Ashes, dust, will remain of you
As this has always been the rule
Nothing brings you into this world
Nothing takes you away from it
Nothing of you will remain behind
Veronica Micle
4.v111 1889
(free translation from romanian - june 2009)
On one of the hottest days of last June, facing the tombstone of the young beautiful poetess Veronica Micle, I felt a deep sadness penetrating my soul. What a loss of talent and beauty ! I think the words, engraved on her stone, refer to the physical aspect of things . She herself left behind two daughters, poems, prose , admirers.- that's certainly no Nothing.
Veronica committed suicide two months after her lover (the great romanian poet Mihai Eminescu) died. She was burried in a tiny garden at the Varatec Monastery. This all women's monastery (with about six hundred nuns), surrounded by meadows and forests , housing fine paintings and furniture, always attracted writers, poets and scholars who found here the proper atmosphere for rest and creative work - and in Veronica's case, final peace.
Veronica and Eminescu, whom she lovingly called Emin, first met at her house where she hosted a literary salon. After the death of her husband (thirty years her senior), the two came close to each other planning to marry but , for some reason , it didn't happen. They both died in their late thirties.
There's some new material (letters) recently released by descendants of the Micle family, and it will probably serve as the basis of a great literary, romantic movie.
VERO & EMIN
view of Veronica Micle's grave -( june 2009)
the main entrance to the monastery (hidden by the van)
nun selling products of the monastrey's own bakery (2009)
