Leonid Dimov

Leonid Dimov (born on January 11 1926, in Izmail, Bassarabia, which was Romanian at the time- died on December 5 1987 of a heart attack, in Bucharest) was a Romanian poet and translator. The son of Nadejda Dimov, he was one of the main representatives (together with, amongst others, Dumitru Ţepeneag) of onirism in Romanian poetry, explorer of the dream as an absolute, objective reality.

He graduated from the Sf. Sava highschool in Bucharest. Then he studied for three years at the philology department of the University of Bucharest. Without graduating, he studied again for three years at the biology department. After a dispute (it seems that he questioned at a seminar the logic of Michurinist science) he was expelled. He also followed courses in law and mathematics at the same University of Bucharest.

He was married twice: the first time, to Lucia Salam (with whom he had a daughter, Tatiana, born in 1952), and the second time, to Ana-Marina Voinescu (whose daughter, Ileana-born in 1957 from her marriage to Teodor Pâcǎ, he would adopt as his own child).

In an age and society where many Romanian poets and writers compromised their conscience in order to be able to publish more, Dimov was one of the few who refused to praise the regime, a fact that brought him to the attention of the Romanian secret police, the feared Securitate.

"Carte de vise"

"Carte de vise" (en. "book of dreams") is one of Dimov's best known works. It was published in 1969, at Editura pentru Literatură, with cover and illustrations by Florin Pucă. The book is divided into four cycles:
* "Hipnagogice"
* "7 proze"
* "La capătul somnului"
* "Poeme de veghe"

Translations

He translated from Marcel Raymond, Curzio Malaparte, Gerard de Nerval, Andrei Belyi, M.I. Lermontov.

Output

*"Versuri", (1966)
*"7 poeme", (1968)
*"Pe malul Styxului", (1968)
*"Carte de vise", (1969)
*"Semne cereşti", (1970)
*"Eleusis", (1970)
*"Deschideri", (1972)
*"A.B.C.", (1973)
*"La capăt",(1974)
*"Litanii pentru Horia", (1975)
*"Dialectica vârstelor", (1977)
*"Tinereţe fără bătrâneţe",(1978)
*"Spectacol", (1979)
*"Veşnica reîntoarcere", (1982)

Other editions and anthologies: A.B.C., Ed. Cartea Românească, 1973

*"Texte", Introduction by Mircea Iorgulescu, Ed. Albatros

*"Cele mai frumoase poezii", 1980; Poetry, edition that was taken care of, with a postscriptum, chronological table and critical references by Nicolae Barna, Ed. Gramar, 2000.

Theoretical texts, very important for the understanding of the aesthetical onirism, written by Leonid Dimov and Dumitru Ţepeneag, can be found in Corin Braga "Momentul oniric", Ed. Cartea Românească, 1997.

Prizes and honours

*The Romanian Writers' Union Prize, 1979
*The Bucharest Writers' Union Prize, 1968, 1977, 1982