Constantin MĂNUŢĂ [Romania]
The Feast of Utterance in Mihai Merticaru’s Sonnets
Mihai Merticaru’s sonnets in The Golden Pitcher, the poet’s eighteenth volume of poetry, issued by Rawex Coms Publishing House, Bucharest, 2016, represents the continuance of the poetic themes and motifs present in his former volumes, the predilection for cosmicity, nature, vitalness and elementariness, the lyrical and musical revelation, the miraculous experiencing of feelings.
His propensity for the art of the sonnet also results from the author’s sincere confession, since he considers himself to be a genuine romantic, who feels comfortable only in the waters of the sweet classical style. In the preface to his fifth volume of sonnets, Mihai Merticaru makes another brilliant confession: “He who strives to climb up the high peak of the sonnet must unavoidably pass through the Caudine Forks similar to the mountain climber who would not take a roundabout path but would boldly encounter the vertical wall of the mountain”. Subsidiarily, he also states that essentialising the poetic act and the sonnet, in particular, requires talent, concentration, skill, devotion, discipline, rigour, and the power of self-sacrifice, which, in our opinion, are virtues that he owns and obstacles that he surpasses dauntlessly and gracefully.
As far as the structure is concerned, the volume comprises three poetical sequences: Serene Sonnets, Pious Sonnets, and Gloomy Sonnets.
The Sonnet of the Sonnet is the poem which opens the volume, a song of praise to the sonnet as the king of poetry, a species of divine origin and inspiration, a hymn of praise, an endearing, blest metaphor, in which the most brilliant spirits of the centuries have excelled: “It constellates and softly strings on the lyre,/ It overmasters fleet time and boundlessness,/ Springing from the divine creation’s greatness”.
The woman in Mihai Merticaru’s sonnets is a treasure, perceived as a heavenly wonder which dwells a pious and sacred prayer, so that she can give birth to a new galaxy, which possesses a smokelike body and stormlike eyes, these metaphors being able to engender the storms in the relationship between the ephemeral and the eternal within the human being, a genuine mythology, as the poet continues in the sonnet She Is the One, the spark able to detonate the trotyl which will bring forth the explosion of love.
The love which moves the Sun and the other stars, as Dante Alighieri conceived it, would soar to the skies, while in Mihai Merticaru’s poetry, it embodies a mystery, a widening perception of the nonelucidable and the mysterious, the Sunday of the spirit, a siren who lures us into unforeseen profundities.
Suffering, the loss of love may cast a bridge of sighs, nevertheless it has the function to transform the instant into eternity, yielding new beauties: “I’ll forge twinklings into everlastingness,/ Devising new pulchritude for your tendment.// Come, let us submit to the sacred belief,/ Let’s spin with the Parcae’ our fated life threads,/ Let’s entwine our spans in pledges, a relief// Whose guide be God Almighty, who bans mischief!/ So may our solemn wedding vows crown our heads,/ You’re my bride, I’m your ageless heavenly treads!” (Betrothal).
To the eternal feminine, rendered by Mihai Eminescu through the sintagmata I don’t know what and an I don’t know how, the poet Mihai Merticaru would assign a surplus of beauty and delicacy, embedded in genuine apotheotic hymns, being highly aware that love is the sole way to accede to the absolute: “All love is a pure sunshine-laden season,/ Your soul dances with the wooing birds in flight,/ New stars rise on the sparkling vault, featherlight,/ The planets forsake their course and turn crimson” (The Sonnet of Happiness). Moreover, another sonnet displays an extremely suggestive title: IN HOC SIGNO VINCES – By This Sign You Will Conquer. It was emblazoned against the noonday sky, on a bright cross of light, and beheld by Constantine the Great, when he set off from Byzantium to fight against the debauched Rome, the inscription turning into a symbol of love’s worldwide victory, since it is the most precious heavenly gift offered to mankind by our Creator.
Athene, Diana or Aphrodite represent the woman who’s the soul of artwork and superbness, the sweetheart regarded as utter fulfillment, as a means of reaching the essence of knowledge, as a remedy for keeping death at a distance: “Light my life path with torchlike audacity/ Let’s step together into eternity” (Woman). The myth of the androgyne is omnipresent, as the archetype of the being conceived like a sphere from which the halves were severed – the male and the female – foredoomed to perpetually be in quest of each other, in order to restore the primordial unity. Absolute love is, as Mircea Eliade stated in The Myth of Reintegration, a “nostalgia of androgyny”.
In his Prayer to our Lord, the poet yearns that his great departure should be a gentle melody: “…Banish the nightfall underneath my eyebrows,/ Lovingly immure me into the light’s sheen,/ Pump hopes of life into my veins, not to douse,// May plague be left without aerials and house,/ May my moments be plenteous and serene,/ My great departure – a gentle melody’s scene!” (Prayer).
The poet writes a paean to the flame within the stone – the fire –, the fourth element of the traditional cosmogony, depicted in all its purifying, consuming, and redeeming valences, in order to describe the mood of the self, the ardent passion of experience, the centre of the spiritual life: “Like the fiery fire it floods our arteries,/ Waking the Titan Atlas in each weakling,/ The last glass claims another’s bizarreries,// Washing unshed tears, granting joy’s juggleries” (The Sonnet of the Wine).
Merticaru’s poetic universe explores intense emotional states, revealing moments of silence and questions clustering around the poet’s endeavour to discover his own identity. Being fascinated by the unique and unreiterative experiences, the poet obsessively writes about the need for purity and sincerity, about candour and affection, as feelings which bestow a profound meaning on life: “The splendour’s candid multicoloured hora,/ A fairy scene unseen even in sweet dreams,/ Sung by myriads of minstrels along streams,/ A magic redolent of mandragora”.
Mihai Merticaru’s world is an accumulation of fragments belonging to both reality and irreality, to both the quotidian and the innermost world: “The crepuscular moments rest in staffage,/ Time’s still in store to vow women allegiance,/ To share gods’ abundance with no dissemblance,/ Savouring the lush verbiage of vintage” (The Sonnet of the Moment). The parable of his style is supported by a gestural repertoire of essentialisation: silence, introversion, an attitude of pure contemplation.
Samples of elegance and discretion, high fantasy, mystery and illusion, Mihai Merticaru’s sonnets are exercises of great, unsophisticated simplicity, which transcribe an overwhelming inner tumult of moods, ideas, and feelings. The source of his lyricism lies in his boundless love for each and every thing that surrounds us: “Winsome spring breaks loose in mellow orchard croons,/ Fairly disclosing its mirific flora/ Blooming in the haloes of the aurora,/ A fulminant show for one thousand afternoons”.
The solemnity, the elegance of phrasing, and the effects derived from appealing to rhyme and rhythm reveal a poet endowed with a prodigious mobility of the lyrical discourse, a jovial bonhomme who relies on musicality and prosodic refinement, a poet who aspires towards the standards of genuine poetry, which consists in ambiguity and imprevisibility, in associating totally disparate elements, so as to achieve a miraculous experience of feelings.
While remiding us that, since time immemorial, poetry and music were inseparable, Mihai Merticaru, a poet both rigorous and suggestive, Apollonian and Dionysian, enigmatic and colloquial, has presented us with the volume of his accomplished creative maturity, a splendid homage to love, an exhilarating overflow of lyricism, pendulating between the real and the ideal, between the sacred and the profane, between Eros and Thanatos.
康斯坦丁·马努塔[罗马尼亚]
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁十四行诗中的话语盛宴
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁的十四行诗《金水杯》是诗人的第十八部诗集，2016年由布加勒斯特的拉韦克斯·康斯出版社出版，代表了他前几部诗集中诗歌主题和主题的延续，即对宇宙、自然、活力和质朴性的偏爱，抒情和音乐的启示以及对情感的神奇体验。
他对十四行诗艺术的偏爱也源于作者真诚的自白，因为他认为自己是一个真正的浪漫主义作家，只有沉浸在甜蜜的古典风格的河流中才能自在。在他的十四行诗第五卷的序言中，米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁又做了一个精彩的自白：“想要攀登十四行诗高峰的人，必然要经历类似穿越卡夫丁峡谷的艰难险阻，就像登山者不会绕道而行，而是勇敢地直面陡峭的山壁一样。”。此外，他还指出，诗歌行为的本质，尤其是十四行诗，需要天赋、专注、技巧、奉献、自律、严谨和自我牺牲的力量。在我们看来，这些都是他所拥有的优点，也是他无畏而优雅地超越的障碍。
按结构划分，这部诗集包括三个诗歌序列：《宁静十四行诗》《虔诚十四行诗》和《忧郁十四行诗》。
《十四行诗中的十四行诗》是这本诗集的开篇之作，它赞颂十四行诗为诗中之王，是神赐灵感的产物，是赞美诗，一个怡人而美好的隐喻，几个世纪以来最杰出的天才们都在这一诗体上大放异彩：“它在竖琴上排列成星座，轻柔地弹奏，/它征服了转瞬即逝的时间和无垠的空间，/从神创的伟大中迸发出来”。
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁十四行诗中的女性是宝藏，被视为是虔诚而神圣的祈祷中栖居的上天创造的奇迹，如此她就能孕育出一个新的星系，这个星系拥有烟雾般的身躯和风暴般的双眸，这些隐喻能够在人世间短暂与永恒的关系中引发风暴，正如诗人在十四行诗《她就是独一无二的那个》中继续写道，她是能够引爆梯恩梯从而引发爱情爆炸的那粒火花，这是一则真正的神话。
正如但丁·阿利吉耶里所设想的那种推动太阳和其他星星的爱，将直冲云霄，而在米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁的诗歌中，这种爱体现了一种神秘、一种对不可解释和神秘的事物的感知的不断延展，是精神的礼拜日，也是诱惑我们进入未知深渊的女妖。
痛苦，丧失爱，或许会架起一座哀叹之桥，然而它却有能力将瞬间变为永恒，孕育出新的美：“我将把瞬间铸成永恒，/为你的愿望打造新的美好。”//来吧，让我们信奉神圣的信仰，/让我们与命运女神一起编织我们命运的生命线，/让我们用誓言缠绕我们的岁月，这是一种解脱//全能的上帝引领我们，他禁止邪恶！/愿我们庄严的结婚誓言为你我加冕/你是我的新娘，我是你永恒的天梯！”（《婚约》）。
对于由米哈伊·爱明内斯库通过我不知道是什么，我也不知道怎么做这首歌演绎的永恒女性之美，诗人米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁则赋予其更多的美丽和精致，将其嵌入至真诚的圣歌之中，因为他深知爱是通向绝对真理的唯一途径“所有的爱都是一个纯粹的充满阳光的季节，/你的灵魂与求爱的飞鸟儿共舞，/新星在闪烁的苍穹升起，轻如羽毛，/行星偏离了自己的轨道，变得绯红”（《幸福十四行诗》）。此外，另一首十四行诗展示了一个蕴含极度深意的标题：《以此标记——你必获胜》。当君士坦丁大帝从拜占庭出发去对抗没落的罗马帝国时，这个标记闪耀在明亮的十字架上，映照着正午的天空，这一铭文变成了爱在世界范围内获胜的象征，因为它是我们的造物主赐予人类的最珍贵的礼物。
雅典娜、戴安娜或阿佛洛狄特代表了拥有艺术和卓越灵魂的女性形象，代表了完美的爱人，代表了通向知识本质的途径，代表了抵御死亡的良药：“用火炬般的勇气照亮我的人生之路/让我们携手步入永恒”（《女人》）。雌雄同体的神话无所不在，作为造物的原型，它被构想成一个球体，从这个球体分离出两半——男性和女性——注定要永远追寻彼此，以恢复原始的组合。正如米尔恰·伊利亚德在《回归的神话》中所说，绝对的爱是一种“对雌雄同体的怀旧”。
在诗人向主的《祷词》中，他渴望他的伟大的告别应该是一曲温柔的旋律：“……驱散我眉间的夜色，/爱意将我囚于光的辉映中，/把生命的希望注入我的血脉，永不熄灭，//愿瘟疫无处藏身，/愿我的时光丰盈而宁静，/我伟大的告别——一个温柔的旋律场景！”（《祷词》）。
诗人给石头里的火焰——火——写了一首赞歌，这是传统宇宙起源论的第四个元素，以它所有的净化、消耗和救赎的价值来描绘，以描述自我的情绪，体验的热烈激情以及精神生活的中心：“像烈火一样，它淹没了我们的血脉，/唤醒每个弱者的提坦·阿特拉斯巨神，/最后一杯酒索要另一人的怪异行为，/清洗未流出的眼泪，赋予其欢乐的诡计”（《酒的十四行诗》）。
梅尔蒂卡鲁的诗歌世界探索了强烈的情感状态，揭示了诗人努力寻找自己身份过程中的沉默时刻和遇到的问题。诗人痴迷于独特而不重复的经历，痴迷于书写对纯洁和真诚的需要，书写坦率和感情，将其作为赋予生命深刻意义的感情：“灿烂的率真多彩的霍拉舞，/是甜蜜的梦中看不到的仙景，/无数吟游诗人沿着溪流歌唱，/曼陀罗散发出神奇气味”。
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁的世界是碎片的积累，这些碎片既属于现实，也属于非现实，既属于日常世界，也属于内心世界：“黄昏的时刻在工作中休息，/时间仍然在等待着对女性宣誓效忠，/分享上帝的丰盈，不加掩饰，/品味复古的丰美”（《瞬间十四行诗》）。他的寓言风格得到了一种本质化的手势加持：沉默，内向，一种纯粹沉思的态度。
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁的十四行诗是优雅和谨慎、高度幻想、神秘和幻觉的典范，是对伟大与简单的实践，记录了难以抗拒的情绪、思想和感情的内心骚动。他的抒情诗的源泉在于他对我们周围的每一件事的无限的爱：“迷人的春天在醇厚的果园里放松下来，/完全展示神奇的植物/在晨曦的光环中盛开，/一千个下午的闪亮表演”。
庄重、优雅的措辞，以及对韵律和节奏的追求所产生的效果，揭示了一位诗人在抒情话语中具有的惊人的灵活性，他是一位依靠节奏感和精致韵律的乐天派，是一位追求真正诗歌标准的诗人，这种标准包括模糊性和不可预见性，将完全不同的元素耦合在一起，从而实现一种神奇的情感体验。
米哈伊·梅尔蒂卡鲁，一位严谨而富有启发性的诗人，阿波罗式和酒神式的诗人，神秘而口语化的诗人，在提醒我们诗歌和音乐自古以来就密不可分的同时，向我们展示了他创作的成熟，对爱的精彩致敬，抒情诗的滔滔不绝，以及他在现实与理想、在神圣与世俗、在厄洛斯和塔纳托斯之间的徘徊。
(董秀静教授 译；Tr. Prof. Dong Xiujing)
