I had started to study English as my fourth foreign language after German and French, which were both spoken in the family and Russian which was compulsory at schools behind the Iron Curtain. My native language was Romanian and long before I started private English lessons I had a cartoon-like impression of the British Isles from the plays of Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens, from the short stories of J.B. Priestley, the fabulous novels of Walter Scott‘s and from my bed side History of Architecture by Sir Bannister Fletcher. I also knew and admired Henry Moore whose exhibition was organized by the British Council in Bucharest. When I was a student in the 1960′s I was, of course a fan of the Beatles, although I had to keep this a secret from the Communist authorities who regarded the Pop Music as decadent. Well, I wanted to be decadent.

… within three months I learned to down eight pints of Newcastle brown Ale in one evening …

Within three months I learned to down Eight Pints of Newcastle Brown in one evening

My first contact with Britain, was oddly enough with Newcastle-upon-Tyne and I was terribly excited to be the guest of the School of Physics, where I enjoyed the privilege of a visitor’s accommodation in a beautiful penthouse. This was all the more exciting as it was built by Sir Basil Spence an architect I much admired for his rebuilding of Coventry Cathedral. I could not understand Geordie being spoken in the pubs and did not know what a pint was and neither could I drink more than half a pint, but within three months I learned to down eight pints of Newcastle brown Ale in one evening. I found the inhabitants friendly, although being called a pet took some time to get used to given my stuffy Marxist upbringing: – well some people were more equal then others back home.

In Newcastle I was asked by the University Librarian what language we spoke in Romania and if we had a language of our own, so I decided to start a crusade in the form of a One-man Festival of Romania to proselytise the Geordies about the virtues of Romanian culture. This attracted the attention of Tyne Tees TV who interviewed me live and made me overnight an unwitting hero within two months of my arrival in town.

… My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre …

In the meantime I got very worried about my finances, as the one pound a day grant was not stretching far enough so I applied for various research scholarships of which I got two in Canada and the United States and a Scholarship at Cambridge. I chose the latter because I liked the architecture and the gardens. I think I got the Scholarship against intense competition because I was quite relaxed about it as I could not imagine in my wildest dreams that I will ever succeed in being a postgraduate student at Cambridge, so I did not take my interview seriously and felt no angst about it.

Whilst at Cambridge I translated and published in Encounter Romanian poetry and wrote articles about Brancusi in the Cambridge Review. I also wrote the first bilingual French-English pamphlet with the History of Peterhouse, which was my College and I remembered asking my long suffering Tutor, who was a medieval Historian:

Peterhouse, Cambridge, College History by Constantin Roman

Did you wait 700 years for a Romanian to come along and write a History of Peterhouse?

In my second year I was elected President of the Graduate Society and managed to obtain new privileges, one of which was to be allowed to have the Society Dinners in the Combination Room. I also discovered in the College a portrait of Dewar, a scientist whom I admired in Romania and who was relegated to oblivion in the College cellars, so I granted him a place of honour in the Grad Soc Common Room, where it still hangs today (NB Since writing this piece the painting was moved to the first-floor stairwell leading to the Fellows Parlour).

My greatest trouble in England arose from my refusal to give up my Romanian nationality. In retrospect this may seem bizarre, especially that I was menaced on a number of fronts: by Securitate operatives masquerading as diplomats keen to end my flouting of socialist order and drag me back to Romania; by a prospective mother-in-law who refused to allow her daughter to marry me unless I accepted British citizenship; and by officials of the British Home Office who assumed that my desire to retain what I saw as my unalienable right of birth, my nationality, might stem from communist loyalties.

Afterwards Lord Goodman decided to champion my cause, writing to the head of the Home Office that I was a

man of impeccable character clearly determined to belong here and make a significant contribution to our national life.”

In retrospect I hope that I discharged myself honourably of Goodman‘s expectations as I gave generously my expertise in discovering oil and gas for Britain and batting for Britain abroad on the cultural and scientific front, especially in my native country – Romania.

The whole drift of this saga is best captured in memoirs recently published by the Institute o Physics in London  under the title Continental Drift – Colliding Continents, Converging Cultures.

Constantin ROMAN: A History of Plate Tectonics at Madingley Rise, Cambridge

http://www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift/

http://www.movinghere.org.uk/stories/story12/story12.htm?identifier=stories/story12/story12.htm

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

Constantin ROMAN

Prefata Acad. Prof. John F. DEWEY (Oxford si California)

Centre for Romanian Studies, London, 2010

(Recenzie – Partea III)

SFIDAREA IDIOCRATIEI

Pe parcursul cartii urmarim autorul desprinzandu-se dintr-un regim totalitar de opresiune absurda si ajungand pana la varful celei mai inalte si distinse piramide de invatamant din Anglia. Din aceasta coliziune de culturi atat de diferite ies niste scantei de o bogatie si o frumusete spirituala  pasionanta.

Iarasi il gasim mai departe in numeroasele lui vizite din Europa: Franta, Italia, Belgia, Olanda, Luxembourg, Germania si Irlanda, cu ocazia prezentarii unui articol stiintific, al unor cercetari seismologice, sau, alergand dupa o fiinta fermecatoare. Ori si care ar fi fost motivul sau locul acestor peregrinari dintr-odata ne dam seama de niste paralele, pe masura ce muzeele, galeriile si panoramele arhitectonice ale catedralelor si metropolelor isi desvaluie perspectivele, isi deschid ferestrele si comorile, adeseori comparate sau reflectate intr-o oglinda romaneasca plina de nostalgie.

Dar din tot acest cadru, cel mai important apocalips este reprezentat de un fapt inevitabil de care incepe sa isi dea seama si anume neputinta de a se intoarce in Romania si in consecinta imperativul de a se stabili in Anglia. Ori, mai intai, aceasta cerere ii este refuzata, intru cat in calitatea sa de student Constantin Roman a primit doar o viza de sedere temporara in Anglia cu ingradiri specifice acestei categorii. De aici porneste o lunga campanie la care se alatura prieteni si cunostiinte din elita stiintifica si politica a Angliei care incearca sa sprijine cererea studentului roman, personalitati care cer autoritatilor britanice si romane sa faca o exceptie.

Lord Goodman (1973), by Graham Sutherland (1903-19280. Tate Gallery

Celebra printre aceste scrisori ramane epistola lordului Goodman, avocatul primului ministru britanic Harold Wilson si negociatorul international in problema Rodeziei, scrisoare adresata ministrului de interne britanic in care face aluzie, in mod hiperbolic la posibilitatea unei razmerite la Cambridge, daca acest caz nu s-ar rezolva in mod satisfacator. Iar ca si cum aceste dificultati ne fiind suficiente, in mod ironic la ele se mai adauga si greutatile nestavilite  puse in calea planurilor sale matrimoniale de catre o viitoara soacra care se opune cu indarjire perspectivei unei casatorii.

In ciuda acestui purgatoriu neanticipat, cartea, care  pe tot parcursul narativului pastreaza un stil optimist,  nu  are deloc ca obiectiv inventarul exaustiv si precis al unor acceptari stoice ale greutatilor intampinate, ci mai degraba desvaluirea refuzului obdurat de a accepta absurdul. Aceasta pozitie  rezulta inevitabil in ciocniri de proportii Quixotice, de unde titlul editiei romanesti de “Sfidarea Idiocratiei”. Ori cand aceasta sfidare se transforma in situatii comice, comparabile cu o adevarata  Commedia dell’Arte,  desnodamantul ei trebuie sa fie un model altor hedonisti. Caci de fapt, in adancul sufletului, Constantin ROMAN ramane  un hedonist: nici o  placere cat de simpla nu este ocolita, iar in aceasta cavalcada vitalizanta, doar gastronomia intrece pasiunea pentru stiinta si arta. Ori nu exista nici o experienta care stimuleaza papilele gustative, nici o bucata delicioasa demna de ghidurile gurmande cele mai rafinate, care sa fi scapat atentiei autorului. Aceasta predilectie, ca sa nu o numim, pur si simplu, o obsesie, conduce inevitabil la refuzul unui important post, la care autorul a postulat la Haga, cu care ocazie, meniul baroc  consumat  iesise din limitele conventiilor birocratice. Explicatia acestei slabiciuni, acestei obsesii pentru gastronomie autorul o pune pe seama memoriei a mai multor generatii de stramosi – tarani infometati si mai recent, sub regimul comunist, a cozilor interminabile pentru painea ce de toata zilele.

Ca si gastronomia placerea infinita care rezulta din admirarea arhitecturii, picturii si ale gradinilor care il inconjoara la Cambridge  reprezinta un fundal mereu prezent:  aceste toate formeaza un comentariu, ca un hemiciclu, sau o tema muzicala, o reflectie permanenta a fiecarei miscari, o bucurie pe care autorul o impartaseste pe indelete cu cititorul, pe masura ce  intoarce paginile cartii.

NOTA:

Mai multe detalii despre “Sfidarea Idiocratiei” se afla la linkul:

http://www.constantinroman.com/continentaldrift/