Romance from Eastern Europe

It has been 550 years since the existence of the city of Bucharest was first recorded in writing, and "A Month of Bucharest in Prague," a multigenre festival of Romanian culture ongoing at several venues, is a celebration befitting just such an occasion.

Sponsored by the Romanian Cultural Institute and featuring photography exhibitions, poetry readings, lectures, film screenings, concerts and theater performances, the festival promises to bring the best of Romania's rich culture - past and present - to the Golden City, says Viviana Chetraru of the Romanian Cultural Institute.

"We've also organized a quiz for the Prague public with a prize of a weekend for two in Bucharest," she said. "The winner will go to Bucharest to directly experience the city, not only through our events organized in Prague."

One festival highlight takes place Sept. 25 at the café Krásný ztráty, located near Charles Bridge. The evening will feature a reading of the work of Romanian poet Nichita Stanescu (1933-83) in Czech and Romanian, as well as a screening of a documentary - with English subtitles - on Stanescu's life and times.

Considered by many to be Romania's greatest modern poet, Stanescu has a special connection to Prague, having first visited the city in 1963 on his first trip outside Romania. In his short life, Stanescu received nearly every literary award in his home country and was nominated for the Nobel Prize for literature in 1980. Adam J. Sorkin, the leading American translator of Romanian poetry, called Stanescu a "born poet," saying "his brilliant command of his resources and quicksilver wit went to the heart of poetry in the Romanian language."

Stanescu was an unusually versatile poet, writing seditious poems under the communist regime that may resonate with local audiences, as well as tender verses that express the pure naivety of love, such as this one, titled simply "Poem" in a translation from Thomas Carlson and Vasile Poenaru.

Tell me, if I caught you one day

and kissed the sole of your foot,

wouldn't you limp a little then,

afraid to crush my kiss?

A discussion on "Literature in Communism" will also take place that evening, with literary critic and scholar Eugen Negrici. Admission to the event and the festival as a whole is free.

Also on the agenda is the photo exhibition "Bucharest in Transition" Sept. 29 at the Romanian Cultural Institute, which results from a contest challenging Romanian photographers to capture the essence of their native city in the midst of transition from gritty post-Soviet landscape to vibrant European capital. Even "participants were surprised by the warm human personality of the city, and their photographs are often loaded with unintentional charm and humor," according to the statement accompanying the exhibition.

And the rest of the varied festival lineup seems to show equal promise for hidden charm, as well.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com