A discussion with Dumitru Crudu

By Sofia Chiorescu

This past week I have been given the chance to watch Mr Dumitru Crudu talk about poetry, prose, literature, and his journey along with it. It was captivating hearing him voice his poetry and his experiences and I hope that I will have the opportunity to meet him another time in the near future.

Dumitru Crudu is a poet and playwright who was born in Moldova, in the Ungheni district. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Timpul Magazine and the coordinator of the Vlad Ioniță Poetry Workshop.

During his childhood, he was considered a talented football player that was known by all his district. Before one important competition where recruiters would be, Crudu and his team trained each day until he suffered an injury after a fall. Instead of getting him medical help, the teacher continued to push him, which left him in extreme pain, and at night, insomnia. A friend of his, also a footballer, died that week, and because Crudu had the fear of dying, it was greatly intensified. During those weeks in which Crudu couldn’t sleep, at 13 or 14 years old, he started his career by writing a few skits, that were neither prose nor poetry but something beneath the umbrella of Romanian literature.

He then continued his studies in Georgia, where in his fourth and last year, experienced a civil war. The fear of getting enrolled into the army also posed as inspiration for writing. Dumitru Crudu also said that he writes due to his fears, such as he did when he started writing. He did not have any money and was living from friend to friend for months, but he vividly remembers that there was a huge field with apricot trees and in the times where he had nothing to eat, he ate apricots the whole day. When he wanted to leave the country and the police examined him, they found a few poems written in Georgian and arrested him. He was there only for one night, but for him, it felt like ages.

When asked, what is his favorite poem or novel that he wrote, Dumitru Crudu said that it was “Un englez la Chișinău” (An Englishman in Chișinău). Unfortunately, he lost this novel before he published it and the only ones who have read this novel are some of his closest friends. An amusing story that he told was that after a few years of writing this book, he actually met an Englishman in Chișinău unexpectedly and became very good friends, without knowing each other’s language. While they were riding the train for 12 hours, Crudu was naming famous football players while the Englishman was naming writers from both Romanian and English literature. From the novel “Un englez la Chișinău”, many others were born. A phrase that remained with me after this was ‘From the cloak of a lost novel I was born a writer’. It stood as a source of inspiration for Crudu, as he thought that one day he would rewrite it. One of his most famous novels “Un american la Chișinău” (An American in Chișinău) is also inspired from this one.

When Dumitru Crudu was in Brasov, Romania, he and Marius Ianus, also a writer, created a manuscript, in which they develop the current Fracturism. This is how Dumitru Crudu described it to us. When writing nonfiction, it is important to write directly and indirectly at the same time. When you have the intention to transmit ideas, the language you use may betray you. The emphasis should be on using clear words, and daily communication. For example, when describing the sky, almost everyone would say that the fluffy white clouds are flying on the blue sky. This sentence doesn’t reflect the true reality, but only what can be seen on the surface. These types of poems can be written by anyone, they are too general and too common, known as cliches and platitudes. But when writing beyond the truth, and switching the focus from the object to the subject, not writing about fluffy clouds and shadows, but the sensations that the person has, the words become alive, and the literature aggressive and intriguing.

On the weekend, Dumitru Crudu has had a Poetry Workshop for almost 15 years. He tried many activities with his students, one of which was writing a diary entry everyday and reading it to everyone in the workshop. From the diary, he realized that there were a few fragments that could be transformed into something bigger and better, such as prose or poetry. The more interesting you live, the more interesting you can write, and the students that were living on the edge, most dangerously, wrote the best pieces. This way, many of his students learned to write in a unique style. He also let us in on a little secret of his, that during the workshop, he has learned many secrets with which he never told anyone all his life. Also, there was one time in which one girl, a student of his, wrote a book that was strikingly similar to a book of a distinguished writer. Dumitru Crudu discovered in that moment that everyone writes about their life essentially and in every piece of fiction, there is a seed of truth hidden.

While being the Editor-in-Chief of Timpul Magazine, Dumitru Crudu translated a poem written by an Ukrainian woman. She wrote half of it in Russian, because she was born there, and the other half in Ukrainian. Even though the poem is written in two languages, when translated to Romanian, the shift between the language is very accentuated. Dumitru Crudu himself, also wrote many poems about the war, one of which he read to us called “Gloanțe” (Bullets).

It was a pleasure meeting him and I hope that we will meet again soon!