Stefan Theodoru

Stefan Theodoru (born Ștefan Gheorghe Theodoru, June 11, 1921, Brăila city, Romania; died August 16, 2024, Hagerstown, Maryland, U.S.A.), worked as a civil engineer in his native Romania and after 1965 in New York. Writing primarily in Romanian, he published dozens of books including plays, novels, memoirs, historic works, newspaper articles, poetry, one-line poems, haiku, and senryu. He was an active member of Romanian émigré and engineering organizations as well as American and Romanian haiku societies. He also won awards in international haiku contests in the United Kingdom and Japan.

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Background

Ștefan Gheorghe Theodoru, was born on June 11, 1921 in Brăila, Romania, the son of Alexandru Theodoru, a construction engineer, and Georgeta Lovitz, both from families with deep roots in Romanian history. Ștefan decided to follow his father’s profession and graduated with a degree in civil engineering from the Faculty of Construction, Polytechnic University of Bucharest, in 1946. He served as a sergeant part-time in the Romanian Army during World War II and assisted in the defense of the Focșani-Nămoloasa-Brăila fortifications. He was later promoted to major in the army reserve. In 1945 Theodoru married Nina Bogos, a doctor and graphic artist who occasionally illustrated some of her husband’s books. They had two sons, Alexander and Radu.

After the war, Theodoru was employed for seventeen years by various branches of the central government in Bucharest. He decided to leave Romania in 1964, apparently for political reasons, and took a series of short-term engineering jobs in Vienna, Munich, and finally New York City. In 1976 he established a private engineering practice in Long Island City, New York. He made his home in Astoria, Queens, and remained there for the rest of his career.

While still residing in Romania, Theodoru began a second, literary career. In 1952 a play of his won a cinematography award and another was performed at the State Theater in Timișoara. After he left Romania, he wrote no dramatic works for almost forty years. Beginning in 1993, however, he began to return annually to his homeland and published there some twenty theatrical works. He also produced several books on Romanian history and a number of novels and other prose. Theodoru was active in organizations of the Romanian diaspora in the U.S.A. and published widely in émigré newspapers. He also worked with several colleges in New York to establish courses of study of the Romanian language.

In his later years Ștefan Theodoru moved to Virginia and Maryland, probably to live closer to his children. He died in Hagerstown, Maryland, in 2024, aged 103.

Theodoru’s haikai and poetry

Theodoru had already been writing poetry for some time and had published three substantial volumes of his work by 1993, when he first went back to Romania. At that time he developed an interest in Japanese-style short-form poetry and became an active member of theRomanian Haiku Society (Societatea Română de Haiku) and the Constantza Haiku Society (Societatea de Haiku din Constanța). He joined the Haiku Society of America in 1996.

Theodoru presented his work primarily in books and anthologies. His haiku and senryu appeared rarely in Western periodicals or on rolls of haikai contest award winners. He published one haiku in Persimmon in 1998 and one in Frogpond in 2009. In the latter year Editor Anatoly Kudryavitsky featured seven of the Romanian poet’s verses in Shamrock Haiku Journal issue 10.

Theodoru’s work appeared widely in haikai anthologies, including William Higginson’s Haiku World: An International Poetry Almanac (1996), André Duhaime’s Haïku sans frontières: une anthologie mondiale (1998), Dimitar Anakiev and Jim Kacian‘s. Knots: The Anthology of Southeastern Europe Haiku Poetry (1999), two Romanian–English senryu collections, and at least five Haiku Society of America members’ anthologies.

Meanwhile, the year 2000 had brought Theodoru honors in two international haiku competitions, a Highly Commended in the British Haiku Society’sJames W Hackett International Award for Haiku, and an Inspirational Award of the Judge in the 1st Ashiya International Haiku Festa Awards in Japan.

An appreciation

Ștefan Theodoru’s nature haiku are typically lyrical, much more poetic perhaps than the Japanese models or the preferences of most Western haiku poets. Here are two sample haiku from each season of the year from the poet’s 1994 and 1995 collections:

E primăvară! Gazelele-şi dau bineţe printre fire verzi	The spring time has come! The bugs greet one another amongst the green blades1
Floare de cireş, te-ai pierdut în părul meu— alb ca şi tine	Cherry flower, you, have got lost into my hair — as white as you are2
Pe adieri de vânt bob mic de păpădie, în sfârşit liber	On the breaths of wind, a bit of dandelion, which is free at last.3
Oglinda mării la întrecere-n sclipiri cu roua florii	The smooth sea surface is competing in lustre with the flower’s dew3
Se duc cocorii Copiii plecaţi la şcoli. Gol în urma lor	The cranes are leaving The children have gone to schools. Blank left behind them3
Florea soarelui ciuruită de păsări şi-aplecat capul	The ripe sunflower pierced through by the hungry birds, is bending its head3
O crizantemă căzută pe zăpadă— sărută iarna	A chrysanthemum that’s fallen into the snow— kisses the winter2
De ieri ninge roz. Tăcută simfonie a înălţării	Yester pink snowfall. ’Tis a quiet symphony of the Ascension2

Probably the best-known of Theodoru’s short verse is this senryu that originally appeared in his trilingual collection The Bag of Stars (1995). Curiously, two English versions exist, the original in strict 5–7–5–syllable format, which was was chosen by Higginson for Haiku World (1996) and then by Anakiev and Kacian for Knots: The Anthology of Southeastern European Haiku Poetry (1999). The second is a much condensed version more attuned to contemporary Western-style haiku that was picked up for D. Claire Gallagher’s Crinkled Sunshine (2000) and then for Nicolițov’s Pay Day: Senryū (2012):

Vrabia în zbor cu alt pai din pieptarul sperietoarei

Sparrow on the wing with one more straw from the vest of the old scarecrow Sparrow on the wing pecks one more straw from the scarecrow

Theodoru had a well-developed sense of irony and was at his best when penning senryu, such as these, the first another scarecrow haiku:

Cu demnitate in hainele mele vechi sperietoarea	Avec dignité dans mes vieux vêtements — l’épouvantail With great dignity in my old clothes and old hat the brand-new scarecrow4
Prăjituri de casă cumpărate iarăşi din cofetărie	Homemade cookies bought again at the supermarket5
Din cărți șoarecii au ros doar ce le-a plăcut: Shakespeare și Goethe	Hundreds of books on shelves But the mice gnawed what they liked: Shakespeare and Goethe6

In addition to writing longer poetry and haiku, Theodoru was an enthusiast for an intermediate, uniquely Romanian form, called poemul într-un vers, or “the one-line poem.” Poemul într-un vers is often likened to haiku, but there are obvious structural and poetic differences between the two. Theodoru published three collections that contain verses in this form, which he dubbed in English “Romanian liner.” These six are from his 2002 book, The Whispers of the Old Walnut Tree, selected to show a range of possible topics:

INTELEPTUL Ajuns cândva să știe că nu știa nimic.	THE WISE MAN He finally realized that he knows nothing.7
ASEMĂNARE Viața-i ca o carte fără ultimele-i foi.	LIKENESS Life is like a book with missing last pages.
TOAMNA Când se duc cocorii, iau ri întregul an.	IN THE FALL While leaving, the cranes carry away the whole year,
PE GER Cresc tainice decoruri pe geamul înghețat.	FROST Enigmantic scenery emerges from the frozen window.
FLOAREA MIRESEI În grădină, presărate, stelete din cer.	BABY’S BREATH The stars of heaven sprinkled in the garden.7
DE LA DACI PÂNĂ LA NOI Mereu năvălitorii, din Răsărit și-Apus.	SINCE DACIAN TIMES From sunrise and sunset, never-ending invaders.

Sources / Further Reading

• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. A Wallachian Flag. Illustrated. Long Island City, N.Y.: S. G. Theodoru, 1977. History chapbook.
• Theodoru, Stefan Gheorghe. Fata fără glas (The Voiceless Girl). Preface by Valeriu Râpeanu. Bucureşti: Editura Garamond, 1993. Novellas.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe Transilvania: o pagină de istorie (Transylvania: A Page of History). Oradea, Romania: Editura Mediaprint, 1995. History.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Un milionar nebun (A Crazy Millionaire). Bucureşti: Editura Societății Tempus, 1996. Novel.
• Theodoru, Ștefan G. Genius: Întâmplări din viaţa mea (Genius: Incidents in My Life). Bucureşti: Editura Societății Tempus, 1996. Stories.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Adam și soțiile sale (Adam and His Wives). București: Editura Societătii Tempus, 1997. Novel.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Născută în castelul lui Dracula (Born in Dracula’s Castle). Bucharest: Editura Societătii Tempus, 1997. Novel based on a film script of the same name.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Cerșetorul: piesă într-un act (The Beggar: A Play in One Act). București: Editura Societătii Tempus, 1998.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Adam și soțiile sale (Adam and His Wives). București: Editura Societătii Tempus, 1998. Novel based on a film script of the same name.
• Theodoru, Ștefan G. Mărul din poveste (The Apple of the Story). Bucureşti: Editura Societății Tempus, 1998. Illustrated fairy tale.
• Theodoru, Ștefan G. Drapelul de margine, Un drapel românesc necunoscut / An Unknown Romanian Flag (The Border Flag, An Unknown Romanian Flag). Bucharest: Editura Socieții Tempus, ©1998. Romanian history.

Biographical information and reviews

• “Centum, by Stefan G. Theodoru.” Frogpond 20:3 (12/1/1997). Book note.
• “Intalnire in Amurg/Recontre au crépuscule/Meeting in the Twilight, by Stefan Gh. Theodoru.” Frogpond 20:2 (9/1/1997). Book note.
• Popescu, Mihai. “Terapie prin senryu: Antologie romaâno-americană / Senryu Therapy: American–Romanian Anthology.” Haiku (Romania) 47 (2012), 14–17. Includes one haiku in Romanian and English.
• Reichhold, Jane. Review of One More Step. Lynx 23:3 (October 2008).
• “Ștefan Gh. Theodoru.” Poezie.ro website.
• “Ștefan Gheorghe Theodoru.” Crispedia Romania website: https://crispedia.ro.
• Theodoru, Ștefan Gheorghe. Versuri (Volumel I) (Verses: Volume I). New York & Madrid: SGAT & Artes Grăficas Benzal-Virtudes, 1973. Series: Versuri 1. Includes a detailed biographical sketch. Available online at https://archive.org/details/s.-g.-theodoru-versuri-vol.-1-1973-cu-biografie/page/n53/mode/2up.
• Trumbull, Charles. “Five from Eastern Europe.” Modern Haiku 33:2 (Summer 2002). Brief reviews of five books, including Saptele nucului batrân: poeme într-un vers / The Whispers of the Old Walnut Tree: Romanian Liner, by Stefan Gh. Theodoru. Modern Haiku 33:2 (Summer 2002).

Memberships

• Asociația Generală a Inginerilor din România (General Association of Engineers in Romania)
• Uniunea Ziariștilor Profesioniști din România (Union of the Professional Journalists in Romania)
• Societatea Română de Vexilologie (Romanian Vexillologic Society)
• Academia romana, München (Romanian Academy, Munich)
• Iuliu Maniu American Romanian Relief Foundation
• New York Academy of Sciences
• American Society of Inventors
• American Legion
• International Association of Romanian Writers and Artists
• International Writers’ Association, Ohio
• Societatea Română de Haiku (Romanian Haiku Society)
• Societatea de Haiku din Constanța (Constantza Haiku Society)
• Haiku Society of America, 1996–2006

Compiled by Charles Trumbull

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Notes

1. Theodoru, Meeting in the Twilight. Note: The bookish and insecure English versions of the haiku in both these volumes are attributed to Virginia Cucu. [↩]
2. Theodoru, Meeting in the Twilight. [↩] [↩] [↩]
3. Theodoru, The Bag of Stars. [↩] [↩] [↩] [↩]
4. Nicolițov and Ross,
   Senryu antologie; Nicolițov, Pay Day. [↩]
5. Theodoru, Încă un pas / One More Step; English from Nicolițov and Ross, Senryu antologie româno-americană. A slightly different translation appears in
   Shamrock Haiku Journal 10 (2009). [↩]
6. Nicolițov and Ross, Senryu antologie româno-americană. [↩]
7. Included in the review of The Whispers of the Old Walnut Tree, Modern Haiku 33:2 (Summer 2002). [↩] [↩]