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Romania Quotes

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Romania Quotes

“Mihai had asked his father about the man one summer when the family went to the Black Sea. His father had picked up a clam shell and held it out for his young son to examine. 'Something used to live here,' he’d said that day. 'This was its house. The inside, the essence of the clam—the part that gave it life—died, and the house became empty.' From the outside, it looked the same as it always had, just like the man. He was a shell of who he used to be.”

EuropeYaHistorical FictionRomaniaBanned Books
Book:One Degree of Freedom
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“Răsăritul lunii sau al soarelui o făceau sa se aprindă într-o nuanță trandafirie sau intens galbenă. Lunecarea stinsă a lunii printre norii alburii o percepea palidă, ca pe o reverie. Lumina vegetal-verzuie a sifoneelor lungi o sileau să clipească vesel, fosforescent. Ondularea algelor brune și albastre o adânceau într-o umbra somnolentă. Fulgerarea unor cârduri de agnați, ori pești electrici, ce înotau uneori pe lângă ea veșnic grăbiți, o înțepau de la distanță și o luminau într-un reflex instabil.”

ConsciousnessScience FictionFeelingRomaniaSentiencePaleo Fiction
Book:Anotimpul sirenelor
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“This Magyar-Vlach hostility is shared to some extent by both peoples. The Hungarians feel themselves to be surrounded by a sea of Slavs and other races with which they have no affinity. It is certainly true that their language has no affinity with the Indo-European languages by which they are surrounded. The Romanians, or some of them, feel that they are an outpost of Latin civilisation set in a hostile sea of Asiatic Magyars and Slavs. The truth is that both peoples inhabit a part of the world which has been overrun, depopulated, repopulated and overrun again so many times through their histories, that any notion of racial integrity is merely absurd. Huns, Avars, Magyars, Turks, Cumans, Pechenegs, Bulgars, Vachs, Ruthenians, Saxons, Austrians, Greeks and just about every other European and Asian people have contributed to the stew. What provides a national integrity, where it can be said to exist at all, is language, and an acknowledgement of a common history. But the fierce hatreds, alas, are unlikely to vanish. Communism kept then below the surface, as it suppressed all forms of dissent and much individuality. Now that the cork has been taken from the bottle, it may be that all sorts of evil spirits will roam abroad and none more dangerous than that romantic nationalism which defines itself by the hostile exclusion of others from the community of what counts as human.”

LanguageCommunismNationalismHungaryRomaniaMagyarSlavsVlach
Book:Roads That Move: A Journey through Eastern Europe
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“Towards the end of the eighteenth century, Russia began a period of rapid expansion with the aim of making the Black Sea a Russsian lake and, ultimately, gaining access to the Mediterranean. Moldavia and Wallachia were importantly situated pawns in that game, while the Western Powers manoeuvred among themselves to exlude Russia from the Balkans. They thereby found themselves propping up a decadent Ottoman Empire while at the same time espousing the values of liberalism or, more often, romantic nationalism. Ideology, usually, but not always, took second place to realpolitik. At the same time, Austria-Hungary hoped to expand south-east into the Balkans.”

RomaniaBalkansOttoman EmpireAustria HungaryMoldovaRussian EmpireBlack SeaWallachia
Book:Roads That Move: A Journey through Eastern Europe
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“Un singur punct cenușiu - meteorit uman, singuratic, lunecând lent prin beznă, printre spiralele albastre... Apoi teleecranul se stinse; undele viorii, minusculului meteorit uman și masiva umbră convexă planetară, ce-l atrăgea, se topiră, în aceeași lumină argintie, ce invadă încăperea, ca un metal fluid opalescent.”

Science FictionSpace ExplorationSpace TravelRomaniaFirst ContactHigh Intensity Realism
Book:Anotimpul sirenelor
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“Să o spunem fără înconjur: deriva dinastică rămâne pentru România o pată ruşinoasă. Nu poate fi invocat un simplu accident al istoriei, e o dereglare izvorâtă din factori binecunoscuţi: insuficienta maturizare politică, cultura acceptării mai curând decât a rezistenţei, reflexulpaternalist... Românii l-au avut pe Ceauşescu fiindcă l-au meritat (nu toţi, dar mulți). Orice societate are ceea ce merită.”

RomaniaIstorieCeausescu
Book:De ce este România altfel?
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“My first book published in France was translated and titled Exercices d'Attente in 1972. It was a collection of short works written and published in Romania. In 1973 I was ready to publish the novel Arpièges, which I had started writing in Romanian and of which I had published some fragments under the title Vain Art of the Fugue. Some years later, I finished Necessary Marriage.”

WritingYearsFirstsArtBookNovelWrittenReadyFinishedFranceVainTitlesCollectionsFragmentsPublishRomaniaFugue
Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
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“It's true that in Romanian I feel more relaxed, as if I'm wearing slippers...but I came to this decision primarily for other reasons: I had only published three collections of texts in Romania. Even before my exile I was prohibited from publishing, I was ignored and forgotten. In going back to Romanian I had the opportunity to take my revenge.”

IfsFeelsReasonThreeOpportunityDecisionForgottenRevengeCollectionsPublishingIgnoredRelaxedExileSlippersRomania
Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
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“I was a professional chess player in Romania, but only a small-time master. When I came to France, I continued playing chess for many years: I played tournaments in numerous countries with mixed results. I wrote and published a book - La Défense Alekhine and translated two others from Russian. I taught chess in schools; I earned more money through chess than through literature.”

YearsTwoBookCountrySchoolLiteratureResultsPlayerTaughtMastersChessFranceMore MoneyTournamentsChess PlayersPlaying ChessRomaniaAlekhine
Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
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“Seine et Danube was launched in 2003 with the help of Romanian authorities who had finally realized the necessity of promoting literature and Romanian culture in general. Along with focusing on the literature of the countries the Danube traversed (with an emphasis on Romania), we printed work that interested us from the banks of the Seine: French and French-Romanian authors like Cioran and Fondane. We dedicated our last edition to surrealism and Esthetic Onirisme.”

CountryHelpingLastsCultureLiteratureAuthorityDedicatedEmphasisPromotingPrintedSurrealismRomaniaDanube
Author:Dumitru Tepeneag
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