Blouse Roumaine –  the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women

Review by Octavian Ciupitu, Curierul Romanesc, Sweden

(after the Romanian Text of September 2009)

The above title refers to an E-book collated and edited by Constantin ROMAN and published in English, in January 2009, by the Centre of Romanian Studies (London). This is an anthology of the lives and times of 160 women, born between 1805 and 1983, whose claim to fame is linked to Romania.  In this first edition the book contains 1,047 pages, with  black-and-white as well as colour illustrations.

Constantin Roman set out with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm in revealing the destinies of some extraordinary women who were either native-born or, as the case maybe, were closely linked to the Romanian scene. The philosophy of this book is to present, for the first time in English as a language of wide circulation, the universal value of some outstanding women, some of whom are little-known outside Romania, but also some women whose contrasting destinies gained a controversial reputation. To these are added the names of fifteen “Honorary Romanians”, by marriage or by vocation, mostly royals.

This “Hall of Fame” displays a tapestry of individual biographical essays interwoven with the destinies of world celebrities of living memory, an exercise meant to demonstrate the seminal contribution  of  Romanian culture, which unbeknown to many permeated a wide world stage.

This review refers to the 1^st version of the 1^st edition which has 1,047 pages divided in the following chapters:

• Acknowledgements
• Foreward by Catherine Durandin
  
• Preface – Matisse’s ‘Blouse Roumaine’
• Chapter 1 – Five Millennia of Romanian Women
• Chapter 2 -  Gazetteers :

#  Gazetteer of 160 women by date of birth (1805-1983)

# Gazetteer of 160 Women presented in 58 categories by Call, Profession or Social Status

• Chapter 3 Profiles in Alphabetical order from A to Z
• Chapter 4 Indexes

# Index of Names

# Index of Geographical Locations

# Index of Quotations

• Appendix Notes on Romanian and foreign spelling equivalents – surnames and nouns

Daniel Rosenthal - 'Revolutionary Romania' (19th c)

The Foreword is signed by Catherine Durandin, Chevallier de la Légion d’Honeur, French Historian and Novelist, Professor of Romanian  at the INALCO - the Institut National de Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, author of several books on Romania, who was invested  with the Order of the Grand Cross of Romania.

The Preface chapter, entitled “Matisse’s Blouse Roumaine” is an eighteen-pages long essay on the theme of the Romanian ethnic blouse (iia romaneasca) as it is painted in the corpus of Henri Matisses’s oeuvre and beyond. Constantin Roman uses the pretext of Matisse’s iconic painting to discuss in a broader context the Romanian cultural phenomenon embodied by a woman wearing the ethnic embroidered blouse,  starting  with the canvass of Daniel Rosenthal (1820-1851) the painter of “Revolutionary Romania” (1848), then presenting Nicoalae Grigorescu’s (1838-1907) “Girl from Muscel County” and moving on to Queen Marie of Romania (1875-1938) and Princess Ileana of Romania, Archduchess of Austria (1909-1991) both of them wearing the Romanian garb, as seen in a photograph of the 1920s and finally arriving at Matisse’s celebrated eponymous canvass “La Blouse Roumaine”(1940)  now at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris and Pablo Picasso’s “Seated Woman with Book” (Norton Simon Museum, Passadena, California). Furthermore, the Preface presents two other themes entitled “A Romanian Blouse by Picasso?” and respectively “Post-WWII Romanian Women and the West”.

Chapter I: containing thirty two pages is most absorbing for its theme of  “Five Millennia of Romanian Women” which in its turn is subdivided in five separate subjects: “Women of the Carpathian-Danubian Space – Five thousand years of Civilization”, followed by “Women of Myth and Legend”, “Women of Old – from Antiquity to the end of the XVIII century”, “Modern and Contemporary Women – XIX and XX centuries” and respectively “ The New face of Romania – XXI century”.

Queen Marie of Romania, wearing the national dress

Chapter 2: has twenty four pages starting with a four-pages Timeline of Women by date of birth (1805-1983), beginning with the Revolutionary Ana Ipatescu (1805-1875) and finishing with the poet Ioana Alexandra Maris (b. 1983). This is followed by a nineteen-page Gazetteer of 160 Women within 58 distinct categories by Call, Profession or Social Status as follows: 22 Acadmics, 9 Actresses, 14 Anti-communist Fighters,  2 Architects, 9 Art Critics, 1 Book Binder, 6 Ballerinas,  20 Charity Workers, 2 Communist Politicians, 3 Courtesans,  2 Designers,  4 Diplomats,  11 Essay Writers, 6 Ethnographers,  87 Exiles or first-generation Romanians born abroad, 1 Explorer,  12 Feminists,  1 Folk Music Singer,  2 Gymnasts and Dressage Riders,  5 Historians, 15 Honorary Romanians,  3 Illustrators,  13 Journalists,  3 Librarians,  3 Linguists, 1 Literary Critic,  15 Mass Media Personalities,  5 Medical Doctors and Nurses,  1 Museographer, 1 Musical Instruments Makers,  24 Novelists,  15 Opera Singers,  14 Painters, 6 Peasant farmers,  4 Philosophers, 6 Pianists,  4 Pilots,  5 Playwrights,  29 poets, 30 Political Prisoners,  5 Politicians,  2 Revolutionaries. 34 Royals and Aristocrats,  8 Scientists, 4 Sculptors,  1 Slave, 20 Socialites and Hostesses,  51 Spouses and Relations of Public Figures,  2 Spies,  4 Tapestry Weavers,  25 Translators, 6 Unknown Illustrious,   4 Violinists, 3 Workers.

Given the aforesaid criteria, as each of the 160 women of this Anthology falls in several of the above categories, it stands to reason that the sum of all names in all categories put together are, understandably, well in excess of 160, more precisely they reach 577. To illustrate this point by giving a single example and searching for Silvia Constantinescu, the founder and promoter of the “Curierul Romanesc” Quarterly (Sweden) we find her name five times among the following categories of:  “87 Exiles”,  “13 Journalists”,  “3 Librarians”,  “15 Mass Media Personalities” and “25 Translators”, respectively.

Chapter 3: represents the main corpus of the Anthology containing 920 pages divided in sub-chapters each of these corresponding to a letter of the Alphabet. Each of the  sub-chapters is preceded by a list of names, period and date of birth and death, followed by individual biographical  essay for each woman. The structure of each entry observes an identical format: name, dates, category, portrait photograph,  quotations, critical biographical essay, primary and secondary sources, URLs and iconography. In the case of artist painters an exhaustive list of exhibitions is given; for instrumentalists and singers there are selected lists of main performances as well as recordings available on CDs and DVDs, or/and the location of Opera houses and theatres where they had main performances, or début. For the reader who wishes to find out in greater detail about the biography or achievement of particular women these references are a treasure trove of over 4,000 entries.

Chapter 4: contains 45 pages with three Indexes as follows: 20 pages – Index of Surnames, 12 pages – Index of Geographical Place Names and respectively 13 pages – an Alphabetical Index of  605 Quatations from ‘Abortion’ to ‘Zip’ and from ‘Indoctrination’ to ‘Torture’.

The ADDENDUM: is intended to guide one through the confusing differences of the Romanian and the foreign  spelling equivalents depending on the source language – Romanian, French, English, or German.

This wealth of information on women with  a varied and complex personality offers a fascinating learning curve for those readers gifted with an intelligent and inquisitive mind, who may be particularly   interested in a multidisciplinary approach of a social landscape projected against a European  history stretching over  two centuries.

As we follow the labyrinth of diverse destinies, depicted with fervour and consummate scholarship by the author, it is tempting to allow oneself to be spirited away in this ocean of  of information, where each detail competes with each other for its intrinsic value and occasionally even for its sensational dimension. The quotations too make for an illuminating reading on a path of discovery: to give only two examples which are close to the spirit and philosophy of the Curierul Romanesc Quarterly:

The first quotation is an extract from the book “La Apa Vavilonului” (At Babel’s river), volume 2 (2001) by Monica Lovinescu (1923-2008), journalist, political analyst, radio broadcaster, anti-communist and Human Rights Activist exiled in Paris:

In Romania dissidence was an exception. Our resistance was present when it did not exist in the other satellite countries and it ended just as it started with our neighbouring countries. We fought and died in the Carpathian mountains, as the West was blind and deaf, basking in its victory and forgetting its hostages. From the prisons where our élite was destroyed in the 1960s  emerged only the shadows of our earlier determination. Three successive waves of terror – 1948, 1952 and 1958 – had drained the collective organism. We caved into, a  near-total silence. We sacrificed ourselves for nothing. With this sense of utter uselessness most of the survivors emerged from the jails, some of whom, while “free”, remained at the beck and call of the Securitate..

Finally, a second quotation is extracted from the interview of September 1997 which Stefan Racovitza, an exile in Switzerland had with Silvia Constantinescu, the founder and editor of Curierul Romanesc Quarterly (Sweden):

“Yourself”… “and some other exiled Romanians, you were alluding to the inability of Western intellectuals to accept/understand the horrors of Communism and furthermore you were also alluding to the dominant position of the Left-wingers in the West. Such was the case in Sweden. This attitude made light work for the Romanian embassies and for the Romanian Orthodox Church in Bucharest to denigrate those amongst the exiles who were politically active. The same was the case in Stockholm when it came to the campaign of denigration against the “Curierul Românesc” newspaper. This was carried out as much through Romanian communist channels as through their Swedish counterparts, which were extremely enthusiastic in this vein.”

The above two quotations of this Anthology were specially selected in order to prove that the idea of keeping alive the Memory of Romania’s Calvary  under Communism  represents an important theme of this book beyond the inevitable need of spicing the interest of the Anglo-Saxon readership with lighter interludes!

For this reason alone  the idea of  disseminating the Blouse Roumaine far and wide fills in an important gap – an exercise which is long overdue.

http://www.blouseroumaine.com

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE: The original  Romanian text was published by architect Octavian Ciupitu in Curierul Romanesc, Sweden (see link below). Both the author and his wife Doamna Silvia Constantinescu founders of “Curierul Romanesc” allowed the translation of the above review  to be published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London). The illustrations and the reference to the Foreword by Catherine Durandin were further added to the English version by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London).

Source:

http://curierulromanesc.net/

by kind permission.

A blusa romena

Num dos vários planos narrativos que se sobrepõem e cruzam em A blusa romena (para deleite de futuros exegetas), António Mega Ferreira recupera uma célebre catalogação de Isaiah Berlin, que divide a humanidade em geral – e os escritores em particular – entre ouriços e raposas. Nos ouriços tudo se orienta para «uma perspectiva central e única, para um sistema, mais ou menos coerente e articulado, em função do qual compreendem, pensam e sentem», enquanto as raposas «prosseguem vários fins, muitas vezes desconexos e até contraditórios».
A personagem central do livro, Vasco de Almeida França, é assumidamente uma raposa. Aos 32 anos, este escritor pouco conhecido vive num estado de «ansiedade grafómana». Ou seja, escreve muito, sobre os mais diversos assuntos (do cinema à música, passando pelas artes visuais), mas de forma dispersa. Embora tenha ambições literárias, mostra-se incapaz de dar sentido ao «magma» das suas «recordações e experiências». O romance que tenta escrever há vários anos – Vida de Belidor, história bloqueada de um «escritor que se faz passar por não-escritor» – é apenas um símbolo da sua impotência criativa.
É então que surge Duarte Lobo, autoproclamado caixeiro-viajante de «almas inquietas», uma espécie de anjo «acelerador de vocações» ao serviço de uma misteriosa «organização» que trabalha em esferas supra-humanas. Quando desafia Vasco a cumprir o adiado projecto de A blusa romena, ficção inspirada pelo quadro homónimo de Matisse, Duarte oferece-lhe ao mesmo tempo a matéria-prima: um esboço de enredo que tem como ponto de partida as memórias do seu envolvimento amoroso com Nádia, filha da mulher que serviu de modelo ao pintor, bem como a possível existência de uma outra versão do quadro (a «autêntica») que ninguém sabe onde foi parar. Ao morder o isco, Vasco sai por fim do impasse, conduzido e manipulado por alguém que pode muito bem ser uma projecção, um alter ego, ou o ouriço que espicaça, desde dentro, a raposa inconsequente.
O resultado é uma engenhosa urdidura onde cabe quase tudo: as duas histórias de amor em espelho (cheias de simetrias e curto-circuitos), mas também evocações de Paris e da Roménia de Ceausescu, referências eruditas (de Joyce a Schubert, de Sonia Delaunay a Espinoza), jogos metaliterários, auto-ironias e um quarteto de personagens bem desenhadas, a executarem na perfeição a sua música de câmara. Pela sua crescente importância ao longo do livro, destaco Lumena, a prostituta por quem Vasco se enamora, cuja beleza está algures entre uma Madonna de Rafael e a «terrível Judite» que decapita Holofernes num quadro de Caravaggio.

Source: Bibliotecário de Babel – O romance da raposa

António Mega Ferreira: born in Lisbon in 1949, a graduate of the   Universities of Lisbon and Manchester, Ferreira started his career as a journalist since 1968 and made his mark on the literary scene since 1984 as a prominent Portuguese poet, essayist, novelist and Culture afficionado. He is actively associated with various journals such as  Visao, Círculo de Leitores, Ler assinando, and the  Oceanos Foundation, as well as with the  Comissão dos Descobrimentos. He was Portugal’s representative at the Frankfurt Book Fair. He is president of the Foundation of the Centro Cultural de Belém.

António Mega Ferreira (Lisboa, 25 de Março de 1949), escritor e jornalista português.

Licenciou-se em Direito, pela Faculdade de Direito da Universidade de Lisboa, após o que estudou Comunicação Social na Universidade de Manchester.

Estreou-se no jornalismo em 1968, como redactor do jornal Comércio do Funchal, passando depois pelo Jornal Novo, Expresso, O Jornal e Jornal de Letras, Artes e Ideias, de que foi Chefe de Redacção. Para além disso colaborou ainda com o diário Público e com a revista Visão. Da direcção editorial da Círculo de Leitores, criou a revista Ler assinando, depois, a fundação da Oceanos, da Comissão dos Descobrimentos. Dirigiu a representação nacional na Feira do Livro de Frankfurt, em 1997.

Iniciou a sua carreira literária em 1984 tendo publicado obras de ficção, poesia e ensaio.

Mega Ferreira liderou o lançamento da candidatura de Lisboa para a Exposição Mundial de 1998, de que foi Comissário Executivo. Administrou depois a Parque Expo, o Oceanário de Lisboa e o Pavilhão Atlântico. É presidente da Fundação do Centro Cultural de Belém.

“Blouse Roumaine  – Antologie de Femei Exceptionale” – Recenzie

Selectectata, prezentata si editata  de Constantin Roman,

Cu o Prefata de Catherine Durandin (Profesor la INALCO, Paris)

(Traducere din limba engleza, 1.100 pagini, 160 biografii critice, 600 citate, 4.000 referinte bibliografice, 6 indexuri)

Santiago de Mora-Figueroa y Williams, marchiz de Tamarón,  un aristocrat spaniol de vita veche,  European anglofil  rafinat  si pana nu de mult ambasadorul Spaniei la Londra, a comparat candva continutul unei antologii cu o capodopera culinara:

O antologie perfecta, aidoma unei capodopere perfecte, trebuie sa ne transforme pofta in pasiune, pentru simplul motiv ca acest ansamblu de hors d’oeuvres reprezinta in cele din urma nu numai un meniu bine echilibrat si gustos, dar  tot odata el trebuie sa fie atat de rafinat incat sa ne indemne sa gustam tot mai mult. La fel si o antologie trebuie sa ne prezinte cu niste  delicatese despre care sa nu mai fi auzit vre-o data nici un gurmand al literaturii.

Henri Matisse: "Blouse Roumaine" (1940)

Analizand cu mai multa atentie analogia marchizului de Tamarón, putem afirma ca ea, de fapt, reprezinta insasi filozofia antologiei “Blouse Roumaine”. Totusi, gandindu-ne retrospectiv la aceasta galerie a femeilor din Romania ne dam seama ca ea a fost initial conceputa dupa modelul unei ii romanesti, asa cum a fost ea pictata de marele Henri Matisse, in celebrul sau tablou intitulat “Blouse Roumaine”. Realizat in 1940, in plin razboi, cand Franta era ocupata de Hitler, Matisse si-a gasit refugiul in crearea a ceeace a devenit insusi simbolul femeilor romane. Tabloul se afla acum in colectia Muzeului de Arta Moderna de la Paris.  Aluzia noastra la pictura lui Matisse este facuta tocmai pentru ca aceasta  “Antologie a femeilor Exceptionale” din Romania se poate compara cu o broderie de borangic pe o ie populara romaneasca, asa cum publicul a putut, nu de mult, sa admire in expozitia retrospectiva de la Royal Academy

Catalogul retrospecivei dela Royal Academy, Londra, 2005, unde este prezentata colectia de ii romanesti oferita de Theodor Pallady prietenului sau Matisse.

(Matisse his art and his Textiles – the Fabric of Dreams, London, 2005) si in acelasi an la Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, unde a fost prezentata colectia de textile ale pictorului francez. Printre acestea o buna parte dintre exponate au fost iile romanesti primite cadou de Matisse de la prietenul sau Theodor Pallady si care l-au inspirat pe marele Maestru francez in seria de compozitii cu aceeasi tema – ia Romaneasca, adica acea  “ Blouse Roumaine”. Pentru cititorii care nu au vazut retrospectiva, analogia titlului cartii noastre poate fi comparata cu o galerie de miniaturi de portrete dintr-un muzeu de arta: aceste portrete de femei aparand ca niste astri care stralucesc in galaxii occidentale sau nebuloase orientale, o constelatie cuprinzand o suta saizeci de stele.

Realizarea manuscrisului a implicat o adevarata asceza,  dar si o curba de initiere, printr-o munca de daruire si dedicatie pe o perioada de un deceniu intreg.  Pe undeva, poate ca  gestatia cartii care a dat nastere unei opere asa cum a fost ea descrisa de Marchizul de Tamaron:

un meniu de gustari delicioase si deosebite, prezentate atragator, dar stimuland concomitent  imaginatia dar si  papilele gustative.

Ultima vizita a lui Pallady facuta lui Matisse la Nisa, putin inainte de al Doilea Razboi Mondial: cei doi erau prieteni inca din studentia lor dela Paris. Colectia de ii Romanesti care i-au inspirat "Visul" lui Matisse a fost un dar facut de Pallady.

Pentru ca o asemenea selectie nu numai ca ofera o hrana cerebrala si sufleteasca, dar si o hrana care sa satisfaca apetitul academic, impingand limitele  gustului dincolo de retetele obisnuite ale istoriei, politicii, literaturii, muzicii. cinematografiei, dramaturgiei, feminismului sau poate ale stiintei – pentru ca “Blouse Roumaine” este de fapt o carte transdisciplinara.

Acest ansamblu de eseuri impresioniste, subiective si  esoterice este precedat de un capitol introductiv care face o prezentare generala a societatii romanesti din punct de vedere istoric, cultural, social si politic. De fapt, fundalul  frescei sociale da tonul intregului narativ prezentat sub un unghi European, permitand cititorului sa evalueze Romania nu doar sub un unghi exotic si izolat national, dar mai de graba sub o perspectiva mult mai larga, al unui concert de natiuni, inlesnind o perceptie incadrata in coordonatele unui teritoriu familiar cititorului strain. Prin acest rationament autorul a facut incursiuni esentiale in tari ca Franta, Spania, Italia, Germania sau Anglia, tari care timp de doua secole au reprezentat acel “play ground” al aristocratiei si intelectualitatii romanesti, familii ca Bibescu, Sutu, Ghica, Brancoveanu, Cantacuzino, Rosetti, Golescu, Alecsandri si mai apoi ai a unor exilati si destarati de conditii diferite – artisti si scriitori ca: Brancusi, Eugen Ionescu, Emil Cioran, Vintila Horia, Mircea Eliade, George Enescu, Dinu Lipatti, Clara Haskil, Nadia Gray, Elvira Popesc, sau Elena Vacarescu.

Nu intamplator antologia este complectata cu un corp important de circa 600 de citate, in majoritate traduse in engleza pentru prima oara, pornind de la o baza bibliografica de circa 4.000 de titluri din Romana, Franceza, Spaniola, Italiana, Portugheza, Germana, precum si unele direct din originalul Englez. Aceste sute de citate confera narativului o eruditie speciala, indemnand cititorul sa intreprinda o misiune de explorare uimitoare si exaustiva al unui teritoriu putin cunoscut. Demersul prin care autorul mentine angajat cititorul deschide  o poteca noua intr-un teritoriu virgin, dar care ofera, la fiecare pas, o perspectiva de nestavilita desfatare.

Alina Cojocaru, prima balerina a Operei Covent Garden

Pe masura ce intoarcem paginile acestei carti, descoperim o cavalcada exotica de femei, care reflecta culoarea, parfumul si vocile unor timpuri trecute, dar si ale unor vremuri care ne aduc in cotidianul actual: culori din campurile de floarea soarelui din Lunca Dunarii pana la verdele inchis al acelui “codru des” omnipresent in spiritul romanesc, acel “codru frate cu Romanul” evocat de Eminescu, iar dupa ocupatia armatelor sovietice, codrul Muntilor Carpati unde s-a refugiat si a luptat rezistenta anticomunista ai anilor ’50 si ’60.  Iarasi alte evocari ne aduc aproape de sunetul buciumului  Muntilor Apuseni pana la muzica clasica a saloanelor pariziene, dela vocile cercurilor literare, pana la cele ale celebrelor scene dela Scala, Covent Garden, Opera Metropolitana din New York, sau ale prestigioaselor Comédie Française, Teatro Real de Madrid, sau Royal Shakespeare Company. In secolele trecute, cateva dintre aceste femei, aflate mereu in cautarea unui nou ideal, sau refugiu, au ajuns uneori pe meleaguri indepartate, pe malurile fluviului La Plata, sau in cautarea izvoarelor Nilului.

Dar dincolo de acele revelatii neasteptate, ‘Blouse Roumaine’ implica  legaturi cu figurile unor oameni de cultura si politica de dimensiune internationala, in special cea Europeana si Americana. Aceste convergente si complicitati sunt posibile pentru ca romancele noastre, debarcand la Milono, Paris, Madrid, Londra, New York, Montevideo  sau Buenos Aires au inspirat poeti si compozitori, au creeat noi roluri pe scena operei si teatrului si au tinut saloane literare. Aceste muze au captivat si cucerit mari oameni politici si aristocrati, facand capetele incoronate sa viseze si sa spere, iar muritorii de rand sa isi piarda complect capul. Unele dintre ele  au reusit sa confere chiar o respectabilitate actului de sinucidere al amantilor lor, inainte de a se lepada de rochile de bal in favoarea vestimtelor manastiresti pentru iertarea pacatelor lumesti. Si totusi, in ciuda unor asemenea optiuni, sau precautii,  unele dintre cuvioasele maici au fost suspectate de a fi intreprins o ultima cucerire – aceea de a-l seduce chiar pe Dumnezeu!

Anne de Pougy nascuta Anne Marie de Chassagne, inainte de a deveni printesa Ghika: dupa o viata mondena care a captivat atentia societatii franceze in perioada Belle Epoque si-a sfarsit viata la o manastire: "Parinte, a marturist printesa duhovnicului ei, in afara de omor si de furt am comis toate pacatele"

In umbra acestor incantatoare si redutabile amazoane deslusim o armata intreaga de curtezani, amanti, admiratori, sponsori si uneori soti: regele George V al Marii Britanii, regele Alfonso XIII al Spaniei, regele Carlos I al Portugaliei, Prinnti Mostenitori ai Romaniei, contele Carnarvon, contele Asquith, contele Mathieu de Noailles, lordul Thomson of Cardington, Sacheverell Sitwell, Noel Coward, David Farrar, Paul Morand, Marcel Proust, Pierre Lotti, Anatole France, Puvis de Chavannes, Vincent Van Gogh, Mark Twain, Verdi, Puccini, Richard Strauss, Eric Satie, iar mai recent Humphrey Bogart, Lord Lloyd Webber, Roberto Alagna, Michel Foucault sau Jacques Lacan.

Dar contempland aceasta  tapiserie, aceasta ie taraneasca cu bogate cusaturi policrome, nu putem sa nu descoperim si un aspect mai sumbru al secolului XX: ecestea sunt femeile care au pierit in inchisori pentru convingerile lor politice, acele ‘passionarii” romance, care la sfarsitul celui de al doilea razboi mondial  s-au refugiat in munti impreuna cu sotii si fratii lor, organizand acel ‘maquis’ anticomunist, sau pur si simplu milioanele de  femei  ‘ilustre necunoscute’, simple taranci sau femei casnice de la oras, care au scrasnit din dinti, opunandu-se in mod tacut, dar cu incapatanare  tavalugului dictaturii.

Constantin ROMAN evoca aceste eroine printr-o recunoastere plina de tristete a distrugerii brutale,   sub communism, a culturii si societatii romanesti – o societate care inainte de razboi era plina de un dinamism descris in cartile unor autori ca: Paul Morand si Marcel Proust, Marie de Edinburgh si Patrick Leigh Fermor, Sacheverell Sitwell, Elizabeth si Margot Asquith, de  Violet Trefusis si Olivia Manning, Panait Istrati sau Gregor von Rezzori, Colette, sau Virginia Ocampo, de catre Printesa Hélène Chrissoveloni Soutso, Printesa Marthe Bibesco, sau contesa Anna de Noailles.

Aceasta era tara misterioasa de pe  “meleaguri indepartate” care a inspirat celebrele versuri ale Dorotheei Parker:

Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song, /A medley of extemporanea /

Regina Maria a Romaniei in port national

And love is a thing that can never go wrong / And I am Marie of Romania

Ceea ce intr-o traducere romaneasca libera ar fi:

Viata-i un ciclu de cantec al firii /  Un potpuriu de imprevizibil /

Dand gres Iubirii e imposibil / Pentru Maria a Romaniei

Unele dintre aceste femei evocate in Antologie reprezinta o societate romaneasca considerata ‘exotica’, sau ‘insolita’, societate care face obiectul corepondentei Reginei Victoria, a lui Napoleon III, sau ai primilor Mnistri Britanici Ramsey MacDonald si Winston Churchill, ai Presedintilor Roosevelt si de Gaulle. In paralel o sinergie diferita s-a materializat  printr-o serie intreaga de portrete de romance realizate de artisti straini de reputatie mondiala ca de pilda: Rodin, Ignacio Zuloaga, Whistler, Singer Sargent, de Laszlo, Vuillard, Paul César Helleu, Edmond Lapeyre, Puvis de Chavannes, s.a. Alte portrete s-au imortalizat de catre fotografi ai inaltei societati Londoneze precum: Walter Barnett, Alexander Bassano, Van Dyke, Lafayette sau Russell Westwood, sau au fost prezentate in filmele unor regizori precum Federico Fellini in ‘La Dolce Vita’ si mai recent de scenografii de opera Francesca Zamballo, si David Pountney.

Ignatio Zuloaga: portretul contesei Mathieu de Noailles, nascuta Printesa Brancoveanu (Muzeul de Arta , Bilbao)

De fapt parcurgand ‘Blouse Roumaine’  nu putem trai nici cel mai marunt moment de plictis, privind aceasta galerie de regine si femei aristocrate , dar si de femei din toate clasele sociale, femei pline de exuberanta, talent si imaginatie, care au fascinat in permanenta societatea britanica in perioada interbelica:  un exemplu tipic era  amanta regelui Carol II-lea, diabolic-de-seducatoare si  mondena (si divortata de doua  ori), Magda Lupescu, cea care i-a tinut ocupati timp de cateva decenii pe gazetarii  ziarelor de scandal, inspirand cupletul de mai jos:

Have you heard of Madame Lupescu
Who came to Romania’s rescue?
It’s a wonderful thing
To be under a King:

Is democracy better I ask you?

iar in traducere libera in romaneste:

Lupescu e-adevarat

Romania a salvat:

Ca sa stai sub un rege

E sublim, se-ntelege:

Nu-i democratia-usor de suportat?

La celalalt capat al spectrului descoperim femei inspirate de idealuri mai inalte; femei care si-au ales cariera de piloti de razboi, care au castigat medalii internationale de parasutism, care au realizat performante istorice de zbor fara co-echipier, trecand pentru prima oara Marea Mediterana, singure la mansa, sau devenind campioane mondiale  de atlentism, dar si devenind sufragete  zgaltaind din temelii redutele monopolului masculin in profesii ca diplomatia internationala, arhitectura, sau dreptul – femei dotate cu autentice “cojones”, care au inspirat mase de femei sa le urmeze exemplul.

Pentru ca aceste fiinte pline de viata, femei tenace dar si frumoase, fie ele ca ar fi luat drumul exilului sau ca ar fi optat sa ramana in tara, sub dictatura, au avut fiecare  in parte de istorisit  o poveste extraordinara sau poate cel putin au putut sa ne ofere un crampei de citat memorabil. Pentru ca “Blouse Roumaine” nu reprezinta doar o ‘Corala al Romaniei’ dar si un ‘Memorial al Durerii’, fiindca firul vietii acestor romance, mame, sotii, surori, reprezinta chiar acea pelicula de film care se desfasoara in fata ochilor nostri si care nu se poate rezuma doar la simple bucate pentru gustul initiatilor  academici: aceste vieti sunt de fapt o liturghie ortodoxa, o epifanie romaneasca care, prin ochii mintii, readuc la viata, o realitate fascinanta, dar estompata de sita vremii sau de amnezia preprogramata impusa de vremelnici guvernanti, o realitate care are catene organice nebanuite in subconstientul European.

Acest narativ al ‘iei romanesti’, prin continut lui  liric, dar si spiritual, cu accente satirice, fara compromisuri, poate aparea unor cititori, pe undeva, daca  nu polemic, cel putin sfidator, prin acele incursiuni in meandrele  istoriei recente, care  reflecta o realitate politica schizofrenica, a unei lumi plina de contraste si contradictii, pentru ca, in complectarea acestei perioade istorice, cititorului i se ofera o retrospectiva a unei epoci mai emotive a Golgotei ispasite sub comunism de o natiune intreaga: mai precis de eopca intunecata si necrutatoare a Anei Pauker si a Elenei Ceausescu, dar si al poetilor de Curte si ai unor pitici morali si saltimbanci, umbre din trecutul apropiat care explica mostenirea sistemului communist in Romania post-moderna.

Considerand toate aspectele mentionate mai sus, putem conchide, revenind tot la marchizul de Tamarón, ca  sinteza de imagini bipolare dar conjugate in paginile antologiei  “Blouse Roumaine” reprezinta o marturie cu totul aparte, marturia:

“unei bucurii, a unei dureri si al unui privilegiu  in a pastra memoria si prin acest act de pietate in a prezenta frumusetea fizica al unor glorii trecute, un obiectiv pe care autorul si l-a asumat  cu un brio si cu o  ‘joie de vivre’ inegalabile”.

“Blouse Roumaine  – Antologie de Femei  Exceptionale”

Selectectie, prezentare si editare  de Constantin Roman,

Cu o Prefata de Catherine Durandin (Profesor la INALCO, Paris)

(Text in limba engleza, 1.100 pagini, 160 biografii critice, 600 citate, 4.000 referinte bibliografice, 6 indexuri)

Constantin ROMAN, PhD (Cambridge), Professor Honoris Causa, Commander of the Order of Merit,

Constantin ROMAN, scriitor Anglo-Roman resident la Londra, doctor al Universitatii din Cambridge, Profesor Honoris Causa al Universitatii din Bucuresti, Comandor al Ordinului pentru Merit (Roomania), este Geofizician Consilier International pe probleme de Energie si fost Consilier Personal al Profesorului Emil Constantinescu, Presedintele Romaniei (1996-2000).

Catherine DURANDIN autoarea Prefetei Antologiei este scriitoare, istorica, analista politica, autoarea  unor romane si carti de istorie despre Romania,  Profesoara la INALCO (Institut National de Langues et Civilisations Orientales) de la Paris .si consiliera a Guvernului Francez.

Comanda Antologia in limba Engleza:

http://www.blouseroumaine.com

Daniel Rosenthal - 'Revolutionary Romania' (19th c)

Romanian-Jewish Topics (Part One of Two):
Quotations from an Alternative Anthology:
“Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”

Presented and edited by Constantin Roman, Preface by Catherine Durandin, published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London), 2009

1,100 pages, 160 biographies, 600 quotations, 4,000 references, credits, discography and URLs , 6 Indexes

http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html

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Lauren Bacall, Movie Star (Lauren's mother was born in Romania and migrated to New York with her parents.

Lauren BACALL,

“Betty” (née Betty Joan Perske), Miss Betty Bacall, Mrs. Humphrey Bogart, (b. New York, 16 September 1924)
First-generation Romanian-American, film star, wife of Humphrey Bogart

Romanian immigrants:

Mother left Romania by ship – aged somewhere between one and two – with her father, mother, elder sister, baby brother. Her father had been in the wheat business, had been wiped out, and had turned out whatever silver and jewellery there was left to a sister for money, enough to transport his family to the promised land – the New World – America. They arrived in Ellis Island and gave their name – Weinstein Bacal (meaning wineglass in German and Russian). The man must have written down just the first half of the name – too many people from too many countries, too many foreign names – so it was Max and Sophie Weinstein, daughters Renée and Natalie’s, son Albert.
(Lauren Bacall By Myself, pp. 5, Jonathan Cape, London, 1979)

Happy Times:
We had happy times, my grandmother cooking, singing German songs, reading constantly in French, German, Romanian, Russian and English. She and mother spoke Romanian and German when she did not want me to understand.
(Lauren Bacall, By Myself, op.cit. 5)

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Georgeta (Georgette) CANCICOV, née Maria Jurgea
“The Angel Saviour of Moldavian Jews”
(b. 29 May 1899, Godinesti, County Bacàu – d. Bucharest, 16 April 1984),
Novelist, essayist, violinist, nurse in WWI, wife of Liberal justice minister and politician Mircea Cancicov

Georgeta Cancicov – Saviour of Moldavian Jews:
Taking advantage of the fact that Marshall Antonescu stayed at her house whenever he visited Bacàu and given the good relationship she had with him, Mrs. Cancicov interceded robustly and ensured that no ghettos be set up in Moldavia.
(…)
Then, there was the question raised that Jewish women be forced to perform labour in town. We again interceded with Mrs. Cancicov in a petition addressed to Marshall Antonescu, who decreed that the women should only do such work as befitting their profession, which was a gain in our favour.
(…)
On the eve of 22nd August 1944, there was an order to evacuate all Jews. (Consequently), on the morning of 23rd August, in the courtyard of the Church of Our Lady, a detachment of 600 Jews was gathered for evacuation. You can imagine their distress, as they had to leave behind their families and be driven among (the retreating) Hitler’s armies. As I intervened with Mrs. Cancicov, she communicated to me in writing that no Jews should be evacuated and I presented this order to the (military) commander. He checked with Mrs Cancicov, who confirmed, on her authority, that nobody should go, so he freed everybody. As a result no Jews from the any other detachments were evacuated either.
(…)
Of course, there were countless other little matters on which Mrs. Cancicov acted as the protecting angel and saviour of our wretched and oppressed Jewish people.
(D. Ionas, President of the Jewish community of Bacàu, Petition to the Prefect of the County Bacàu, dated 9th September 1945, in favour of Georgeta Cancicov, whose house was requisitioned by the Soviet Army, quoted by the Memoria)
(http://www.memoria.ro/?location=view_article&id=821&l=ro)

Jewish Ghettos:
There will be no Jewish ghettos set up here: (I defy you, that) should there ever be any of these set up, then I am going to be an inmate in one of them myself.
(Georgeta Cancicov, reassurance given to Schiller, the representative of the Jewish Community in Bacàu, quoted by D. Ionas, op.cit)

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Nina Cassian, - a successful Poet under dictatorship, who sought refuge in America at the end of Communism

Nina CASSIAN (Renée Annie Cassian)
(b. 27 November 1924, Galati),
Poet, novelist, translator, composer, exile and now expatriate living in New York since 1985

Conviction:
I worked to be understood by the farmers and workers, I was torturing myself and distorting my artistry. Some of us Romanian writers did it with conviction. That was the worst.
(Nina Cassian)

Excluded:
They don’t want me there, I’m not sure why. They used to consider me eccentric and rebellious…But now maybe it’s because they resent that I’m living a better life in America.
(Nina Cassian)

Uprooting:
It is a terrible tragedy, at age 60, to leave one’s country and live in a place where one is surrounded by a foreign language and with two impossible professions — poetry and classical music, I have had my share of fame and glory, and didn’t expect more.
(Nina Cassian)

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Maria Forescu, Romanian Movie star of the silent cinema: died at Buchenwald

Maria FORESCU (née Maria Füllenbaum)
(15 Jan 1875 Cernàuti, Bukowina – (?) 23 November 1943, Buchenwald Concentration Camp, Thuringia, Germany)
Movie star, operetta singer, Nazi concentration camp detainee, killed at Buchenwald

Maria Forescu (née Maria Füllenbaum) is one of Europe’s earliest stars of the silent movie. She dedicated herself to her career with great zest, acting in over one hundred and sixty films from 1911 to 1933, a thread which was abruptly severed by Nazi censorship which resulted in her dramatic deportation to the infamous Buchenwald cocentration camp where she was killed ten years later, in 1943.
(Extract from the Biography of Maria Forescu published in “Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women”, 2009)

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Nicoleta (Nicolette) Franck (née Apotheker/Apoteker)
(b. 21st July 1920, Iasi, România)
Lawyer, political analyst, journalist, translator, exile in Switzerland

Political illiteracy:
The tragedy of the vote (for presidential elections) of 26th November 2000 cannot be explained in any other way than in the perspective of the political illiteracy of the Romanian people. Our schools had not yet made good the teaching of history, and so distorted has it remained that our past is not correctly understood and thus we cannot shape the present or have a glimmer in the future.
(Nicoleta Franck)

Rumours:
Certainly after half a century of outright lies peddled by the communist régime, Romanians now believe only in rumours rather than public declarations. Consequently they are easily misled through whispered rumours, which are aimed at the calumny of honest people, pointing out their failures rather than at their achievements, – the latter, alas, being few and far between and rather slow in materializing.
(Nicoleta Franck)

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Clara Haskil, Romanian born pianist: her talent was discovered by Carmen Sylva, Queen Elisabeth of Romania who gave her a scholarship to study in Vienna.

Clara HASKIL,
‘La Princèsse de la Musique’,
‘Clarinette’, (nickname given by Dinu Lipatti)
(b. 7 January, 1895, Bucharest– d. 7 December 1960, Brussels),
Pianist, exile in France and Switzerland

Clara Haskil about Georges Enesco:
I always felt alone when I played with Enesco. I could not see what we had in common. This great man and little me. Yet we were both Romanian, and apparently our playing blended perfectly. But what else? Such a towering figure. And me?
(Clara Haskil, ibid.)

Clara Haskil about Dinu Lipatti:
Oh, I could spend hours talking about Dinu. He was always so aware, so alive, in spite of all the terrible pain he had to suffer. And his music-making! I really can’t find the words to describe what I felt whenever I hear him play. I often thought he felt almost guilty he had been blessed with so much genius.”
(Clara Haskil, ibid.)

Clara Haskil about Dinu Lipatti:
How much I envy your talent, may the Deuce take it! Must you have so much talent and I so little? Is there justice in this world?
(Jean-Yves Conrad, Roumanie, capitale Paris, Guide des promenades insolites, sur les traces des Roumains célèbres de Paris, page 130)

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Helen, Queen Mother of Romania and Mother of King Michael: during WWII she fought fearlessly to save Jewish lives: her tribute is alive at Yad Vashem

Princess HELEN of Greece and Denmark,
Romania’s ‘Queen Mother’ (Regina Mamà Elena)
(b. 2 May 1896, Athens – d. 28 November 1982, Lausanne, Switzerland)
consort of King Carol II,

Helen, Queen Mother of Romania, seen by Great Rabbi Alexandru Safran:
I would like to refer to the posthumous award of the title of “The Righteous Among the Nations” to Helen, Queen Mother of Romania. This letter is meant to bring to the fore two fundamental aspects pertaining to this matter: (1) actions by which the Queen Mother saved the lives of many Jews during the Second World War; (2) the risks personally taken by the Queen Mother in undertaking such actions.” (…)
“Such consciousness of possible risks extended over the whole period between 1941 and 1944. My own contact with the Queen Mother allowed me to gage her sharp and lucid perception of the realities of these unstable and turbulent times and at the same time to be appraised of her apprehensions concerning such risks. I can, at the same time bear witness that the Queen Mother constantly interceded on behalf of the Jews and that she saved Jewish lives in spite of all apprehensions: she was drawn to it by her kindness and her moral values.
Hoping that this letter will be helpful to the Commission of the Righteous Among Nations Award…
(Alexandru Safran, Grand Rabbi of Switzerland)

Read more about Helen Queen Mother of Romania:

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Lupescu - The indomitable Romanian royal seductress: she became King Carol II third wife: her remains were recently transferred from the Braganza chapel in Lisbon to a monastery in the Carpathians

Elena LUPESCU,
(née Elena Grünberg, alias ‘Wolf’),
(aka ‘Magda’, aka ‘Duduia’, aka ‘Princess Elena’)
Mrs. Elena Tâmpeanu – by her first married name
(b. 1896, Herta, România, or 1899, Iasi Moldavia – d. 1977, Estoril, Portugal)
Socialite, royal concubine, third wife of King Carol II, exile

Limerick on Madame Lupescu:
Have you heard of Madam Lupescu,
Who came to Romania’s rescue?
It’s a wonderful thing
To be under a King:
Is Democracy better I ask you?
(Anonymous)

Bleeding:
While he whom I adore, he in whom I put all my hope for the good of my country did not send me a telegram, not even a single line in order to share with me his happiness, happiness to which I had contributed… my heart is sad, it is bleeding because I expected to be the first to whom you would send a telegram.
(Elena Lupescu’s letter to Carol, Quoted by Lilly Marcou, Le Roi trahi – Carol II de Roumanie)

Read more about Elena Lupescu:

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Romanian-Jewish Topics(continued in Part Two):

© copyright Constantin ROMAN, 2003-2009, all rights reserved

Presented and edited by Constantin Roman, Preface by Catherine Durandin, published by the Centre for Romanian Studies (London), 2009

1,100 pages, 160 biographies, 600 quotations, 4,000 references, performances & exhibition credit, discography and URLs , 6 Indexes

http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html

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As a young girl from Hungarian-occupied Transylvania, Ana NOVAC knew the whole gamut of Nazi concentration camps. She was a surviver of both Nazi and Communist dictatorships, who opted for freedom in France.

Ana NOVAC, (née Zimra Harsany)
‘The Romanian Anne Frank’
(b. Dej, Transylvania, 21 June 1929)
Actress, playwright, poet, novelist Auschwitz, Kratzau, Plaszow camps survivor, exile living in Paris

Nationality:
I was born in 1929 in Transylvania (România). One good morning when I was 11 years old I woke up to be a Hungarian citizen without having moved to another place, another street, or even without having changed my shirt. At the age of 14 I was deported to Auschwitz as a Jew. On my release in 1945 I had again become a Romanian citizen. That is why I have the greatest difficulty in establishing my nationality, other than from my identity papers which specified that I was Jewish.
(Ana Novac, The Beautiful Days of My Youth: My Six Months in Auschwitz and Plaszow)

‘Anti-semite’:
That text was rejected by the censors as ‘anti-Semitic’….’It is useless to explain to a bureaucrat trembling for his job and his life that one can be Jewish, persecuted, and a bastard at the same time; that martyrdom and heroism do not necessarily go together; that misfortune does not imply any merit and does not confer any more right to glory than a car wreck, or an earthquake.
(Ana Novac, The Beautiful Days of My Youth: My Six Months in Auschwitz and Plaszow)

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Ana PAUKER (née Hannah Rabinsohn, or Rabinovici)

Ana Pauker together with Elena Ceausescu shares the distinction of belonging to the Romanian Communist Demonology

‘A Jewish Female Bukharin’
(b. 1893, Codàesti, County Vaslui, Moldavia – d. Bucharest, 1960)
Granddaughter of Rabbi Hersch Kaufmann Rabinsohn, communist activist prior to WWI, political prisoner, exile in the Soviet Union, NKVD operative/ spy, returnee,
vice-president of the Council of Ministers, (1949-52), Foreign Minister, (1947-53),
Politburo Member responsible for the enforced collectivization of agriculture, (1944-56),

Rabbi Alexandru Safran on Ana Pauker:
“Ana Pauker, a rabbi’s daughter…. when she was Minister of Foreign Afairs, wanted everybody to know, especially when I was present, that she was not a Jew, she was a communist”….
“… when she saw me approaching the Prime Minister and the other ministers she stepped out of the line and turned aside for a moment in order not to greet me. She thus thought to demonstrate that she, the communist, did not want anything to do with the Chief Rabbi and Jewry; that she had less in common with him than even the other members of government….”
“…the expression of Ana Pauker’s face during her time of glory, had always been impertinent”.
(Alexander Safran, Grand Rabbi of Switzerland, formerly Grand Rabbi of Romania: Resisting the storm, Romania 1940-1947, op.cit 139, 161, 166)

Tesu Solomovici on Ana Pauker:
The most shining star amongst the huge number of Moscow-trained spies and activists was, undoubtedly the Jewish communist Ana Pauker. She knew Joseph Vissarionovitch Stalin personally and worked under the orders and direct command of the henchmen of the Soviet repressive services, Lavrentie Pavlovitch Beria, Victor Semionovitch Abakhumov, Piotr Vassilievitch Fedotov and Pavel Mihailovitch Fitin and furthermore she enjoyed the admiration of yet another dinosaur of Soviet power – Vyactheslav Molotov. Notwithstanding all that, Gheorghiu-Dej succeeded, with a patient cunning to pluck out all her feathers.
(Solomovitch: 54-55)

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Elisabeth Roudinesco Parisian-born Psychoanalist of Romanian stock

Elisabeth ROUDINESCO (Elisabeta RUDINESCU)
(b. 1944)
Academic, psychoanalyst, historian of science, historian, journalist, editor,
French-born Romanian living in Paris

Antecedents:
“Being Jewish, in such conditions, did not make sense, because I was baptised, but not being Jewish did not make sense either, because this baptism did not imbue in me any integrating principles. How should I answer my classmates who might enquire about my origins and my religion? My father called himself an orthodox convert to Catholicism; my mother rather considered herself a Protestant and both parents felt rather detached from any religious tradition. Furthermore, my mother kept in a drawer a fake birth certificate which was produced for her benefit by a willing abbot, by which she was spared the obligation of wearing the yellow star badge and consequently saved from deportation. How could one believe, in such conditions, in the validity of a ‘real’ birth certificate and how will I know what might be the implications of ‘really’ belonging to a religion? It took me twenty years to unravel this imbroglio of my Jewish origins.
(Elisabeth Roudinesco, Généalogie)

Dracula:
“One day, as I returned from the cinema, where I discovered that the most famous Romanian on this planet was Count Dracula, I bought Bram Stoker’s book, which I read breathlessly. As soon as I reminded my father that his worthy ancestors may not have been those whose descendant he claimed to be, he raised his arms to the sky and treated me (in Romanian) of that highest swear word of being a ‘tzigan’. From then on we did not stop wrangling. He was always singing the merits of Voltaire, Anatole France and Paul Valéry, whose friend he was, while I loved Balzac, Michelet and Proust.”
(Elisabeth Roudinesco, ibid.)

Immigrant’s delusions:
“My father who emigrated (from Romania to France t.n.) in 1904, passed his time obfuscating his origins. Being wary of anti-Semitism (in France. t.n.) and anxious to prove his desire of being assimilated, he was claiming an Orthodox father and that he himself had converted to Roman Catholic. This is how he could claim, without admitting it, a link with Alexandru Socec. As for any reminiscences regarding his own itinerary, he invented a family novel to suit his imagination, to the point of thinking himself more French than the French themselves and to relegating his native Romania to the status of a country inhabited by vampires and gypsies. He had in his disquisitions two way of looking at history. A scholarly approach, based on academic books and which he presented and eschewed  in the clearest manner. By contrast his private life was punctuated by mystery and rumor. My father would assign to archives and to the truth a positivist cult, whilst for his own family history, he was covering his tracks and was clouding the genealogies.”
(Elisabeth Roudinesco, ibid.)

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Annie SAMUELLI, victim of Communist witch hunt

Annie SAMUELLI
(b. 1912 – d. ca. 2003)
Clerk at the British Legation Bucharest, political prisoner, exile

Cosmopolitan bourgeois:
The debased spies, recruited from among the cosmopolitan bourgeois, have finally received their retribution.
(The Communist newspaper Unirea commenting on Annie Samuelli’s ‘conspiracy in favour of Great Britain and the U.S.A’. in the 1948 political trials. Quoted by Tesu Solomonovici, in Securitatea si Evreii, vol 2, pp.51l)

Miracle Rabbi:
Carla, aged 40, arrived at our cell: she was a brilliant accountant. Carla was given a 20 years prison sentence for having been a member of a so-called ‘subversive organization’. Although a Roman Catholic she would tell us about the pilgrimage to the tomb of the ‘Miracle Rabbi’:

Some hundred years ago, this rabbi would have led his folk on foot all the way to a small Romanian village to escape a pogrom in Poland. This humble and enlightened man handed out wise counsel, which was of the greatest help to the community. After his death at a venerable age, people would still come along to his grave to ask advice. The ritual unfolded in the following way: in memory of the rabbi’s long treck from Poland, the pilgrims, Jews and Gentiles alike, would walk to the cemetery, which was rather far from the city. Along the way, they would pick up a stone. Any request or problem would be scribbled on a piece of paper, which was put under the stone and placed on the rabbi’s grave. In time, all these stones grew to become a gravestone in the shape of a pyramid, which grew and grew. Each time a request or a problem was satisfied, the pilgrim would return to collect the stone and destroy the piece of paper.

Carla heard the story from an inmate with whom she shared a prison cell in said town. Although she was Romanian Orthodox this woman prisoner was convinced that her husband was praying at the rabbi’s tomb for her to be given a reprieve of her prison sentence, because the rabbi had already miraculously saved their dying son.
‘Well, would you believe it?’ Carla would exclaim. ‘This woman was acquitted within six months. And you know how rare it is for a political prisoner to be freed. She had failed to denounce some refugee and she would have been sentenced to a minimum of five years. Now, owing to the Miracle Rabbi, she could go home’.
(Annie Samuelli, Dayyenu)

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Silvia SIDNEY, First Generation romanian-American Movie Star

Sylvia SIDNEY (aka SYDNEY), (née Sophia Kosow),
1stly Mrs. Bennett Cerf, 2ndly Mrs. Luther Adler, 3rdly Mrs. Carlton Alsop
(b. Bronx, New York, 8 August 1910 – d. New York, 1st July 1999)
First-generation Romanian-American, film and stage actress, needlepoint artist

As in the case of Lauren Bacall, (q.v.), another glamorous New York-born actress with Romanian roots, one may question Sylvia’s inclusion in the Blouse Roumaine. Sylvia’s father, Mr Kosow, was indeed Russian, but her mother was Romanian.

(Extract  from: ‘Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’)

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Sanda Stolojan: a freedom fighter and sharp observer of Romanian exiles

Sanda STOLOJAN (née Alexandra Zamfirescu)
(b. 1919, Bucharest – d. 2 August 2005, Paris)
Essayist, poet, memorialist, translator, journalist human rights activist,
Personal interpreter for four French presidents, exile in France

Franco-Romanian Jews:
I went to Beaubourg to the symposium on Benjamin Fondane, on whom I was writing an article in the ‘Cahiers de l’Est’. In the auditorium many Romanian Jews were gathered , a world with which we other Romanians have few contacts other than some personal friends. An old émigré, Claude Émile Rosen, read one of Fondane’s poems in Romanian. Stefan Lupasco who knew Fondane was there too. Generally the tone of the evening, imprinted by the philosopher Chouraki, a specialist in the Jewish mystique, was Hebraic and anti-Romanian, with pre-war Romania painted in anti-Semitic colours all over. Throughout the course of the evening I felt an odd sensation of being there only tolerated, marginalized, in spite of being at the core of a cultural space with which I was very familiar. In a certain fashion I was the “Jew”, the foreigner within this audience. In fact our manner of living our exile is situated at the opposite pole of the sensitivity of these Franco-Romanian intellectuals of Jewish origin. It is all a matter of the past, a question linked to the antecedents of our lives, yesterday in communist Romania, today in Paris. Even further back, there is a matter of ancestors, ours steeped in the glebe of deepest Romania, in its beliefs and traditions, theirs errant for three thousand years; ours lost in the Neolithic mist, theirs mingled to the history of Babylon and Egypt. These are profound matters, old causes, as old as the biblical prophecies and their different interpretations which shaped us. And then there is the recent past, our situation and theirs under communism, which of late has forced us to take the road of exile, where we see them again, these old errant hands. Today the experience of exile ought to bring us closer to each other, but our contact with them, like that of last evening, only revealed to what extent we remained attached to our land archetype implanted in the Parisian milieu. What could be more foreign to their spirit than our obsessions, our reactions, our commitment. It is by rejecting this spirit of our soil that Cioran succeeded in placing himself above this state of mind which is justly ours, that of the provincials of Europe, a characteristic which was also his. Paradoxically, it is while strongly denouncing his origins that Cioran discovered his inner depth: for, as he said, ‘Nobody is in control of his own inner depth’. How could one solve this dilemma? How could our exile bring us closer to the Jewish exile?”
(Sanda Stolojan, Au balcon de l’exil Roumain a Paris)

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Sabina Wurmbrand - a Pastor's Wife who knew the Communist Prisons

Sabina WURMBRAND (née Sabina Oster)
(1913, România –2000, California, U.S.A.)
Missionary of the underground church, pastor’s wife, political prisoner and prisoner of conscience, exile in the USA

Prison Carcer:
..I was marched to the guardroom and put into a prison cell. It was a narrow cupboard built into the wall in which you could just stand. The iron door had a few holes to admit air… After a few hours, my feet were burning. The blood in my temples beat with slow, painful thuds. How many hours could they keep me here?… Drops of water were falling from somewhere on the roof of the box. It was a desolate sound. I counted them to make time pass… I don’t know how long I did this, but at a certain moment.
I simply began to cry aloud to avoid despair:
’One, two, three, four,’
I cried, and again:
‘One, two, three, four…’
After a time the words became inarticulate. I didn’t know what I said. My mind had moved into rest. It blacked out. Yet my spirit continued to say something to God.
(Sabina Wurmbrand, The pastor’s wife)

Read more about Sabina Wurmbrand:

http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html

© copyright Constantin ROMAN, 2003-2009, all rights reserved

Matisse et le Roumain Pallady (Nice, 1940)

En peignant La blouse roumaine, Henri Matisse donna à cette dernière une pérennité artistique et une reconnaissance internationale. En fait, la toile qui est aujourd’hui au Musée d’art moderne de Paris, était devenue le symbole de la roumanité et plus particulièrement de la féminité roumaine.

Mais POURQUOI une blouse roumaine ? Le choix de l’artiste était-il fortuit ? On peut se poser la question, car le peintre était plus connu pour ses modèles vêtus d’atours marocains ou parisiens, plutôt qu’en robe ethnique roumaine, ou mieux encore, pour ses modèles pas vêtus du tout… Alors, pourquoi une blouse roumaine ????

Bien que cela soit moins connu, il est vrai que le grand maître eut au moins une élève roumaine – la fascinante et patriotique artiste moldave Nina Arbore (voir plus loin). Plus tard, Nina Arbore laissa son empreinte sur la scène roumaine dans le mouvement d’avant-garde tout comme peintre de fresques monumentales, qui décorent l’intérieur de cathédrales modernes. Il est plus que probable que Nina Arbore ait porté, à plusieurs occasions, la chemise paysanne roumaine. Aurait-elle été la première ‘seductrice’, inspirant au Maître le désir de peindre un tel sujet, ou aurait-elle posé pour lui ? En tout cas, il y a des archives qui laissent à penser qu’un portrait de Nina Arbore par Matisse existerait dans la collection Shtchukin . Cela coïnciderait avec la période durant laquelle Nina était l’élève de Matisse, en 1910-1911. Le fait que le collectionneur russe Shtchukin ait pu vouloir acquérir le portrait d’une élève roumaine de Matisse peut être dû au lien très fort que la famille Arbore, de Bessarabie, avait avec les intellectuels russes en général et avec Pouchkine en particulier (voir Nina Arbore). Il est aussi vrai qu’avant la Première guerre mondiale, la Bessarabie, auparavant une province de Moldavie, faisait partie de l’empire russe (voir aussi Maria Cebotari).
Si l’on observe certaines premières toiles de Matisse, on peut y décerner l’idée d’une broderie ethnique, dans la blouse de la danseuse de 1939, Une danseuse au repos, où l’on voit une femme assise qui porte une blouse roumaine.

La même chose est vraie d’une autre toile de Matisse, Nature morte avec femme endormie, aujourd’hui dans la collection de la National Gallery of Art à Wasington DC. La personne assise est une femme qui porte une blouse brodée à longues manches, décorée dans la partie supérieure de la manche comme le sont les blouses roumaines.

Une version encore antérieure, où les verts prédominent, apparaît en 1937.

Mais comme pour toutes ses peintures, les idées de Matisse furent dans un premier temps essayées sur du papier et là encore, on peut trouver des exemples de blouses roumaines au crayon et à l’encre : l’un de ces dessins, Femme avec une blouse rêvant, est visible à la page 67 de la monographie de Volkmar Esser (Matisse – 1869-1954, Master of Colour, Taschen, Koln, 2002) et est daté de 1936. Là, les mailles fleuries abondent. C’était l’année où le Maître avait eu une commande pour le décor et les costumes d’un ballet russe.

Blouse Roumaine (Daniel Rosenthal, 19e s.). Matisse a eu toute une collection de blouses pareilles, offertes par son ami Roumain, Theodor Pallady

Donc, de ces exemples et d’autres, dont de nombreux couvraient un mur entier à la galerie Maeght lors de l’exposition rétrospective de Matisse, en 1945, on peut penser sans équivoque que l’idée n’était pas neuve dans l’esprit de l’artiste. Quoi qu’il en soit, ce qui était nouveau à cette occasion, en 1940, était que la BLOUSE ROUMAINE était devenue au centre du sujet, le portant au premier plan et lui donnant une identité spécifique, nommée. Le modèle dans la version de 1940 est moins contemplatif comparé aux versions précédentes et regarde droit dans les yeux, avec une grande intensité et détermination. La toile a dû faire l’objet d’une discussion, voire même l’idée a pu en être soufflée lors de la visite d’un vieil ami, le peintre roumain Theodor Pallady (1871 – 1956), dont le portrait a été dessiné par Matisse, à Nice en 1940 . Selon la critique d’art Ioana Vlasiu , Pallady aurait même fait cadeau à son vieil ami Matisse d’une collection de blouses ethniques brodées. L’amitié entre Matisse et Pallady remontait à l’époque où ils étaient ensemble à l’Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris (1891 – 1899) et qu’ils fréquentaient le studio du peintre symboliste Gustave Moreau (1826 – 1898). Moreau était un ami de Chasseriau dont le modèle préféré n’était autre que la tante de Pallady, la princesse roumaine Maria Cantacuzino (1820 – 1898). Maria devait épouser plus tard Puvis de Chavannes qui l’a prise comme modèle pour symboliser sainte Geneviève, dans les fresques qui décorent le Panthéon à Paris. A travers leur correspondance qui dura presque un demi-siècle, un lien étroit se tissa entre le Français Henri Matisse et le peintre roumain Theodor Pallady. Excepté leur proximité dans le style et l’attitude, les deux amis partageaient un grand nombre de points communs, parmi lesquels l’image des muses roumaines, plus en vue en France au XXeme siècle, était un sujet récurrent. Dans sa correspondance, Matisse accompagnait ses lettres de dessins et utilisait Pallady comme une oreille compatissante, parlant parfois de ses angoisses personnelles et artistiques. Au Musée national d’art abrité dans le Palais royal à Bucarest, la collection d’art contemporain possède un dessin au fusain d’une femme qui porte une blouse paysanne roumaine et une veste, signé de Matisse, dessin qui précède ses peintures à l’huile bien connues sur le même thème.

Une blouse roumaine par Picasso ? Le triangle Pallady – Matisse – Picasso

Un fait a été mis en avant lors de l’exposition rétrospective de 2002 à la Tate Moderne de Londres consacrée à Matisse et Picasso : les deux peintres empruntaient souvent l’un à l’autre des thèmes, tout en les traitant dans leur idiosyncrasie. La Blouse roumaine aurait-elle pu être l’un d’entre eux ?
Picasso ne semble pas avoir donné un tel titre à aucune des toiles qu’il a peintes. Quoi qu’il en soit la monographie d’Yves-Alain Bois révèle un travail de Picasso ostensiblement inspiré par la Blouse roumaine de Matisse. Il s’agit de La femme aux mains bleues (collection privée), peinte par Picasso en février 1947, soit seulement quatorze mois après la rétrospective Matisse de décembre 1945 à Maeght. Le traitement que Picasso fait de la blouse est plus abstrait que celui de Matisse, mais là aussi l’artiste a décoré la robe avec de riches dessins qui couvrent les manches courtes et les épaules de la blouse mais en y ajoutant un genre de coiffe typique, portée par les demoiselles vierges roumaines, dont les fichus étaient serrés derrière la nuque. Même l’idée d’une fota (tablier ou jupe folklorique roumaine) géométrique est suggérée sur la jupe que porte la femme assise. Quoi qu’il en soit, on ne doit pas se laisser entraîner trop loin par de tels parallèles. Il suffit de dire que ce thème n’était pas récurrent dans le travail de Picasso, tout comme de nombreux autres thèmes que l’artiste emprunta à Matisse. Quoi qu’il en soit, en observant plus attentivement la toile, il est évident que les zigzags et les motifs nodules qui dominent dans la robe de la femme peinte en 1947 par Picasso sont empruntés aux vingt-cinq versions de blouses roumaines de Matisse, exposées en 1945, si l’on ajoute au douze Blouses les treize versions du Rêve.

Retournons à la plus célèbre version de la Blouse roumaine de Matisse, qui est exposée au Musée d’art moderne de Paris. Elle fut peinte en 1940, durant l’une des périodes la plus sombre de la guerre que la France ait eu à vivre sous l’occupation Nazie. Matisse allait bientôt abandonner Nice, qui allait être bombardée par les avions allemands, pour la relative sécurité de l’arrière-pays, à Vence. En lisant certains passages des journaux intimes de l’artiste écrits à cette époque, on peut se rendre compte que la gaîté de la Blouse roumaine agissait comme une antidote à la guerre, qu’elle représentait une lueur d’optimisme et d’espoir. Dans ce contexte, la signification de la Blouse roumaine pris de l’ampleur comme elle devenait l’objet d’une méditation philosophique. Que dit l’artiste ?

Le rêve (1940)
De nouveau la guerre. Il y a ici un tel cafard, une angoisse générale qui vient de tout ce qui se dit et répète sur la prochaine occupation de Nice que j’en suis très affecté par contagion et mon travail est particulièrement difficile. Heureusement je viens de finir presque un tableau commencé il y a un an et que j’ai mené à l’aventure -en somme chacun de mes tableaux est une aventure. D’abord très réaliste, une belle brune dormant sur ma table de marbre au milieu de fruits, est devenue un ange qui dort sur une surface violette -le plus beau violet que j’aie vu, -ses chairs sont de rose de fleur pulpeuse et chaude -et le corsage de sa robe a été remplacé par une blouse roumaine ancienne, d’un bleu pervenche pâle très très doux, une blouse de broderie au petit point vieux rouge qui a dû appartenir à une princesse, avec une jupe d’abord vert émeraude et maintenant d’un noir de jais. Que tu es belle, ma messagère au bois dormant ! Tes yeux sont des colombes derrière leurs paupières. Et elle rêve d’un prince français prisonnier d’antan dont j’ai lu et relu les poèmes pour en faire un choix. Je me suis toujours méfié de la littérature, mais je ne l’ai pas seulement illustrée, je l’ai soigneusement, amoureusement recopiée, et l’on en trouve l’émerveillement dans mes thèmes.
(Cantique de Matisse)

Donc le grand Matisse, alors presque âgé de 70 ans, rêve d’une princesse roumaine sous les traits d’une beauté endormie, et qui apporterait le réconfort durant les temps incertains de la guerre et de la vieillesse. La scène qu’il évoque est empruntée au Paris d’avant-guerre et même à un temps encore antérieur, à la Belle époque, avant la Première guerre mondiale, période que Matisse a connue dans sa jeunesse. C’était une époque où les princesses roumaines séduisaient les Français : Matisse avait peint vingt-cinq versions de ce thème, si l’on ajoute la série Le rêve à celle de la Blouse roumaine.

La Roumanie avant la Seconde guerre mondiale et l’Occident

Il y eut des égéries roumaines qui fréquentèrent les salons parisiens. Voilà quelques-unes d’entre elles :
On pensera en premier lieu à Maria Cantacuzino (Marie Cantacuzene) dont le portrait par Théodore Chasseriau (1819 – 1856) décore le Panthéon. Elle y représente Geneviève, la sainte patronne de Paris.
Elena Vacarescu (Hélène Vacaresco), dont les poèmes d’amour furent chantés par Tino Rossi (Si tu voulais) et dont la vie amoureuse inspira le roman à succès de Pierre Loti L’Exilée. Elle donna son nom à un prix littéraire, le prix Vacaresco Femina (qui est une partie du prix Femina).
Ou la célèbre comtesse de Noailles, née princesse Bassarabe-Brancovan (Basarab-Brancoveanu), la première femme à devenir commandeur de la Légion d’honneur. Les poèmes d’Anne de Noailles reçurent le Premier prix de l’Académie française, au tournant du siècle. Son portrait fut sculpté par Rodin et peint par Zuloaga.
Ou sa cousine, la poétesse parnassienne et femme du monde Marthe Bibesco, qui inspira Marcel Proust, Cocteau, Paul Valéry et d’Annunzio et qui attira dans son entourage tous ses contemporains dont le nom comptait, avec le zèle de l’entomologiste consumé, qui épinglerait les coléoptères dans son armoire à prix.
Ou peut-être la tragédienne Marie Ventura – un pilier de la Comédie Française qui surpassa la célèbre Sarah Bernhardt et devint l’actrice inoubliable des meilleures pièces classiques de Corneille, Racine, ou Molière.
Ou encore, la fascinante Elvire Popesco (Elvira Popescu), comtesse de Foy, du théâtre du Colombier et plus tard de la Comédie Française, qui enchanta le public par son apparition dans Ma cousine de Varsovie et devint célèbre sous le sobriquet de Notre dame du théâtre. Popesco joua avec Sacha Guitry dans Le paradis perdu… Sans aucun doute, Le paradis perdu était un sujet de grande anxiété pour Matisse et le retour à la vie du souvenir de ces muses éthérées roumaines sous la forme de la Blouse roumaine était un acte de foi.

La Roumanie d’après-guerre et l’Occident

La guerre allait mettre un terme à cette liaison fertile entre la Roumanie et les cercles artistiques et littéraires parisiens, tout comme le lien naturel qui existait entre la Roumanie et l’Occident fut brisé par le rideau de fer. Alors, le pays allait vivre pendant cinquante ans les âges sombres de la censure idéologique, de l’emprisonnement et de l’extermination.
Le fossé causé par ce retrait de la scène française fut comblé, d’une certaine manière, par un certain nombre d’exilés qui refusèrent de retourner dans leur pays perdu, mais leur joie de vivre fut émoussée par les angoisses liées à leur survie immédiate. Dans de rares occasions après la guerre froide, une soprano roumaine ou une ballerine pouvaient faire leur apparition, étincelante, sur la scène française, mais à cette époque le feu et l’imagination du public avait changé et l’impact n’avait plus rien à voir avec celui d’avant la guerre ou de la Belle époque. De plus, la Roumanie n’était désormais plus porteuse d’une image d’excellence intellectuelle mais était plutôt perçue comme un pays déshumanisé, la prison de l’histoire. Là-bas, non seulement les femmes partageaient les prisons de leurs maris, frères et fils, mais elles étaient de plus condamnées, à travers leurs corps, à remplir les attentes du Démiurge en ce qui concernait la hausse de la natalité, comme lors d’expériences génétiques interminables de proportions kafkaïennes:

Un peuple entier,
Pas encore né,
Mais condamné à voir le jour,
En colonnes avant de voir le jour,
Foetus contre foetus,
Un peuple entier,
Qui ne voit pas, n’entend pas, ne comprend pas,
Mais qui avance.
A travers le corps ondulant des femmes,
A travers le sang des mères
Qu’on ne consulte pas.
(Alan Blandiana, La croisade des enfants, 1984)

La descente dans un tel cauchemar, auquel la femme roumaine sous le communisme a dû faire face sans pitié, n’était autre que celui choisi par la femme même du Démiurge, acclamée dans des vers extravagants par les poètes du jour, comme on peut le voir dans les vers de Corneliu Vadim Tudor, qui, après 1990, est devenu un dirigeant politique d’un parti et un membre du Parlement, représentant le mouvement de l’extrême-droite nationaliste, Romania Mare. Voilà ci-dessous les vers qui s’adressaient à Elena Ceausescu elle-même, cités par Gail Kligman (p.128) dans son livre The politics of duplicity – controlling reproduction in Ceausescu’s Romania (University of California Press 1998) :

Femeie creatoare – Slava Tie (Salut à toi, femme créatrice !)

Soit bénie, femme inventive !
L’amour de la nation t’enveloppe,
Erudite, personnage politique et mère en même temps.
Toi, fort modèle à émuler, de charme et de sagesse
Qui sera toujours sentie et suivie
Sois pour toujours heureuse, toi, éternel symbole
Des héroïnes roumaines que tu es devenue
Poussée de l’avant aux côtés du héros du pays
Tout au long de la grande épopée du peuple roumain !

Durant un tel leadership épique d’un personnage si bien éduqué, incarné par Elena – La femme symbole de la création, aux côtés de son mari-héros Nicolae – il n’était pas question pour aucune autre femme roumaine de se voir autoriser quelque exercice de création que ce soit, sauf en termes de reproduction.

Comme si une politique aussi inhumaine n’était pas suffisante, les Roumains sous Ceausescu souffrirent aussi de la menace constante d’être expropriés de leurs maisons, sous prétexte de la modernisation du pays, avec une vingtaine de centre-ville rasés jusqu’au sol, et l’architecture historique s’évanouissant avec eux, dans le but de faire de la place pour les blocs d’appartements de style staniliste. Les gens avaient 72 heures pour récupérer leurs affaires et déménager dans des cages à lapin. Ils abandonnaient leurs meubles et leurs animaux familiers dans les rues (d’où les chiens errants de Bucarest, qui sont devenus proverbiaux.)
Pour ajouter à ce cauchemar social, afin de rendre le peuple peureux dans une soumission totale et de voler sa mémoire et sa fierté, durant le début des années 80, Ceausescu décida que la dette extérieure, contractée pour cause d’industrialisation déraisonnable, devrait être payée, et pour cela exporta la plupart des produits agricoles. Les Roumains se retrouvèrent sans denrées alimentaires de base et des queues de plusieurs mètres se formèrent devant les coopératives d’état, des queues où l’on attendait pendant des heures dans l’espoir que quelque chose de comestible soit achetable. Il n’y avait ni viande, ni poisson, ni oeufs, ni légumes – seulement quelques pommes de terre pourries, de temps en temps, qui ne convenaient pas pour nourrir les cochons et dans un bon jour on pouvait trouver des griffes de poulet avec lesquelles ont pouvait préparer un bouillon (voir Eugenia Velescu).
Le désespoir complet lié à la faim est résumé dans une lettre ouverte envoyée par les femmes de Roumanie à Elena Ceausescu, en 1980 (voir faim, pommes de terre), lettre qui fut publiée à l’Ouest. Les Roumains, connus pour leur esprit rebelle qui les autorise à rire même quand ils souffrent, comme l’expression d’une ultime catharsis ( a face haz de nacaz) pouvaient au moins sourire amèrement lorsqu’ils entendaient les enfants bohémiens roumains chanter leur parodie d’un chant de Noël, en 1980, neuf ans avant que le tyran et sa femme ne tombent, un jour de Noël.

Elisabeta Rizea, paysanne des Carpates qui a subi la torture des prisons communistes pour avoir aidé le maquis

Durant presque un demi-siècle, l’esprit de la Blouse roumaine souffrit d’une longue période d’éclipse, mais survécut pour raconter son histoire : ce sont les voix des femmes roumaines que nous avons introduites dans cette anthologie – quelques-unes célèbres, d’autres abominables et la plupart d’entre elles avec la fraîcheur de celles qui ne savent pas qu’elles sont des héroïnes – de simples fermières qui dépérissent dans des camps en Sibérie, des femmes de pasteur qui souffrent à cause de leur croyance religieuse, des femmes effacées qui furent envoyées dans des camps de concentration pour expier les choix politiques de leurs maris, ou pour d’autres pêchés que d’avoir publié le travail de leurs femmes – des femmes qui dans le cours normal des événements auraient traversé la vie sans qu’on les remarque, mais dont les tourments sous un régime génocidaire les mit en lumière dans la conscience de leur pays, pour leur bravoure, l’expression lyrique de leur souffrance, des femmes qui luttèrent dans le maquis et qui furent enterrées sous de fausses identités, et d’autres dont le corps fut jeté dans une fosse commune, sans nom – les noms de ces héroïnes ne peuvent se compter mais leur accumulation mérite notre attention.

Après la chute de Ceausescu, l’image de la Blouse roumaine retrouva graduellement sa place, lentement, comme le réveil après un cauchemar surréaliste : est-ce que la transition existe ? Est-ce pour de vrai ? Le passé va-t-il se répéter ? Dans ce sens, une mise en garde fut émise par le porte-parole du Parlement polonais lorsqu’il déclara : « Il ne faut que quelques semaines aux Empires pour s’écrouler, mais la mentalité impérialiste a besoin de plusieurs générations avant de disparaître. »

Les blouses ethniques portées par les femmes paysannes étaient à la mode parmi les classes sociales supérieures depuis que les princesses de la famille royale roumaine ont commencé à les porter, vers le milieu du XIXeme siècle, a l’instar d’Elisabeth de Roumanie (voir Carmen Sylva) et plus tard, de la reine Marie et de ses filles.

Si l’on prend en compte le passage tumultueux de l’histoire récente, on peut se demander si les femmes roumaines vont reconquérir leur réputation étincelante, telle qu’elles l’avaient connue avant la guerre. Vue d’ici, la réponse n’est pas simple et la route tortueuse. La seule réputation qu’elles semblent avoir gagné actuellement à l’Ouest, est, tristement, une réputation de pauvreté et de désespérance, qui a poussé les statistiques sur les jeunes femmes issues de la Balkan vortex a de hauts niveaux de prostitution. Bien après la chute de Ceausescu, ses enfants qui furent un jour “condamnés a naître” sont aujourd’hui destinés à mendier pour assurer leur subsistance, à vendre leurs corps…

Cela prendra du temps avant que la Beauté endormie de la toile de Matisse ne se réveille pour enchanter une fois encore la scène mondiale.
Ce jour viendra, mais dans le même temps la princesse de la Blouse roumaine devra être vigilante à ce que le rêve devienne réalité, tout comme l’ange dépeint par le Maître, dans son journal écrit par temps de guerre.

(Extrait de l’Anthologie des femmes Roumaines, traduction du livre paru en Anglais sous le titre: ‘Blouse Roumaine – the Unsung Voices of Romanian Women’, introduced and edited by Constantin ROMAN, Centre for Romanian Studies, London, 2009.
http://www.blouseroumaine.com/orderthebook_p1.html

© copyright Constantin ROMAN, 2003-2009, all rights reserved