Marin Sorescu (; 29 February 1936 â 8 December 1996) was a Romanian poet, playwright, writer, and politician. Marin Sorescu was born in BulzeÃÂti, Dolj County, and eventually graduated from the University of IaÃÂi with a degree in modern languages. His first book, a 1964 collection of parodies, gained wide attention and was followed by numerous volumes of poetry and prose that established him as a prominent literary figure. His popularity grew rapidly, and in 1971 he joined the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. He often spoke ironically about his own work and described feeling alienated by language. Several of his poems were censored under the Nicolae CeauÃÂescu regime and were published only after the 1989 Revolution. SorescuâÂÂs play, Iona, was published in 1968 and was considered a 'masterpiece.' He got sick with cirrhosis and hepatitis, and died at age 60 from a myocardial infarction induced heart attack.
Born to a family of farmworkers in BulzeÃÂti, Dolj County, Sorescu graduated from the primary school in his home village. After that he went to the FraÃÂii BuzeÃÂti High School in Craiova, after which he was transferred to the Predeal Military School. His final education was at the University of IaÃÂi, where, in 1960, he graduated with a degree in modern languages. His first book, a collection of parodies in 1964 entitled Singur printre poeÃÂi ("Alone Among Poets"), was widely discussed. He himself called them "sarcastic and awkward". Ten volumes of poetry and prose followed, having a very rapid ascension in the world of literary, as a poet, novelist, playwright, essayist. He grew so popular that his readings were held in football stadiums. In 1971, he was a resident of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa.
On his poetry, Sorescu said, with characteristic irony: "Just as I can't give up smoking because I don't smoke, I can't give up writing because I have no talent." He often claimed a sense of alienation, saying "the spoken word is a crossed frontier. By the act of saying something, I fail to say many other things." On censorship, he said, after his last, post-1989 Revolution volumes were delayed, "we have won our freedom, so I mustn't complain. O censors, where are you now?"
Sorescu's collection of Censored Poems comprised poems which could not be published until after the Nicolae CeauÃÂescu dictatorship; of these, the best known is House under surveillance.
Iona, the play written by Marin Sorescu and first published in 1968 is widely considered a true masterpiece. The biblical myth says the prophet Iona (Jonah) was swallowed by a whale. In his play, Sorescu takes the story further and imagines what happens to Iona while he was inside the whale. "The most terrible part of the play is when Iona loses his echo", writes Sorescu in the foreword of this play. "Iona was alone, but his echo was whole. He shouted: Io-na, and his echo answered: Io-na. Then, it remained just half of the echo. He shouted Io-na, but all he could hear was Io. Io, in some ancient language, means me". Iona was played to a full house in Bucharest in 1969, but the tragedy was quickly withdrawn, because its content was considered too controversial.
Ill with cirrhosis and hepatitis, he got a myocardial infarction, which caused his heart attack at the in Bucharest; he died at age 60, on 8 December, 1996.
He was also nominated to the Nobel Prize in Literature.