Radu Gyr

Radu Gyr (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈradu ˈd͡ʒir]; pen name of Radu Ștefan Demetrescu [ˈradu ʃteˈfan demeˈtresku]; March 2, 1905, Câmpulung-Muscel – 29 April 1975, Bucharest) was a Romanian poet, essayist, playwright and journalist.

Gyr was the son of actor Coco Dumitrescu, from Craiova. He did his secondary studies at the Carol I High School in Craiova. He then studied at the University of Bucharest, where he received his Ph.D. in Literature and became a Senior Lecturer.

He joined the Iron Guard fascist movement, becoming in time a local commander. During the National Legionary Government he was appointed General Manager of the Romanian Theaters.

Under his administration the Barașeum Jewish Theater (later State Jewish Theater) was founded. The creation of the Jewish Theatre was accompanied with an interdiction for Jewish actors to play anywhere else in Romania, as such the creation of the theatre being a purge of all Jewish people from all theatres across the country.

He was imprisoned for 20 years and he was never completely rehabilitated as a writer. His first years as a political prisoner began as soon as the Iron Guard lost their battle with Ion Antonescu. After spending time in prison, Radu Gyr was sent to fight on the Eastern Front, a form of punishment which was reserved for former Legionnaires.

In 1958 he was sentenced to death by the Communist authorities because of his poem, considered subversive by the regime, "Ridică-te Gheorghe, ridică-te Ioane!" ("Arise George, arise John!"). The poem asked for peasants and Romanians at large, given generic names, to rise against the communist dictatorial regime: it had been issued as the last wave of brutal collectivization was taking hold of rural Romania (a process which lasted between 1949-1962). It is primarily a poem pleading for freedom. Romanians, generically named George and John, are called upon to arise "not for bread, nor for land, but for their free air"; for their "nailed song" and "tears of an enchained sun"; for "a stack of horizons and a hatful of stars"; to "drink liberty out of well buckets", "swim in it as in heaven, and shake its cherry blossoms onto themselves".

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