Nichita Stanescu is generally recognized as the preeminent Romanian poet of the post-World War II period. His charismatic personality cast a spell over the Romanian audience, and for many he came to assume almost mythical status. Stanescu belonged to the generation of poets that emerged in the 1960s and included Cezar Baltag, Ana Blandiana, Ioan Alexandru, Ileana Malancioiu, Grigore Hagiu, Petre Stoica, Constanþa Buzea, and Adrian Paunescu. Determined to rejuvenate Romanian poetry with a renewed sense of artistic purpose, this generation revived the creative impulse that had been interrupted by the Soviet occupation of the country and a decade of the Moscow-imposed doctrine of socialist realism. Emulating the nineteenth-century Romantic poet Mihai Eminescu, Stanescu remained faithful to his national identity but nonetheless created a poetry that was independent of Romanian literary traditions.

Born on 31 March 1933 in Ploiesti in southern Romania, Stanescu was the first of seven...