Ion Chinezu (August 15, 1894 – December 10, 1966) was an Austro-Hungarian-born

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

n literary critic and translator.

Biography

Born in Sântana de Mureș,

Mureș County Mureș County (, , ) is a county (''județ'') of Romania, in the Historical regions of Romania, historical region of Transylvania, with the administrative centre in Târgu Mureș. The county was established in 1968, after the administrative reor ...

, in the

Transylvania Transylvania ( or ; ; or ; Transylvanian Saxon dialect, Transylvanian Saxon: ''Siweberjen'') is a List of historical regions of Central Europe, historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and ...

region, his parents Ion Chinezu and Ana (''née'' Hosu) were peasants. After attending high school in his native village, he entered the Catholic high school in nearby Târgu Mureș. A member of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church, he studied theology in its spiritual center of Blaj, and subsequently studied literature at

Budapest Budapest is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns of Hungary, most populous city of Hungary. It is the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, tenth-largest city in the European Union by popul ...

and

Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis stands on the River Dâmbovița (river), Dâmbovița in south-eastern Romania. Its population is officially estimated at 1.76 million residents within a greater Buc ...

universities. In 1920, following the

union of Transylvania with Romania The union of Transylvania with Romania was declared on by the assembly of the delegates of ethnic Romanians held in Alba Iulia. The Great Union Day (also called ''Unification Day''), celebrated on 1 December, is a Public holidays in Romani ...

, he obtained a degree in Romanian and Romance philology from the latter institution. From 1920 to 1925, he taught Romanian language at Alexandru Papiu Ilarian High School in Târgu Mureș, and from 1925 to 1940 at George Barițiu High School in Cluj. He contributed to a few projects undertaken by the Museum of the Romanian Language in the latter city: ''Dicționarul limbii române'', ''Atlasul lingvistic al României'' and the bibliographies of ''Dacoromania''. In 1930, he obtained a doctorate from the University of Cluj with a thesis that dealt with aspects of Hungarian literature in Transylvania from 1919 to 1929. From 1930 to 1932, he studied on a scholarship at the Sorbonne. Together with , he edited ''Darul vremii'' magazine in 1930, and between 1935 and 1940 was head of the most prestigious interwar Transylvanian magazine, ''Gând românesc''. He also initiated a series of conferences about "Transylvanian energies". He was honorary teaching assistant in the department of Romanian cultural history at Cluj, created in 1931 for Octavian Goga. In 1940, after the Second Vienna Award granted Northern Transylvania to

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

, he moved to

. Entering the diplomatic service, he was sent to the Romanian embassy in

. Toward the end of 1944, the Nazi German troops who had occupied Hungary during Operation Margarethe deported Chinezu to Germany. He returned to Romania in 1945, and focused on translation work. From 1949 to 1964, during the first phase of the communist regime, he translated a large number of short stories, novels and plays from both classical and contemporary Hungarian literature, signing with the pen names P. Mureșanu, Andrei Aldea and Alexandru Aldea. His contributions appeared in ''Mureșul'', ''Dacoromania'', ', ''Societatea de mâine'', '' Boabe de grâu,'' and '' Revista Fundațiilor Regale''. A skilled critic of Romanian and foreign literature, he sought to raise the literary prominence of Pavel Dan and of the younger interwar Transylvanian writers. He was particularly involved in promoting relations between Romanian and Hungarian authors.Aurel Sasu (ed.), ''Dicționarul biografic al literaturii române'', vol. I, p. 322. Pitești: Editura Paralela 45, 2004.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chinezu, Ion 1894 births 1966 deaths People from Mureș County Romanian literary critics Romanian translators Diplomats for Romania Romanian magazine editors Romanian schoolteachers Romanian Greek-Catholics Romanian Austro-Hungarians University of Bucharest alumni Eötvös Loránd University alumni Babeș-Bolyai University alumni 20th-century translators Eastern Catholic writers