Global InformationAlecu Beldiman information
Alexandru "Alecu" Beldiman | |
|---|---|
 Beldiman in his boyar clothes, including the kalpak; from the 1861 Alecu Balica edition | |
| Born | 1760 Iași or Huși, Moldavia |
| Died | ca. January 1826 (aged 65) |
| Occupation | politician, landowner, inn-keeper, translator |
| Nationality | Moldavian |
| Period | ca. 1784–1826 |
| Genre | chronicle, epic poetry, lyric poetry, satire, acrostic |
| Literary movement | Neoclassicism, Romanticism |
Alecu Beldiman, common rendition of Alexandru Beldiman (Romanian Cyrillic: AлєѯaндрȢ Бєлдимaн), also known as Alecul or Aleco Beldiman (1760 – ca. January 1826), was a Moldavian statesman, translator and poet, one of the forerunners of Romanian nationalism. A scion of the boyar elite, he was the eldest son of Vornic Gheorghe Beldiman, and the nephew-in-law of chronicler Enache Kogălniceanu. Alecu himself held high commission in the Moldavian military forces and bureaucracy, but secretly resented the Phanariote regime which had awarded them. He may have affiliated with a loose group known as the "National Party", championing an alliance between Moldavia's independence from the Ottoman Empire and support for the French Republic.
Beldiman's earliest contributions to cultural life probably date back to the 1790s, and originally included translations of French prose and verse drama. He may have contributed an original play, while his brother, Dumitrache Beldiman, helped arrange some of the earliest Moldavian stage performances, as puppet shows. By 1820, Alecu had become the most productive translator in Moldavia, directly contributing to Westernization and the spread of Enlightenment ideas, and also completing a Romanian version of the Odyssey. His works in the field were circulated in print form by Zaharia Carcalechi, or otherwise copied by hand.
Beldiman's anti-Greek sentiment peaked during the 1821, when an invasion by the Sacred Band chased him and other Romanian boyars out of Moldavia. The invasion and its violent aftermath inspired him to write the epic poem Tragodiea Moldovei ("Moldavia's Tragedy"). Although politically significant and comprising picturesque detail, the work was widely dismissed as a sample of exceptionally bad writing. Upon returning home, Beldiman also came into conflict with Prince Ioan Sturdza, who had him imprisoned at Tazlău Monastery in 1824. Poems he wrote during that interval show him as a conservative critic of republican and nationalist propaganda, and display his pity for the lower classes; he was also becoming more supportive of rule by the Ottoman Empire. Though eventually released, he maintained a low profile for the remainder of his life. His family continued to have a role in Moldavian, and later Romanian politics; his grandson Alexandru Beldiman was a journalist.