«… A promising poet with virtues and natural limits for a start. It is obvious the effort to base its universe on an accessible symbolism, even if the ambition, the norm, is that of uniqueness. . Attempts to displace the syntax, the exaggeration of an oxymoronic strategy, certain influences of the poets read in time as well as the effort to impose the impression of an atmosphere of mystery give the impression of a feverish state. Which is great for a beginner. ” Nicolae Rotund – «Readings and meanings» 2003.
“The Mechanics of Chance” and “The Assumption” by Cristiana Eso. A beautiful entry into the poetic cathedral. By reading these first two texts by Cristiana Eso, one is confronted with a strange mixture of poetry and a strong reflexive approach. Cristiana Eso with these first two texts had, in my opinion, made an encouraging entry into the world of poetry. We feel that with her new publications, including Les Artisans de l’invisible , born in the aesthetics of sentences and the music of words, she continues to live in poetry with grace. The blooming flower has certainly not denied the beautiful promise of the initial bud. »Jean-Robert Léonidas, 2020.
Portrait in Capital Letters: Cristiana Eso, by Dan Burcea, 2022.
Who are you, where were you born, where do you live?
I was born in 1976, in Constanța, Romania. This city on the shores of the Black Sea, rich in history, place of exile and death of Ovid, is very important in the country. The great poet is celebrated there, and the presence of Greek and Latin civilizations is significant among intellectuals. Perhaps the proximity to the sea encouraged me to know history, literature and foreign languages as well as possible. I settled in Limoges for professional reasons, after completing my university studies in Nancy.
Do you make a living as a writer or, if not, what job do you do?
I am a singer in the choir of the Opéra de Limoges. I live from my passion for music. My job as a singer influences my way of life. It is also a passion that allows me to stay in touch with other artistic disciplines, especially poetry and theatre.
How was born your passion for literature and especially for writing?
I probably caught it when it was very young. My family initiated me very early, and I grew up surrounded by volumes and discs. My parents, both teachers, transformed the living room of their apartment into a real library. They stimulated my interest in books, and encouraged my imagination. From the age of three, I attended the children’s section of the municipal library. I enjoyed listening to the reading of works of Romanian or foreign literature adapted or written for young people. Once I learned to write, I tried to give life to my own stories, to my dreams, in writing.
What is the author/book that has marked you the most in life?
I discovered Shakespeare’s plays, in a very nicely illustrated edition. If I remember correctly, it included: The Tempest , King Lear , The Merchant of Venice , Romeo and Juliet , Hamlet , The Two Gentlemen of Verona . I was only twelve years old, but I felt the revelation of a real attraction for literature. From then on I did not want to lose this marvelous shock. I sought the same feeling of happiness, of intellectual effervescence. Other works have marked my mind, but what book can compete with his first literary crush?
What literary genre do you practice (novel, poetry, essay)? Do you easily switch from one literary genre to another?
I wrote poems at an age when any fantasy would have made my parents smile. I also liked to compose analyzes of masterful works. With time, I annotated my personal readings, wrote appreciations after having viewed creations with the theatre, performances of ballet or opera. Some articles have been published, others are still sleeping in my drawers.
I also tried my hand at poetic prose, theatrical writing. But poetry constitutes the essence of my writings.
How do you write – in one go, with repetitions, in the first person, in the third?
I write on the spur of the moment. For my first volume, in Romanian, I wanted to stay on a more impersonal ground. I opted for the neutral, the third person, thinking that the feminine would have diminished the force of the verse. I was a little wary of the turn that would take a poetry imbued too strongly with feminine lyricism, especially when the author/author composed and published it very young. Today I use the first as well as the third person in my texts.
Where do you get the subjects of your books from, and how long does it take for them to come to life as a work of fiction?
I took courses in three universities, spent quite a lot of time in their libraries or in museums. I listened to conferences, presentations, I attended openings, concerts. I kept my notebooks, and sometimes I reread myself not without a certain emotion. It is pleasant to recharge your batteries “on your own land”. With hindsight, I discover new things, and I realize how far I have come. From this distance is born a kind of concentration conducive to inspiration and which encourages me to write. I call this availability and this particular disposition the state of grace .
Do you first choose the title of the book before the narrative development? What role does the title of your work play for you?
I give a title to all my texts, with the concern that it responds as faithfully as possible to the requirements imposed by poetry or the novel. It must best serve the textual consistency, without betraying it, distorting it or skipping it. His choice is delicate and demanding. It requires both simplicity and power, a power of synthesis and abstraction. Finding a good title is like finding a small diamond. There is not, in my opinion, a specific time for this step. So I take all my time to make the best choice. Obviously the elaboration of the text undergoes variations, sometimes brutal or surprising changes, and the title follows these vagaries.
What relationship do you have with your characters and how do you invent them?
I have a lot of fun composing picturesque characters in my little poetic stories. They project attitudes, considerations, affects, reflections. I don’t go to war against something or someone when I imagine a character. Everyone is endowed with a part of me, but I also observe what life brings in terms of experiences and encounters, keeping in mind the plurality existing in each human being. I have rubbed shoulders with many interesting personalities in my career, and the reality sometimes exceeds the most prodigious imaginations. Memory and the evolution of inner temporality hold an important place in my composition process. As does the music. The fact of being a singer implies a certain sensitivity which is found in my verses.
My characters are in no way scapegoats, vindictive avatars or supports for a psychological release, at most extensions of my personal reflections. They support allegories, they represent witnesses to the search for harmony between oneself and the world. Emotional and significant markers to express the fundamentals that define me, corroborate my convictions and bear witness to my uniqueness.
Tell us about your latest work and your projects.
In 2019, I published Artisans de l’Invisible , a collection of Franco-Romanian poetry, a discreet suggestion of the old codices. I introduced some acrylic illustrations, taken from a large canvas that I painted for an exhibition some time ago. Chapters take up themes such as the sacred presence, Nature and its secrets, art in the broad sense, introspection and acceptance of the inescapable, writing and art as means of hope and transcendence. .
Among some references from the Renaissance to the 18th century have taken place in the pages: Galileo Galileo, Titian, Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Caravaggio, Filippo Brunelleschi, but also Palestrina, Monteverdi, Albinoni or Vivaldi…
Projects ? I want to approach a poetic form that is more narrative and even more oriented towards the marvellous. In my work, I will continue to intertwine the threads of lyricism between free verse and musical phrase.
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Interview. Cristiana Eso: « The poet reveals the place we have in the architecture of the world » – mars 2020.
Cristiana Eso is one of those artists whose multiple facets make it difficult to attempt to define the extent of their talents. As a musician and poet, she embraces the world with a renewed gaze, able to grasp what she calls in her latest volume of poetry, Artisans de l’invisible, “a happiness built from tender looks”. Who is this mysterious candidate with the great secrets locked up in the “nuptial flights of birds” and in the “engineering of life”? What are the cultural, mythological and poetic sources that nourish his universe? What link could we draw between this volume and the previous ones which are so many indisputable marks of his talent? This Franco-Romanian artist had started with a book in Romanian dedicated to an angel, Carte pentru Oma El [Book for Oma El] and then published two other bilingual collections Ordinea precisă a întâmplării – The mechanics of chance and Înălțarea – The Assumption .
We give him the floor here to tell us about all these books and the secret material that makes up their substance, especially his latest collection Artisans de l’invisible – Artizanii invizibilului , published by Éditions Marsa in 2019.
How would you define yourself as a poet? I take here as a witness two of your poetic formulas: “But the poet is scissors/which cuts despair” and to write is “to travel towards oneself”. What meaning should be given to these two metaphors?
The act of positioning ourselves as reverberating the wonders of the world makes each of us a poet. The first act of writing is an awareness of the path that goes from oneself to oneself, while encompassing the world. In his journey, the poet is sometimes led to upset the ordering of things, to reposition himself in such a way as to maintain the balance between contingency and beauty, between inevitability and grace. To speak of harmony already seems to me an exceptional state, almost a miracle. This movement sometimes generates extreme states, forms of violence and sacrifice. And even in these moments, the poet does not escape the principle of union and cohesion of the Universe.
What traces of your Romanian origins – cultural, linguistic or folkloric – have contributed to the birth of your poetic universe?
My first readings were Romanian folk and classical texts. The little sheep Mioritza, the monastery of Arges, the Master Manole, the popular tales of Ion Creangă, or collected by Petre Ispirescu, the short stories of Barbu Ştefănescu Delavranvcea, the poems of Mihai Eminescu, George Topârceanu, Tudor Arghezi, then of Nichita Stănescu, the prose of Ioan Slavici, Mihail Sadoveanu, Liviu Rebreanu, and the theater of IL Caragiale. Growing up, I discovered Camil Petrescu, Lucian Blaga, Mircea Eliade, Mihail Sebastian, Marin Preda, Emil Cioran, Eugène Ionesco. As a child, I was marked by the imposing work The History of Romanian Literature by George Călinescu. Smiling, I can tell you that the book in our library seemed enormous to me.Later, for various projects and for my studies at the Faculty of Modern Letters of Nancy, I read the critical works of Alex Stefănescu, Ştefania and Marin Mincu, Eugen Simion, Nicolae Manolescu. My degree in comparative literature took as subject the poetry of Nichita Stănescu and Alain Bosquet. I was fascinated by the virtuosity of Nichita Stănescu, (I can still hear his voice reciting his poems) and my first volume in Romanian published Carte pentru Oma El, (Book for Oma El) reflects the influence he had on generations of young poets. Naturally, my first role model was Mihai Eminescu.
How did you manage to achieve the syncretism between the two cultures that contributed to your training and the maturation of your writing?
Reading the great Romanian and French classics was for me as much a necessity as a diversion. I looked for Romanian landmarks in French, when I found any, I felt rich and, if not, I went beyond the simple process of copying, memorizing the texts, or even that of translation.The detours allow you to know more. This is how the music of languages opened the doors of the imagination to me; they reassured me offering me an indefinite and always renewable happiness at leisure. During adolescence, singing and intonation proved to be tools for maturing and understanding the world. At the cost of diligent work, they allowed me to experience the joy of sharing beauty. The phenomenon of resonance remains for me the medium of friendship, a form of manifestation of life. For example, I talk about my Romanian youth near the Black Sea, but when I play a doina from Transylvania, a region far from my hometown, I still talk about my childhood, and this time the music expresses more beautiful.
You are a musician. Can we say that music helped you in poetic creation? How?
I have written several musical shows for children on Romanian folklore and the Romanian Mythology of Romulus Vulcănescu and the Romanian Vision of the Worldby Ovidiu Papadima gave me some interesting food for thought. From writing work I moved on to directing with the children in their musical practice workshops. To write is to relive the magic of a childhood rocked by the imagination. Who can resist it anyway? French adults and schoolchildren gladly entered this unknown universe. By experimenting with more unknown aspects of music, such as total improvisation or sound poetry, I have designed texts by associating sounds and phonemes that are meaningful to me. The languages have mixed together in a kind of polysemous polyphony, ad hoc, ephemeral, but pleasant.
While trying to take a look at both your beginnings and the poetry you write today, can we speak of a unity or, on the contrary, of a voluntary estrangement? Of a predictable but difficult to define artistic maturation, as is the case with almost all writers? I’m thinking above all of the possible link between “The Mechanics of Chance” and “Artisans of the Invisible”.
I think you rewrite yourself all your life. It is difficult to escape from oneself, even through creation. I think that time makes it possible to verify, understand and improve, to see rewarding one’s youth. I have matured my writing, but I take a look that is both tender and lucid on my first poems. Everything takes on even more meaning in my eyes, thanks to or because of the experience. Promises were embodied, feelings were manifested, contradicting or confirming my first projections. However, I feel the need to explore other poetic forms. Between “The mechanics of chance” and the “Artisans of the invisible” have passed fourteen years. The link is still present either in the theme or in the coloring of the texts, but the verses have been shortened. The need for consistency
I suggest you turn to your latest book Artisans de l’invisible .
Conceived in 5 parts, the last of which gives the title of the whole, it reads like a journey through places and times of strong symbolic value. How was this structure constructed and in what does its poetic coherence consist? I had thought of the Voynich codex, herbarium, science treatise, esoteric, mysterious work, this book illustrated with enigmatic drawings, written in an unknown language, by an anonymous author in the 14th century . I organized my collection like a notebook of curiosities, experiments, a miniature work of art. My first chapter Presentia is the acknowledgment of the presence of the sacred, of a referent taking on, among other things, the appearance of a star, a bird, or a loved one. The “ Terra Imperatrix” partrecalls the link between the poet and Nature, the wandering necessary to weave meaning. Man only becomes aware of himself in relation to an exterior, a world that we still feel and see suffering today. Third notebook “ The seasons have no feeling ” / “ Anotimpuri fără sentiment ”, a brief incursion into time, generates a reflection on our own nature, on the temporality from sunrise to beyond the sunset of our inner sun. As in a chemical equilibrium equation, a metaphysical equilibrium demonstrates that the beauty contained in falling snow is the same as that exhaled by a rosebud or the song left in the garden by a flightless nightingale. “Conquer the fortress”/ “A cuceri cetatea”represents the fight against ignorance and inertia, but also against the inconsistency and the presumption of the connoisseur of the “secret of the stars”. It is about loneliness, constancy, confidence, perseverance in one’s effort. Ultimate part, « Artisans of the invisible » / « Artizanii invizibilului » , recalls the ultimate product of the transformation of being, the total sublimation of matter. The poet has become a poem and pursues his existence in an elsewhere, the light, almost leaving his fable half-confession, half-inspiration.
What should be transmitted to his child, if not the prescription to calmly continue his journey while respecting the earth and the fire ?
Many are the poetic elements to which you appeal. Allow me to bring two of these items to your attention. The first is the majesty of nature (Terra imperatrix) to which “the birds pledge allegiance/surrendering themselves to sleep/in a silky luminosity”, where the trees allow themselves to be “tracked by nostalgia/to read the vestiges of happiness”. and try to understand what this « Modus solvere enigma Mundi » is.
Natural elements remain the basis of poetic work. Experimentation is the mistress of all masters, Leonardo Da Vinci demonstrated it so well: « Human ingenuity will never produce a simpler and more beautiful invention, because in nature nothing is missing and nothing is superfluous » mentions the author of the Mona Lisa. The poet has a presentiment that man is born with the entire Universe within him and that he subsists by contemplating the existing in order to recognize himself in it. But it’s about never stopping dreaming, inventing reality, in order to discover it and describe it correctly. Our limits are thus pushed back. Perhaps wisdom is nothing but staying in love. It’s another meaning inspired by the famous Tuscan phrase “The more you know, the more you love”.
The second is that of art like those three Pietà, those Tuscan stained glass windows or even those illuminations that inhabit some of your poems. What is their role in the symbolic economy of your volume?
Michelangelo’s three Pietà represent the labor of an artist’s life, destined to excel, improve, and finally calm down. Like artist-craftsmen who toil at their work, poets also persevere to properly piece together their fragments of truth. To conquer the fortress means to remain serene and lucid, in harmony with the world and to dominate the raw form. The raw forms constitute, for example, the block of marble, the piece of leather, the strident vibrations of a poorly mastered musical instrument. It is then necessary to overcome the resistance of matter. I placed this chapter towards the end of the book, because during his existence, the artist belatedly manages to be satisfied with his work. Just as the unique acrostic, the repetitions, the symmetries, collages and various other processes reinforce the pleasure of discovery and play, illuminations belong to medieval manuscripts and represent the quintessence of goldsmith’s work. The book is addressed to the venerable child, the one who dwells in us.
Do you believe that poetry can still define the world today? And, if so, how?
Before the hard sciences, philosophy… poetry is the a priori meansable to define the world. It is at the beginning and at the end and can live in everything, without the ugliness of the world in its primitive and brutal form ever being found in it. It feeds on the world and regenerates it. Poetry brings together things that are made to go together. But it is at the same time in everything and in its opposite. For it to express itself, it is sometimes enough to remove the superficial links that gag what must be free, other times to beat up what must never be touched, and sometimes to cannonade to protect what must be defended. To look at the world through a curtain of blinding light, or even through a rainbow, is still to describe reality thanks to poetry.
The last poem traces, like an inheritance, the treasure that you bequeath to your son. “Then finally – you write – be a spectator for the rose or the jasmine, and take your place in the architecture of spring. In the only truth that resists, fortify with your limpidity its delicate perfume, the becoming support of the beautiful hour and the concreteness of the Invisible”. What permanence does this concrete witness to, what love and what necessary continuity?
The poet reveals the place we have in the architecture of the world. The permanence of life, of hope comes from the fact that we come from a sacred dimension, that we also carry within us this part of mystery and the absolute. When we realize this, our poetry becomes powerful evidence.
Interview conducted by Dan Burcea