Poet Ana Blandiana received the 2024 Princess of Asturias Award for Literature on October 25, in a ceremony presided over by the Royal Family of Spain at the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo. According to the Romanian Embassy in Spain, she is the first Romanian honored with this distinction.

"Ana Blandiana is heir to the most brilliant European traditions, as well as a radically unique creator. Combining transparency and complexity, her writing raises fundamental questions about the existence of human beings, both alone and within society, in the face of nature and of history. Through her indomitable poetry, she has shown an extraordinary capacity for defying censorship," the jury said.

In her speech at the awarding ceremony, Ana Blandiana expressed her gratitude for this honor and said the Princess of Asturias Award is different from every other prize for poetry "because in its very definition it unites the mystery of poetry and the mystery of royalty, so strangely related to each other to the extent that, without understanding them or even knowing what they are for, people nevertheless sense that our world would be much less beautiful and less virtuous without them." 

In the full hall of the Campoamor Theater in Oviedo, the Romanian poet's speech launched a profound reflection on the role of poetry in a secularized, technicalized, computerized, and globalized world through the rhetorical question "Can poetry save the world?", transforming mystery, suffering, and the inexpressible into "another reality in which we can save ourselves."

Ana Blandiana, a Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Salamanca, had 11 books translated into Spanish, some with the support of the Romanian Cultural Institute. She is the author of over 30 books, translated into 25 languages, and has received numerous international awards, including the Vilenica International Prize (2002) and the European Poet of Freedom Award (2016), as well as the French Legion of Honor.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Facebook/Ambasada României în Spania)