Luceafărul (originally spelled Luceafĕrul according to obsolete norms; ; variously rendered as "The Morning Star", "The Evening Star", "The Vesper", "The Daystar", or "Lucifer") is a narrative poem by Romanian author Mihai Eminescu. It was first published in 1883, out of Vienna, by Romanian expatriates in Austria-Hungary. It is generally considered Eminescu's masterpiece, one of the greatest accomplishments in Romanian literature, and one of the last milestones in Europe's romantic poetry. One in a family or "constellation" of poems, it took Eminescu ten years to conceive, its final shape being partly edited by the philosopher Titu Maiorescu. During this creative process, Eminescu distilled Romanian folklore, Romantic themes, and various staples of Indo-European myth, arriving from a versified fairy tale to a mythopoeia, a self-reflection on his condition as a genius, and an illustration of his philosophy of love.
The eponymous celestial being, also referred to as "Hyperion", is widely identified as Eminescu's alter ego; he combines elements of fallen angels, daimons, incubi, but is neither mischievous nor purposefully seductive. His daily mission on the firmament is interrupted by the calls of Princess Cătălina, who asks for him to "glide down" and become her mate. He is persuaded by her to relinquish his immortality, which would require approval from a third protagonist, the Demiurge. The Morning Star seeks the Demiurge at the edge of the Universe, but only receives a revelation of mankind's irrelevancy. In his brief absence, the Princess is seduced by a fellow mortal. As he returns to his place in the sky, Hyperion understands that the Demiurge was right.
Luceafărul enjoys fame not just as a poetic masterpiece, but also as one of the last works completed and read publicly by Eminescu before his debilitating mental illness and hospitalization. It has endured in cultural memory as both the object of critical scrutiny and a strong favorite of the public. Its translators into various languages include figures such as Rafael Alberti, Günther Deicke, Zoltán Franyó, Mite Kremnitz, Omar Lara, Leon Levițchi, Mate Maras, Corneliu M. Popescu, David Samoylov, Immanuel Weissglas, Todur Zanet, and Vilém Závada. The poem left a distinct legacy in literary works by Mircea Eliade, Emil Loteanu, Alexandru Vlahuță, and, possibly, Ingeborg Bachmann. It has also inspired composers Nicolae Bretan and Eugen Doga, as well as various visual artists.
Outline Luceafărul opens as a typical fairy tale, with a variation of "once upon a time" and a brief depiction of its female character, a "wondrous maiden", the only child of a royal couple—her name, Cătălina, will only be mentioned once, in the poem's 46th stanza. She is shown waiting impatiently for nightfall, when she gazes upon the Morning Star: —translation by Corneliu M. Popescu,quoted in Kenneth Katzner, The Languages of the World, p. 113. London etc.: Routledge, 2002.
Hyperion senses her attention and gazes back, and, although a non-physical entity, also begins to desire her company. Sliding through her window when she is asleep, he caresses Cătălina as she dreams of him. In one such a moment, she moans for him to "glide down upon a ray" and become her betrothed. Urged on by this command, the Morning Star hurls himself into the sea, reemerging as a "fair youth", or "handsome corpse with living eyes".
Returning to Cătălina while she is awake, Hyperion proposes that they elope to his "coral castles" at the bottom of the sea; this horrifies the Princess, who expresses her refusal of a "lifeless" and "alien" prospect—although she still appears bedazzled by his "angel" looks. However, within days she returns to dreaming of the Morning Star and unconsciously asking for him to "glide down". This time, he appears to her a creature of fire, offering Cătălina a place in his celestial abode. She again expresses her refusal, and compares Hyperion's new form to that of a daimon. In this restated form, her refusal reads: —translation by Leon Levițchi, in Prickett, p. 237 (using "daemon"); in Săndulescu, p. 16 (has "demon").
Cătălina is not interested in acquiring immortality, but asks that he join the mortal realm, to be "reborn in sin"; Hyperion agrees, and to this end abandons his place on the firmament to seek out the Demiurge. This requires him to travel to the edge of the Universe, into a cosmic void. Once there, the Demiurge laughs off his request; he informs Hyperion that human experience is futile, and that becoming human would be a return to "yesterday's eternal womb". He orders Hyperion back to his celestial place, obliquely telling him that something "in store" on Earth will prove the point.
Indeed, while Hyperion was missing, Cătălina had found herself courted, then slowly seduced, by a "conniving" courtly page, Cătălin. The poem's "tragic denouement allots each of the three lovers their own sphere with frontiers impossible to trespass."Prickett, p. 231 As he resumes his place on the firmament, Hyperion catches sight of the happy couple Cătălin and Cătălina. She gazes back and calls on him, but only as a witness to, and good-luck charm for, her new love. The last two stanzas show Hyperion returning to his silent, self-absorbed, activities: —translation by Levițchi, in Prickett, p. 249; in Săndulescu, p. 25.
Publication history As noted by the editor Perpessicius, during the interwar a "most absurd" urban legend had spread, according to which Eminescu had written the poem on the night train taking him to Bucharest.Perpessicius, pp. 274, 290, 317, 434 In fact, several drafts of the poem exist, some as long as the finished piece. Perpessicius rates these as "standalone types" and, in 1938, opted to publish them as separate pieces in his companion to Eminescu's work,Perpessicius, pp. 297, 388 with philologist Petru Creția calling them the "Luceafărul constellation". Antonio Patraș, "Eminescu, poet al nopții. Lecturi în palimpsest", in Convorbiri Literare, February 2015 Its earliest recognizable component is Fata-n grădina de aur ("Girl in the Garden of Gold"), written 1873, when Eminescu was in Berlin. It was the ottava rima version of a Romanian folklore prose-piece—retrieved by the Silesian Richard Kunisch and published in 1861 Das Mädchen im goldenen Garten.Caracostea, pp. 36, 45–74, 77–80, 90, 96–132, 137–139, 196–197; Perpessicius, pp. 207–210, 232–233, 276–278, 297. See also Bucur, pp. 454–458; Culianu, pp. 73–74; Gerota, pp. 378–379; Kernbach, p. 325; Lovinescu (1943), pp. 211–212; Marin, pp. 45–46 The source was cryptically identified as "the German K." in Eminescu's notebooks, and the bibliographic information was pieced together by Moses Gaster.Caracostea, pp. 49–50, 105
Entire portions of the later poem also surface in another piece of the period. Called Peste codri stă cetatea ("Over the Woods There Stands a City"), it briefly depicts the Princess dreaming of her chosen one, the Morning Star.Perpessicius, pp. 217–219 Eminescu made several discreet returns to his drafts, adding the central theme of the Hyperion as a misunderstood genius, and finally in April 1882 went public with Legenda Luceafĕrului ("Legend of the Morning Star").Perpessicius, pp. 200, 207–208, 241–242, 246, 276–278. See also Caracostea, pp. 124–149, 172–195 He was in Bucharest as a guest of the Junimea society, where he read out the variant on April 17; he then worked closely with its doyen Titu Maiorescu, who helped him with critical insight. During these exchanges, the work acquired its celebrated final stanza.Perpessicius, pp. 104, 208, 241–242, 273–274, 277–278 There followed a second reading on April 24, when, in his diaries, Maiorescu recorded the "beautiful legend" simply as Luceafărul.Lovinescu (1943), pp. 196–197, 212; Perpessicius, p. 241
Maiorescu endorsed the work and promoted it with public readings in both Bucharest and Buftea, lasting into January 1883, and attended by Eminescu, Petre P. Carp, Alexandru B. Știrbei, and Ioan Slavici.Lovinescu (1943), pp. 69–70, 197, 212. See also Constantinescu, p. 33 First published in Almanachulŭ Societății Academice Socialŭ-Literare Romănia Jună, put out by the Romanian colony of Vienna in April 1883, it was taken up in August by the Junimist tribune, Convorbiri Literare.Perpessicius, pp. 262, 265, 273, 278, 353, 382, 383; Săndulescu, p. 25. See also Caracostea, pp. 124, 215–216; Lovinescu (1943), p. 230 At some point in this interval, Eminescu had fallen terminally ill, and was sent to an Oberdöbling asylum for treatment. Around November 1883, as he began work on a first edition of Eminescu's collected poems, Maiorescu decided to cut out four stanzas—those detailing negotiations between Hyperion and Demiurge—, in an effort to improve flow.Perpessicius, pp. 71, 264–265, 271–273, 278, 351, 353–354, 374. See also Caracostea, pp. 215–218; Lovinescu (1943), p. 230 This puzzled later editors: in his own volume, Garabet Ibrăileanu kept the omission, but included the missing part as an appendix,Perpessicius, p. 374 while D. R. Mazilu hesitated between the versions in his search for an "ideal" and "purified" Luceafărul.Bucur, pp. 381–382
In terms of vocabulary and linguistic purism, scholar Iorgu Iordan assessed that three out of 98 Luceafărul stanzas have words of exclusively old-layer Latin provenance, with some 30 additional stanzas featuring only one or two non-Latin words.Iorgu Iordan, "Observații cu privire la limba poeziilor lui Eminescu", in Studii eminesciene. 75 de ani de la moartea poetului, p. 531. Bucharest: Editura pentru literatură, 1965 Running at 392 lines in its unabridged version, the work alternates iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. This is an old pattern in Romanian poetry, previously observed in Dosoftei's preamble to Erofili,Ion C. Chițimia, "Școala ardeleană. Începuturile literaturii române moderne", in Alexandru Dima, Ion C. Chițimia, Paul Cornea, Eugen Todoran (eds.), Istoria literaturii române. II: De la Școala Ardeleană la Junimea, p. 25. Bucharest: Editura Academiei, 1968 and is described by critic as "lapidary, enunciative, solemn in its simplicity." Alex. Ștefănescu, "Despre Luceafărul", in România Literară, Nr. 34/2015 The rhythmic sequencing has created a long-standing dilemma about the intended pronunciation of Hyperion: while common Romanian phonology favors Hypérion, the text suggests that Eminescu used Hyperión.Calotă, pp. 12–15 Artistic license also surfaces in the apparent pleonasm, with which Cătălina beckons Hyperion: Cobori în jos, luceafăr blând ("Descend down, gentle Morning Star"). Some Eminescu exegetes see here an intellectual stress on the separation between the realms, breached by "divine descent into humanity", Ilie Constantin, "Cătălina, Hyperion, Cătălin", in România Literară, Nr. 1/2000 or the repetition one associates with incantation.
Themes and allusions Mythology