Maria Banuș (born Marioara Banuș; April 10, 1914 – July 14, 1999) was a

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

n poet, essayist, prose writer and translator. Born into a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ro, București ) is the capital and largest city of Romania, as well as its cultural, industrial, and financial centre. It is located in the southeast of the country, on the banks of the Dâmbovița River, less than north of ...

, her parents were Max Banuș, an accountant and later a director at the Carol Street branch of Marmorosch Blank Bank, and his wife Anette (''née'' Marcus). Due to her fragile health, she began primary school with private lessons, taking tests at the Lucaci Street School from 1920 to 1923. She attended high school at the Pompilian Institute from 1923 to 1931, and from 1931 to 1934, studied at the

University of Bucharest The University of Bucharest ( ro, Universitatea din București), commonly known after its abbreviation UB in Romania, is a public university founded in its current form on by a decree of Prince Alexandru Ioan Cuza to convert the former Princel ...

's faculties of law and literature. She made her published debut as an adolescent, with the poem "14 ani", which appeared in '' Bilete de Papagal'' in 1928, under her birth name Marioara Banuș. In 1932, while she was a student, her poems appeared in

Zaharia Stancu Zaharia Stancu (; October 7, 1902 – December 5, 1974) was a Romanian prose writer, novelist, poet, and philosopher. He was also the director of the National Theatre Bucharest, the President of the Writers' Union of Romania, and a titular memb ...

's ''Azi'' magazine, as did her translations from Rainer Maria Rilke and

Arthur Rimbaud Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (, ; 20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he start ...

. It was Stancu who changed her given name to Maria. Her first book, ''Țara fetelor'', appeared to cordial reviews in 1937. The 1939 ''Poeme'' includes selections of her own verses as well as translations from Rilke. At that point, she ceased writing and entered the anti-fascist movement that unfolded under the aegis of the banned Romanian Communist Party, an experience recalled in the diary of which she published fragments in 1977, as ''Sub camuflaj''. The

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

-era Ion Antonescu regime officially banned her entire work as "Jewish". Liviu Rotman (ed.),
Demnitate în vremuri de restriște
', p. 174. Bucharest: Editura Hasefer, Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania & Elie Wiesel National Institute for Studying the Holocaust in Romania, 2008. After the war and with the rise of the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state that is administered and governed by a communist party guided by Marxism–Leninism. Marxism–Leninism was the state ideology of the Soviet Union, the Cominte ...

, she entered opinion journalism, writing for ''Gazeta literară'', ''

Contemporanul ''Contemporanul'' (The Contemporary) is a Romanian literary magazine published in Iaşi, Romania from 1881 to 1891. It was sponsored by the socialist circle of the city. A new magazine ''Contimporanul ''Contimporanul'' (antiquated spelling of ...

'', ''Steaua'' and ''

Viața Românească ''Viața Românească'' (, "The Romanian Life") is a monthly literary magazine published in Romania. Formerly the platform of the left-wing traditionalist trend known as poporanism, it is now one of the Writers' Union of Romania's main venues. ...

''. Her books ''Bucurie'' (1949), ''Despre pământ'', (1954), ''Ție-ți vorbesc, Americă'' (1955), and ''Se arată lumea'' (1956) were expressions of the regime's officially sanctioned

socialist realism Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War II. Socialist realism is c ...

. These writings brought her prizes and medals, public recognition, publication in schoolbooks and translation into foreign languages, as well as lavish praise from subservient critics such as Dumitru Micu, but also

Tudor Vianu Tudor Vianu (; January 8, 1898 – May 21, 1964) was a Romanian literary critic, art critic, poet, philosopher, academic, and translator. He had a major role on the reception and development of Modernism in Romanian literature and art. He was m ...

. During this period, she translated poets favored by the authorities ( Pablo Neruda,

Nâzım Hikmet Mehmed Nâzım Ran (15 January 1902 – 3 June 1963), Note: 403 Forbidden error received 10 October 2022. commonly known as Nâzım Hikmet (), was a Turkish-Polish poet, playwright, novelist, screenwriter, director, and memoirist. He was ...

Nikola Vaptsarov Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov ( bg, Никола Йонков Вапцаров; 7 December 1909 – 23 July 1942) was a Bulgarian poet, communist and revolutionary. Working most of his life as a machinist, he only wrote in his spare time. Despite the ...

), as well as fine versions of classic authors such as

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

Alexander Pushkin Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...

and

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as t ...

. She wrote several short poetry books in the same style: ''Torentul'' (1957), ''Poezii'' (1958), ''Magnet'' (1962), ''Metamorfoze'' (1963), and ''Diamantul'' (1965). In the mid-1960s, Banuș underwent a significant break with her earlier style, causing her to re-evaluate her politics as well as the proper role of the artist. The subsequent volumes, starting with ''Tocmai ieșeam din arenă'' (1967), ''Portretul din Fayum'' (1970) and ''Oricine și ceva'' (1972), and through ''Orologiu cu figuri'' (1984) or ''Carusel'' (1989), showcase some of her recurring themes, but also emphasize the presence of a profoundly altered universe, expressed tragically or playfully and underscoring the extent of her lyricism. Her 1980 ''Himera'' includes short evocative prose pieces, essays and confessions; her two plays (''Ziua cea mare'', 1951; ''Oaspeți de la mansardă'', 1978) are insignificant. She published anthologies of German poetry (1969), modern Austrian poetry (1970) and worldwide love poetry (1974; 1987). She won the

Romanian Academy The Romanian Academy ( ro, Academia Română ) is a cultural forum founded in Bucharest, Romania, in 1866. It covers the scientific, artistic and literary domains. The academy has 181 active members who are elected for life. According to its byl ...

's George Coșbuc Prize in 1949, the State Prize in 1951, the special prize of the

Romanian Writers' Union The Writers' Union of Romania (), founded in March 1949, is a professional association of writers in Romania. It also has a subsidiary in Chișinău, Republic of Moldova. The Writers' Union of Romania was created by the communist regime by taking ...

in 1986 and the Herder Prize in 1989.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 104. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004. Banuș died in Bucharest in 1999.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Banus, Maria 1914 births 1999 deaths 20th-century Romanian poets Romanian women poets Socialist realism writers Romanian Communist Party politicians 20th-century Romanian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century translators Romanian translators English–Romanian translators French–Romanian translators German–Romanian translators Russian–Romanian translators Translators of William Shakespeare Translators of Alexander Pushkin 20th-century diarists Romanian diarists Romanian anthologists Jewish Romanian writers banned by the Antonescu regime Herder Prize recipients Writers from Bucharest University of Bucharest alumni