Poet, civil libertarian, anti-Communist, a person extremely dignified and appropriate at all times, a successful politician after the revolution of 1989, a beautiful and envied woman – Author of 26 volumes of poetry – many of them translated in foreign languages.
Ana Blandiana shone in a generation of poets, the 1960ies, which contained stellar names such as Nichita Stănescu, Marin Sorescu, Adrian Păunescu, Constanța Buzea, Cezar Baltag, Ileana Mălăncioiu, among others.
I appreciate Ana Blandiana because, as Alex Ștefănescu (the literary critic and historian) writes, she is always herself. She does not play, or interpret some role or another – in her poems, she does not use someone else as a prompt, or as an amplifier for her ideas, as many artists endeavor to do. She always speaks through her own voice, her own personality – which, luckily for us, is of an exceptional quality.
It is like you are going to see a movie, ANY movie with Sir Anthony Hopkins, no matter what he plays in. It matters not if he is Hannibal Lecter, or Pope Benedictus the XVIth. You just watch it because, it is a movie in which Anthony Hopkins plays somebody, no matter who. In the same way, we listen to Ana Blandiana because she is Ana Blandiana, a marvelous poet. The fact that she is also a beautiful human being is a bonus.
By the way, she is also belongs to the handful of poets, in my volume Testament – 400 Years of Romanian Poetry – represented with four poems, the maximum. Sursa: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzD7R3znP1Y
