on Bukovina, with foreigners as "caterpillars" and stalkers of the local Romanians; then on Transylvania, crossed by the foreigners' "inroads". Overall, the projected country is aflush with intruders and the Romanian is a "foreigner in his own land"; birds are chased away, songs are extinguished, and the forest, "brother of the Romanian", is depleted. The description of this desolate landscape ends in imprecation: —translation by James Christian Brown, in Boia, p. 59
The ending of Doina is Eminescu's contribution to a "trans-historical"Boia, p. 194 cult of Prince Stephen, who had consolidated Moldavia's statehood in the 15th century: —translation by Brown, in Boia, pp. 194–195
Background
A poet as well as a folklorist, Eminescu was well acquainted with the traditional forms of Romanian poetry, and wrote several poems in folkloric style—his Transylvanian enemy, Alexandru Grama, could therefore claim that Eminescu had simply plagiarized Transylvanian doine.Grama, pp. 204–205 As noted by Eminescu expert Perpessicius, one of his first published works, taken up by Familia in the 1860s, was a "type of doina" or a "pseudo-doina".Perpessicius (2001), pp. 142, 414 Another variation on that pattern is addressed to "His Majesty, The Forest" (Codrule, Măria ta), with the poet asking to be turned into a tree branch, rocking into eternal slumber.Călinescu, pp. 195, 220–221 Seen by scholars as an early draft of Doina, it was described as "hollow" and "rudimentary" by critic Constanța Marinescu.Bucur, p. 375 However, according to Călinescu, such works sound less "gauche" than actual folk poetry, as polished for print by Vasile Alecsandri.Călinescu, p. 220 Contrarily, Perpessicius asserts that Eminescu was less talented that Alecsandri, never matching his work as a folklorist or folklore-inspired versifier.Perpessicius (2001), p. 427 According to scholar Marin Bucur, Marinescu is essentially wrong in treating the draft as an actual poem, and also in failing to see why Doina itself is a worthy piece.Bucur, pp. 375–376
Eminescu's interest in doine only peaked after 1877, when he was living as a journalist in Bucharest, and began systematic readings from collections of folk poetry.Perpessicius (2001), pp. 325, 441–442 They were integrated into a vast fund of drafts and versions for Doina, which, as noted by Perpessicius, cannot realistically be published together as a critical instrument.Perpessicius (2001), pp. 395, 401 In its final form, Doina is popularly associated with the unveiling at Iași, in June 1883, of a monument to Prince Stephen. Eminescu was by then erratic and fatigued, displaying, already from May 1883, the early stages of a mental breakdown.Călinescu, p. 165; Perpessicius (1944), p. 3 Lodging with Ion Creangă in Iași, he shocked his old friend by brandishing a revolver, explained by the poet as a defense against unspecified enemies.Călinescu, p. 165 He never actually attended the unveiling of Stephen's statue, either because he feared his apparent collapse would generate gossip and public ridicule, or because an old enemy, Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu, had announced his participation;Mihai Ogrinji, "Monumentele neamului. 100 de ani de la dezvelirea statuii lui Ștefan cel Mare", in România Pitorească, Issue 6/1983, p. 10 he did however show up for parallel ceremonies at Junimea society. It was there that he first read his Doina, on June 4.Călinescu, p. 165; Grama, pp. 203–206; Irimia (1984), pp. 1–2 The audience was reportedly enthusiastic, and moved in to hug Eminescu.Grama, pp. 204–205; Irimia (1984), p. 1; Perpessicius (1944), p. 3 Doina was first published by the Junimist monthly Convorbiri Literare on July 1.Perpessicius (1944), p. 1
An emotional Creangă later claimed that his friend had written the poem over those few days, at Creangă's own home, the peasant-style Bojdeuca.Arthur Gorovei, Alte vremuri. Amintiri literare, pp. 62–63. Fălticeni: J. Bendit, 1930 Scholar Dumitru Caracostea similarly believes that Doina is the last of Eminescu's poems, composed just before "his collapse in 1883".Caracostea, p. 291 This is contradicted by other accounts. Researcher D. Murărașu believes that Eminescu had actually completed the poem 13 years before, while present at Putna for Prince Stephen's commemoration, and merely reused it for the 1883 feast.
Eminescu's friend Ioan Slavici describes Doina as the final work in which the poet voices his "faith in the coming national prosperity." As the illness took over, he became convinced "that he no longer had any purpose in this world".Ioan Slavici, "Eminescu la București", in Viața Romînească, Vol. XIV, Issue 7, July 1922, p. 18 Eminescu expert Dumitru Irimia groups Doina and Luceafărul into Eminescu's "final effort". He proposes that Eminescu, sensing his "mental equilibrium" slipping away, concentrated on finishing up both works, which outline his universal and social queries.Irimia (1984), pp. 1–3 However, he dates the earliest recognizable drafts of Doina to 1878, and Eminescu's anger over the Berlin Treaty, which awarded Southern Bessarabia (the Budjak) to Russia, noting parallels with the author's political columns, taken up by Timpul in the early 1880s.Irimia (1984), pp. 2, 4 & (2003), pp. 140–142 According to Perpessicius, while the poem's references to rail transport may correspond to the unraveling of the Strousberg Affair, Doina is the product of 1878, written "a day after [the Budjak's] cession [...], five years before the celebrations in Iași". He believes that Doina was in any event completed in December 1882, which was the original date set for the inauguration of Stephen's statue.Perpessicius (1944), p. 2 In 1883, Eminescu had written two hymns about Stephen in preparation for the celebrations in Iași, but never used them.Mănicuță, p. 83
Themes Xenophobia debate Overt and oblique levels Himself a nationalist, Nicolae Iorga described the piece as both "beautiful" and "political", marked by Eminescu's "hatred of an unrelenting foreign invasion".Nicolae Iorga, Istoria literaturii românești contemporane. I: Crearea formei (1867–1890), p. 293. Bucharest: Editura Adevĕrul, 1934 Without endorsing the political message, critic Nicolae Manolescu also found Eminescu's piece aesthetically pleasing. Daniel Cristea-Enache, Nicolae Manolescu, "Autobiografice. Despre bucuria lecturii", in Literatura de Azi, November 27, 2015 Other commentators disagree with these verdicts. Constantin Coroiu describes Doina as "not a masterpiece, not even a small one", Constantin Coroiu, "Duiliu Zamfirescu, Basarabia și Bucovina", in Cultura, Issue 389, September 2012 while Z. Ornea includes it among Eminescu's lesser poems, a "modest work in verse". Z. Ornea, "Un doctrinar legionar de azi", in România Literară, Issue 37/2000 Essayist Nicolae Steinhardt took an intermediary position. While he recognized Doina as inferior to Eminescu's philosophical poetry, he proposed that the verse still had "beauty bubbling like geysers", the beauty of "Thracian rocks collapsing". "N. Steinhardt către I. Negoițescu: Trei scrisori inedite", in Apostrof, Issue 2/2013
Grama, who saw himself as a fellow nationalist, accused Eminescu of insincerity, noting that the message of Doina contrasted first and foremost with Eminescu's own recourse to "cosmopolitan" themes in his other work.Grama, pp. 40–41, 90–91, 203–204 Also according to Grama, the "idiotic" poet wrote apocalyptic verse at a time when Romanians' fates were actually improving.Grama, pp. 90–91 This verdict is not shared by other commentators. In 1934, critic Mihail Dragomirescu argued that Doina and Scrisoarea III contained Eminescu's "innermost thoughts", which led to Simion Bărnuțiu, "Romanianism", and "national mysticism".Mihail Dragomirescu, Istoria literaturii române în secolul XX, după o nouă metodă. Sămănătorism, poporanism, criticism, pp. 11–12. Bucharest: Editura Institutului de Literatură, 1934 Caracostea defines the poem as an "excruciating ethnic elegy", and a sample of the "liveliest indignation"—reserved by Eminescu for politics and social commentary.Caracostea, pp. 244, 291 According to scholar Lucian Boia, Eminescu's poetry is overall the best expression of an "anti-cosmopolitan" drive in Romanian nationalism. Boia sees Doina as sketching out Eminescu's "dream": "a pure Romanian civilization, untouched by foreign influences and still less by the effective presence of foreigners."Boia, p. 59 Irimia notes the work for "absolutely confound[ing]" the poetic self with national identity,Irimia (1984), p. 2 "taking on the historical being of the Romanians [and] harmonizing it with the sacred dimension of the universal being."Irimia (2003), p. 140 According to musicologist Carmen Manea, both Doina and Scrisoarea III resemble in intent Frédéric Chopin's Polonaises. Nicolae Mareș, "Eminescu și Chopin – similitudini și paralele", in România Literară, Issue 24/2016