Saşa Pană (1902–1981)

I'm rating this 5 stars in spite of the lower quality of later poems included in this book, mostly because all the poems between 1930-1942 (and some poems after that) are absolutely magical, and would deserve a lot more popularity.

Saşa Pană, for those not in the know, is one of the leaders of the Romanian avant-garde - more exactly, he lead one of the most prolific magazines of the Romanian avant-garde: "unu" (one). Reading these poems, I have to admit that Saşa Pană wasn't exactly a fierce person or something, but the Dadaist and Surrealist influences did well. His style could be placed between the less adventurous Dadaism of Tristan Tzara, the metaphore explosions of Ilarie Voronca and, partially, the tone of Ion Vinea. But his results are something unique.… (meer)

I think this is by far the best anthology on this subject so far. Quite a few anthologies have been made in the past few decades, but none reached the quantity and quality of this one. It has been critiqued that some authors don't belong in there (like Tudor Arghezi or Ion Barbu), but, truth to be said, at least the works in this book look Modernist enough to fit in the landscape, while there are authors like Ion Vitner or Barbu Florian who actually dabbled with the avant-garde movement itself, but whose styles aren't Modernist enough. In the case of Barbu Florian, it's just someone who talks about the subject of the avant-garde, instead of practising it. In that case, Saşa Pană could might as well have introduced Lucian Boz (the first who critiqued Urmuz) or Eugen Filotti (who shared sympathies). Anyway, the rest is the best. There are lots of rarities (at that time, most of the texts were new to almost everybody) included, there are even some extracts from texts which appeared in one-offs (see Virgil Teodorescu's "Poem în leopardă" ("Poem in Leopard"), for instance). Which is marvellous. Together, all these authors really form a parallel literature that doesn't have much to do with the "usual", everyday universally-accepted literature... And come to think that, at that time, people were still being fed up with Socialist realism, although not in the same extent as in the '50s...

Edit: Since I have first written this review, I have come to realize that Marin Mincu has done a much better anthology for readers, but for researchers this one may still hold much interest.… (meer)

I'm rating this 5 stars in spite of the lower quality of later poems included in this book, mostly because all the poems between 1930-1942 (and some poems after that) are absolutely magical, and would deserve a lot more popularity.

Saşa Pană, for those not in the know, is one of the leaders of the Romanian avant-garde - more exactly, he lead one of the most prolific magazines of the Romanian avant-garde: "unu" (one). Reading these poems, I have to admit that Saşa Pană wasn't exactly a fierce person or something, but the Dadaist and Surrealist influences did well. His style could be placed between the less adventurous Dadaism of Tristan Tzara, the metaphore explosions of Ilarie Voronca and, partially, the tone of Ion Vinea. But his results are something unique.… (meer)

I think this is by far the best anthology on this subject so far. Quite a few anthologies have been made in the past few decades, but none reached the quantity and quality of this one. It has been critiqued that some authors don't belong in there (like Tudor Arghezi or Ion Barbu), but, truth to be said, at least the works in this book look Modernist enough to fit in the landscape, while there are authors like Ion Vitner or Barbu Florian who actually dabbled with the avant-garde movement itself, but whose styles aren't Modernist enough. In the case of Barbu Florian, it's just someone who talks about the subject of the avant-garde, instead of practising it. In that case, Saşa Pană could might as well have introduced Lucian Boz (the first who critiqued Urmuz) or Eugen Filotti (who shared sympathies). Anyway, the rest is the best. There are lots of rarities (at that time, most of the texts were new to almost everybody) included, there are even some extracts from texts which appeared in one-offs (see Virgil Teodorescu's "Poem în leopardă" ("Poem in Leopard"), for instance). Which is marvellous. Together, all these authors really form a parallel literature that doesn't have much to do with the "usual", everyday universally-accepted literature... And come to think that, at that time, people were still being fed up with Socialist realism, although not in the same extent as in the '50s...

Edit: Since I have first written this review, I have come to realize that Marin Mincu has done a much better anthology for readers, but for researchers this one may still hold much interest.… (meer)