The Universal Within The Local

This volume is summing up three years (2023, 2024, 2025) of the 'Mihai Eminescu Poetry Festivals' in Australia - in which Australian Poets, as well as some Romanians ones, respond to curated themes from the work of the best known Romanian poet.For each festival some 10-15 poets are invited participate and respond - and their work, alongside the Eminescu poems providing the points of inspiration - are represented bilingually in English and Romanian, in this volume.The English translations of the Mihai Eminescu poems have been selected from the volume 'Romanian Poetry from its Origins to the Present: A bilingual Anthology - Daniel Ionita, Daniel Reynaud, Adriana Paul & Eva Foster - Australian-Romanian Academy for Culture, Sydney 2020)The three thems for the three years respectively have been1.The Universal Within The Local (2023) - or how Eminescu’s local artistic roots travel into the universal space, filtered and reimagined by contemprary poets. The Eminescu poems chosen for this have been Sonnet - Gone are the Years, Ode (in an Antique Meter), Why Won’t you Come.2 - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Poet (2024)- exploring the singular loneliness of the artist in an hyper-connected but paradoxically fragmented world. The Eminescu poem chosen as the inspiration anchor has been The Evening Star (Luceafărul).3 - Poetry of Resilience (2025) - exploring how could the poet, and poetry provide resilience in an increasingly belligerant and fraught world. The Eminescu poem for this was Glossa.