About the Author

Marin Sorescu was born in the village of Bulzesçti, Dolj, in the south of Romania, the fifth child of a family of peasants; his father – an avid reader – died when he was three. He published his first poems in 1959, in magazines. After studying Russian and then Romanian at the University of Iasçi, he became editor in 1963 of the literary journal Luceafarul, and from 1966 to 1972 was editor-in-chief of the Animafilm Cinematographic Studios.

He was able to take up overseas residencies from time to time, including at the University of Iowa (1970-71) and in West Berlin (1973-74 and 1990), and received many national and international literary awards. From 1978 he edited the literary review Ramuri, and in 1990 founded a new journal, Literatorul; he was also director of the Romanian Writer Publishing House. He usually managed to avoid direct conflict with the authorities, although in the early 1980s he was sentenced to three months of house arrest, and ran into difficulties over his work; 150 pages were cut from a large novel published in 1977. At times when he could not publish or, later in the difficult 1980s, felt very restricted, Sorescu, who had always drawn and doodled, often illustrating his books, began oil-painting with seriousness; his first one-man show was in Brasçov in 1989.

Introducing his work to a Berlin audience in 1990, Sorescu commented ruefully on the censors’ role in shaping his output: ‘Since my very first book, I have been a client of the censor’s. Irony is suspicious, and so is jokes… Everything I wrote was put under the microscope. Many poems were continually returned with the explanation “it isn’t the right moment” or “these verses could be interpreted”. I was able to put some of them into later books. Some I didn’t dare to print – on the contrary I hid them so well that even today I’m unable to find them…The permanent catastrophe of being delivered up to censorship has its good side. You’re sure to find a pair of faithful and attentive readers.’