Antologia poeziei românești din Basarabia (1770-2020)

This book collects Romanian poems from Bessarabia, from 1770 to 2020. It looks most at land between the Prut and Dniester rivers. It also includes poets who came from across the Prut. It is for those who read poems and their history. These include teachers, school pupils, and students on both riverbanks. Writers and critics on both banks are also its readers.

Nicolae Leahu writes poems, reviews, and the history of writing. This book builds on his 2004 book of chosen poems. It starts with the region’s first, uneven attempts at verse. These works often have more worth as history than art. Leahu’s opening text links the poems’ dates to their themes. It shows how styles and time spans overlap, not stand apart. The poems range up to recent work.

The book shows poets’ struggles to keep the region’s arts alive. It shows how splits in rule broke ties across the Prut. Those breaks made it harder to trace a shared past.

This book starts the series Literatura romana din Basarabia. The series traces forms of writing through changes in rule. It spans more than two centuries. It puts the worth of writing as art first. It also weighs its worth for culture and history. Its wider aim is to bring overlooked work back to light. It also shows how Romanian writing has endured in the region.