“The Lake”
By Mihai Eminescu


“In the fonts, yellow lilies
Carpet the lake-waters blue;
Of a sudden, whitish circles
Do unfasten a canoe

And I roam along the border
And half list, half wait, most blest
If she comes out of the rushes
And falls gently on my breast

Into the canoe we’ll hurry
Tempted by the waters’ chant
And I shall let slip the rudder,
And the oar I’ll put aslant;

We shall, lit by friendly moonbeams
Float within the magic ring
May the winds through rushes rustle,
May the rippling waters sing

But she will not come. O, vainly,
All alone, I sigh and ache
Near the host of yellow lilies,
On the brink of the blue lake.”





Analysis

Mihai Eminescu is the greatest Romanian poet and the critic George Calinescu said about him: “Eminescu succeeds a paradox – he can be to the simple man’s liking (…) inscribing himself in the national folklore and at the same time he can move the refined man from all over the world”.
The great genius is born in Botosani, on the 15-th of January in 1850; he is the son of Gheorghe Eminovici and Raluca Jurascu. He spends his childhood in Botosani and Ipotesti near his beloved nature. The year 1866 is the year of his first artistic manifestations; also Iosif Vulcan changes his name from Mihai Eminovici to Mihai Eminescu. He studies at Vienna and Berlin. In 1877 his health state is getting worse and in 1889, on the 15-th of June he dies. His tomb lies in Bellu cemetery in Bucharest.

Mihai Eminescu’s favourite themes in his poetry are love and nature. In “The Lake” this two elements are harmoniously combining, being the spring of inner balance and joy.
He surprises nature in two hypostases: the terrestrial one with the woods, the springs, the lime-tree, and the common reeds- specific elements for the eminescian poetry. The nature in Eminescu’s vision is offering shelter, is human, intimate, the scenery of human feelings.
The second hypostasis is represented by the cosmic nature, the cosmic landscape which includes the Moon, the