One of the beautiful poems of Stefan Augustin Doinas
The Earth and the survival of our civilization are at great risk in this century, which could be the last in human history. There are several major threats and risks, some from natural causes that are difficult or impossible to prevent, others from human causes as a consequence of scientific, technological, social and cultural developments in human society. There are national and international research centers and institutes devoted to the study of Existential Risks, defined as “those threats that may result in the premature extinction of intelligent life originating on Earth, or the permanent and drastic destruction of its potential for future development”
Such Future Scenarios presents “WHAT COULD HAPPEN IF…”
So there is a degree of uncertainty and likelihood of some of the predictions made by some specialists coming true…
Please note that the data and information in these possible scenarios are at the level of the years in which each of them was realized (2012…2022)
They can be updated by consulting recent bibliographies in each subject area.
On March 16, 2024, we commemorated the 67th anniversary of Brancusi’s death.
In Romania a relatively small number of Brâncuș’s works are preserved, for known historical reasons, summarized in this quote from Ilarie Voronca:
“And suddenly I had the revelation of the creator’s solitude.
He who with his own hands made the world, was grieved to see that it was ungrateful and haughty, turning away from him and forgetting him. But just like any great artist, the creator continues his fantastic labor, without respite and never satisfied. My soul was filled with awe for the divine builder” ;
From an exegetical point of view, Brâncuș’s creation has known an extraordinary discrepancy of opinions.
Brancusi has been associated with the most varied artistic styles starting with Cycladic idols, African statuary, Greek archaic art, then the Egyptian, culminating with the rockets of the atomic age, after having previously been equally related to cubism, abstract art, Byzantine, oriental, Platonic spirituality and, last but not least, Romanian folklore.
This diversity of opinions is particularly evident at the stylistic turning point in the sculptor’s work, namely 1907-1910, the period in which the “Prayer”, “The Earth’s Rise” and “The Kiss” were created.
Many foreign researchers of his work point to elements of inspiration from our folklore (Paul Morand, Carola G., Welcker, Jean Cassou, Herbert Read); others such as Sidney Geist consider these elements to be of secondary value.
Romanian exegesis was oriented, naturally in a way, on the national specificity of Brâncuși’s creation.
These polemics around the work of the great Romanian sculptor seek to emphasize what is Romanian and what is universal in his creation.
His art has, without a doubt, renewed the meanings and orientation of sculpture, and therefore it must be received from the point of view of the cultural confluences that they reveal, which together make up a dialog with universal valences.
For an art lover open to the world of ideas and artistic currents that revolutionize the creation of artists and reshape the criteria of evaluation and perception/understanding of the public, the encounter with Brâncuși’s work is an overwhelming moment, entering a temple about whose symbols and artistic achievements have been written tens of thousands of pages in articles and volumes of presentation and analysis of the cognitive leap made by the father of modern sculpture.
There are authors who have devoted their entire lives to presenting and trying to explain Brâncuș’s works to the general public.
For some of his works that broke new ground in 20th century art, we have drawn on an extensive bibliography.
From these many volumes and pages, I have retained and synthesized what were for me some of the main ideas, in the Lecture Notes from the powerpoint presentations dedicated to the defining works of Brâncuși’s art.
We made these powerpoints on scientific topics that are rarely presented, based on an observation by the well-known scientist Stephen Hawking, who co-wrote “The Grand Design” with L. Mlodinow.
“It amazes me how disinterested we are today in things like physics, space, the universe and the philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. It’s a fantastic world out there. Be curious.”
I add another poignant formulation by another scientist, Steven Weinberg, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, who wrote, “The first three minutes, a modern view of the origin of Universe” “The effort to understand the universe is one of the rare things that raises human life a little above the level of a farce and gives it something of the thrill of tragedy.”
I dedicate these powerpoints to those who are curious, eager to find out what is currently known about how the world we live in began and how it may end.
Mr. Qfwfq, a very old gentleman, is the narrator and protagonist of stories written by Italo Calvino, collected in the volume COSMICOMICĂRII.
It’s about 13.7 billion years old.
And because he has lived so long and seen so much, he humorously tells us about the evolution, expansion and contraction of the Universe, time and space, stories about the transformation of matter, starting from current scientific notions and knowledge, mainly astronomical…
Due to some restrictions and particularities of the NICEPPS.ro website
where these Powerpoint presentations are hosted,
following the link mentioned for each of these presentations
that leads to the page where it can be found,
it is necessary to download them on your computer to watch them with music and text,
because on the NICEPPS website or on your phone, the music cannot be heard.
“If it’s not love that I feel, what is it?
And if she is, I wonder what love is?
Is that a bad thing? Why do I covet his injury?
Is that a good thing? Then why does it hurt?”
There is a video of Cohen singing this famous song.
I wanted to listen and present a recitation of this poem, with its unmistakable voice and intonations
Exiled in 8 AD. by the emperor Octavian Augustus on the edge of the empire, in the fortress of Tomis (today’s Constanta) on the shores of the Euxine Pontus, Ovidiu had to leave the good life, his wife and friends in Rome, where he had conquered poetic glory. After months of difficult journey, the deserted shore of Tomis appeared. Stranded along the road, among the ravaged locks of hair, the eyes of the Gets looked at him. considered barbaric by the poet. During the 8 years of living among them, Ovidiu wrote and sent to Rome several letters, in which he described the road to Tomis, the place, the events and the uncivilized, strange and warlike people, with rough looks, from there. LETTERS FROM EXILE
groups these epistles in TRISTELE (five books) and PONTICELE (four books), two literary masterpieces of antiquity, From “Tristele” and “Ponticele” poems written by Ovid in exile, we can learn a lot of information about Dacia Pontica, our Dobrogea today and about our ancestors who lived there.
Adrian Păunescu was a multiskilled personality who reached the heights of poetic glory in the hearts and memories of many poetry lovers.
His love poems are touching in their unsuspected and unexpected confessions, of an astonishing and often painful lyrical intensity.
Adrian Paunescu recites: Simple Love Letter – Away You Away Me – With you, without you – Me without you – It’s impossible for me without you – At parting
The well-known Poem XX by Pablo Neruda is part of the volume “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Desperation”.
Published in 1924, when the writer was only 19 years old, the volume “Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Desperation” is one of Pablo Neruda’s best-known and most-read creations.
I made this powerpoint in two versions – you can see the first one now, translated into Romanian…
“I can write the saddest lyrics tonight. I loved her, and sometimes she loved me too.”
The second one you see and listen to recited in Spanish, with the sounds specific to the original text…
“Puedo escribirlos versos más tristes esta noche. Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso”
Which of the two options do you prefer?
For me, Ştefan Augustin Doinaş is a poet of feelings expressed in harmonious images and forms, contemplative reverie, aspiration towards perfection and the Olympian absolute. He creates in his poems areas with magical lights and crepuscular shadows, an abysmal and fantastic mythology, where facts and feelings are transformed into possible personal mythologies and into sad or even tragic rituals and ceremonies.
It is one of my favorite poems, discovered many years ago in the book The Man with the Compass…
Adrian Păunescu was a multiskilled personality who reached the heights of poetic glory in the hearts and memories of many poetry lovers. His love poems are emotional through their unsuspected and unexpected confessions, of an amazing and often painful lyrical intensity. As he can anyone to discover in bookstores and on the Net, as I did, and I invite you to do it together, with this second pps in a cycle that will continue…
An attempt to open the locks of words and non-words beyond which emerge the images in which Nichita Stanescu expresses, in unique ways, old and new meanings and eternal feelings.
Working on this pps I tried to enliven the magma of thoughts and the carousel of images from some well-known love poems, and from some verses about his love, experienced by Nikita….
For those who can say like Nichita: “I also had a great total love, taken not to the end, but to the white clothes of the end.”
Let’s continue to discover the world of love at the end of the world, lived by Nichita Stănescu…
A poem by Nichita Stănescu, the poet with abysmal visions of a world seen and felt only by him…
William Shakespeare published in 1609 a cycle of 154 (CLIV) sonnets.
Sonnets 1-126 seem to be addressed to a young man, sonnets 127-152 to the Dark Lady, and the last two contain general reflections on love.
With the suggestive title ”Shakespeare’s last imagined sonnets in imaginary translation by Vasile Voiculescu” has (re)lived the turmoil of love, which reaches from adoration to despair and separation, in the cycle of 90 sonnets dated 1954-1958, published posthumously, and numbered with reference , not coincidentally, from CLV to CCXLIV, in the continuation of Shakespeare’s cycle of 154 (CLIV) sonnets…
Many years ago I bought, from a small forgotten bookstore on a dusty street of a small town in Transylvania, the first edition of this volume of sonnets… Since then I have read and reread them dozens of times…
What I invite POETRY lovers to do as well, looking with the author in the MIRROR OF LOVE and in the MIRROR OF TIME…