Ion Luca Caragiale is far and away Romania’s
greatest and most beloved playwright; and that’s quite a mouthful to say, given
that Eugene Ionesco formed himself and started his writing career in Romania,
too.
At times humorous, at times sarcastic, now caustic,
and now ironic, Caragiale laughs at an entire range of human foibles, at lack
of education, at empty vanities, at political ambitions, as well as at cuckold
husbands. And yet, when all is said and done, Caragiale doesn’t crush his
literary children, but rather wraps all his less-than-perfect characters in a
cocoon of amused tenderness… You can almost see the Great Puppet Master create
his characters then sit back and watch them with a smirk on his face.
Caragiale is quoted by Romanians in their
daily lives more than any other authors and the Bible put together. Consider
the following quotes from his best known play, A Lost Letter:
Yapper: How long must we wait to get our own,
home-grown bankruptcies?
Or: Doddery: (My son says,) Poppa, where there's no mow-rality, there's
corruption, and a sow-ciety without principles, it flat out don't have
them!"
Or: Handsom: Ridiculous! Turnip:
Clean ridiculous!
Hansom: The scoundrel!
Turnip:
Clean scoundrel!
Hansom: The filthy dog!
Turnip:
Clean filthy!
Or: Turnip:
Now, ain't my poor wife right when she says, she goes, "Boris,
Boris, carry their buckets and fill your
pockets, because them with a full belly won't hear the rumblins comin' from
your own empty one..."
Or: McPlatter:
Take
your pick, if you will! If it's revision you want, I'm all for it! But
then let’s not us change one single
thing! On the other hand, if it is not revision that you want, I'm all for it,
too, but then, some changes must be made here and there, namely in the
essential... parts... This is a dilemma that you cannot possibly escape!
From:Don Leonidas and the Vast, Right-Wing Conspiracy: Leonidas: The minute she
hears me bring up freedom, the deceased jumps outta bed, too...
Or: Ephtimia: If nobody pays taxes, where's the folk salaries
gonna come from, sis?
Leonidas: (fighting sleep) That's the Government's
problem, sir, what other business have they got? That's why we got the
Government in the first place. It's their duty to make sure folks get salaries
on time.
With a “father”
like that, is it any wonder the theater of the absurd and the dada movement were born in Romania?
With the
exception of some very feeble attempts, for almost an entire century,
amazingly, unbelievably, Caragiale was not translated into English.
www.Babelink.us offers now three of Ion Luca
Caragiale’s plays and some twenty of his sketches, and short stories.
Read them and
enjoy them.
