Early life and debut Cavarnali was born a subject of the
Russian Empire on 10 August 1910, in
Bolgrad. This town was then in
Izmailsky Uyezd,
Bessarabia Governorate; the entire area, colloquially known as the
Budjak and
southern Bessarabia, is now included in
Ukraine. Cavarnali, the son of Hristofor and Varvara, is generally seen as a member of the local Bulgarian community; researchers Eleonora Hotineanu and Anatol Măcriș note that he was of mixed Bulgarian–Gagauz ethnicity, with Măcriș including him on a list of "Gagauz diaspora in Bessarabia". The surname he and his family used is a variant of the
Gagauzian Kavarnalı, meaning "
Kavarnian". As noted by the literary scholar
George Călinescu, various of Cavarnali's poems attest to his "
Slavic" origin, calling Romania "my new motherland"; such pieces also suggest that his father was a
farrier who owned a specialized shop. Bolgrad and the rest of Bessarabia were indeed only
united with Romania in 1918, when Cavarnali was aged 7 (his sister, Ecaterina, was born that same year). In a 1936 article, Vladimir took pride in noting that, unlike the old Bessarabian elites, he had not been educated by the
Tsarist autocracy. His cultural formation in
Greater Romania was a "wall [which] separates us, as hostile neighbors". Cavarnali studied locally, graduating from the
Bolgrad lyceum; during the graduation ceremony of July 1927 (when he was still in grade seven of eight), he recited two of his own poems. He then attended the
University of Bucharest (1928–1931), In February 1934, he and Matei Alexandrescu established the "intellectual group"
Litere ("Letters"), which put out a bimonthly of the same title from its headquarters on Popa Tatu Street 14, Bucharest. Its stated mission was to combat "the anarchy one finds in contemporary literature". Cavarnali was a contributor to
Frize, a literary monthly published in
Brașov, with poems that are seen by critic Emil Manu as "moderately modernist". Cavarnali's first collection of verse, titled
Poesii ("Poems"), was submitted for review to the Royal Foundations that same year, upon being recommended by novelist
Mircea Eliade. It won him the Foundations' special prize for "young unpublished authors", which he shared with
Emil Cioran,
Eugène Ionesco,
Eugen Jebeleanu,
Constantin Noica,
Horia Stamatu, and
Dragoș Vrânceanu. Later in 1934,
Poesii appeared as a booklet with
Editura Fundațiilor Regale of Bucharest. Among the newspapers which welcomed this contribution was the
Bulgarian Romanian Dobrudzhanski Glas, which spoke of "our compatriot Vladimir Cavarnali" as a "gentle and unique talent". The following year, he joined the editorial staff of
Bugeacul, a literary review from his native town. combining Romanian nationalism with "social aspirations". In May 1935, he had also joined Stelescu and
Alexandru Talex's cultural society, which cultivated the memory of Crusade sympathizer
Panait Istrati. By January 1936, Cavarnali was working for the Crusade's eponymous magazine as a correspondent in
Ismail.
Magazine founder and wartime hiatus Cavarnali later served as chairman of the Crusade sections in
southern Bessarabia, but quit the party on 10 September 1936, due to ideological disagreements with its new leadership. One of his last contributions for that group's paper was an homage to the left-wing intellectual
Constantin Stere, whom Cavarnali described as a victim of a "poisonous, ruinous nationalism", and of attacks mounted by "the illiterate". That same month,
Viața Basarabiei published an article of his in which he criticized the regional schisms within Romanian nationalism, detailing the "extremely painful" discovery he and other Bessarabians had made—namely, that intellectuals from the
Old Kingdom viewed them as structurally different. By April 1937, Cavarnali had joined another far-right group, the
Romanian Front, speaking at its public gathering in Chilia. He had by then returned to
Viața Basarabiei with an article which chided young Romanian writers for being more interested in joining the cultural bureaucracy than they were in struggling for literary recognition. After this polemical stance and his Crusader episode, Cavarnali was viewed with contempt by the Iron Guard, whose
Buna Vestire daily deplored the absence of any Guardist literary club in Bessarabia. The region, it alleged, had been abandoned: "Mr
Pan Halippa and other such quadrupeds lead its literary destinies, with a certain Vladimir Cavarnali, the [homosexual] passion of
P. Comarnescu, meddling in like a cretin." In early 1937, another Bolgrad lyceum professor, Gheorghe Bujoreanu, was putting out the literary magazine
Familia Noastră ("Our Family"), which showcased literary pieces by his students. Cavarnali took over as its editor later in 1937, continuing for some three years, and was also head of his own magazine,
Moldavia, in 1939–1940. The latter project, for which he partnered with Ioan St. Botez, drew acclaim from the Bucharest journal
Viața Românească, which noted the "extraordinary phenomenon" of a quality magazine appearing out of a "rusty, sad, filthy town" in the Bessarabian provinces. The same merit was highlighted in
Pagini Literare by critic Romulus Demetrescu, who noted that Cavarnali was producing poetry and journalism in a town "beset by mosquitos, by a tormenting silence, by Oriental filth, by misery."
Moldavia carried Cavarnali's own musings about the state of poetry upon the start of World War II, as well as his renditions of
Czech folklore (picked out from
Bedřich Smetana, and translated with help from Franz Studeni). Cavarnali was also a regular contributor to journals put out elsewhere in Bessarabia, including
Generația Nouă,
Itinerar, and
Pagini Basarabene (in addition to
Viața Basarabiei), as well as a frequent traveler to the regional hub of
Chișinău; A second volume of his poems was printed at Bolgrad in 1939, as
Răsadul verde al inimii stelele de sus îl plouă ("The Heart's Green Seedling Is Rained upon by the Stars Above"). The title is remembered for being unusually complicated in its cultural setting. He was newly married in August 1939, and had honeymooned at the
Romanian Writers' Society retreat in
Bușteni. On 24–25 March 1940, Cavarnali was a Bolgrad delegate to the first congress of the Bessarabian Writers' Society (SSB), convened by Halippa in Chișinău. He was voted in as a member of the SSB executive committee. Also in early 1940,
Bugeacul featured Cavarnali's biography of, and translation from,
Yugoslav poet-diplomat
Jovan Dučić. He completed a Romanian version of the
Kalevala, which appeared in
Prepoem magazine of Bucharest. Around June 1940, during the
Soviet invasion of Bessarabia, Cavarnali was for a while considered missing. In August, the Commissariat for Refugees sent out notices asking him to contact the authorities. He lost all contact with Halippa, who later reported that Cavarnali, like Nencev and Costenco, had stayed behind in Chișinău. Cavarnali himself once gave some details on this period, informing fellow author
Laurențiu Fulga that he had been stranded in Chișinău, stripped of his citizenship, and court-martialed (whether by the Romanians or by the Soviets), being in danger of starving to death. In December, he was listed among the contributors to a new Bessarabian magazine "of Romanian affirmation", called
Estul ("The East"). In 1941, the
Ion Antonescu regime sealed a Romanian alliance with the
Axis powers and joined in the
anti-Soviet war, leading to the temporary recovery of Bessarabia; the Budjak was merged into the
Bessarabia Governorate of Romania. The authorities found Cavarnali and reinstated him, whereupon he joined a circle of writers formed around
Basarabia newspaper. From 1944 to 1947, having been displaced to Bucharest, Cavarnali worked as both a high school professor and a journalist, publishing new poems in the journal
Orizonturi. In May 1944,
Viața Basarabiei reported that he was "gravely ill." He achieved recognition as a translator from the Russian classics, with versions of
Maxim Gorky's
Mother—probably completed in the mid-1940s, and rated by Emil Manu as "the most beautiful Romanian version" of that novel—and
Nikolai Gogol's
Marriage.
Communist turn (and
Easter) 1948 issue of
Licurici A leftward regime change was inaugurated by the
August 1944 coup, which also brought Romania itself under a
Soviet occupation. On
May Day 1945,
Scînteia Tineretului, put out by the
Union of Communist Youth, hosted one of Cavarnali's poems; the same year, he published a version of Mikhail A. Bulatov's
Geese-Swans, with its retelling of
Russian folklore. Cavarnali also founded the children's magazine
Înainte ("Forward"), It was positively reviewed by the
Romanian Communist Party paper,
Scînteia: "Aimed at all Romanian children,
Înainte seeks to cultivate their artistic taste, to awaken their inventive spirit, to guide them toward the finer occupations that life has to offer, while also promoting spiritual recreation." By January 1946,
Înainte was receiving contributions from
Eusebiu Camilar,
Mihail Cruceanu,
Cezar Petrescu,
Ion Popescu-Puțuri, and
Mihail Sadoveanu; Cavarnali was for a while a teacher of
Romanian literature and
history at the Boys' School in
Giurgiu, but, by 1947, had been moved back to the capital as a substitute teacher in
Gheorghe Șincai National College. In August of that year, he achieved tenure, after passing his examination with top marks. In late 1947, the
National Theater Bucharest used Cavarnali's translation for its highly successful production of
Marriage, with Victor Bumbești as a director. it had two more editions by 1950. In December 1947, when he became tenured at
Matei Basarab National College, his rendition of a poem by the
Soviet Kirghiz Temirkul Umetaliev appeared in
Graiul Nou, the Soviet–Romanian propaganda magazine. Upon the establishment of a
communist regime later that month, Cavarnali began working as an editor for another young reader's publication,
Licurici ("Firefly"); his colleagues there included Mihai Stoian, who had grown up reading
Înainte, and who describes Cavarnali as one whose leading trait was "compassion", and who "never dared burden anyone with his presence." In March of that year, he was a rapporteur at the National Writers' Conference, which established a
Writers' Union of Romania (USR)—he appeared there alongside Cruceanu,
Mihail Davidoglu,
Victor Eftimiu,
Ioanichie Olteanu,
Sașa Pană,
Cicerone Theodorescu, and
Haralamb Zincă. During May, he joined
Al. Șahighian and other authors on a creative tour of the
children's homes in
Mogoșoaia, having been advised to directly contact their target audience. Cavarnali had been received into the Communist Party (known then as "Workers' Party"), but, on 22 March 1950, found himself targeted by a review commission, and recommended for exclusion (alongside fellow writers Camilar, Theodorescu,
Lucia Demetrius,
Mihu Dragomir,
Coca Farago,
Alexandru Kirițescu,
Sanda Movilă,
Ioana Postelnicu,
Zaharia Stancu, and
Victor Tulbure). The decision was carried through, but, following an intercession on their behalf by communist potentate
Ana Pauker, Cavarnali and the others were not exposed to further persecution; instead, they had to commit to a series of discussion with ideologists
Miron Constantinescu and
Leonte Răutu, so that they "do not lose hope". Cavarnali's subsequent focus on translation work produced editions of
Valentina Oseyeva's
Vassiok Trubachov and His Comrades (in 1950),
Anna Brodele's
Marta (in 1954), and
Mikhail Saltykov-Shchedrin's
In the World of Moderation and Precision (in 1964). The poet's final assignments were as a cultural adviser for the Education Ministry, as well as a staff worker for
Gazeta Literară and
Albina, dedicated mainly to the promotion of literary education for the youth. Cavarnali attended the USR's
Săptămîna Poeziei festival at
Constanța in late 1963, being billed alongside Theodorescu,
Vlaicu Bârna,
Aurel Gurghianu, and
Adrian Maniu. "After great suffering", Cavarnali died in Bucharest on 19 July 1966, and was buried in the city's
Bellu Cemetery. Literary critic and historian
Nicolae Manolescu (who was in his twenties when Cavarnali died), notes that many, including himself, were no longer aware that he and other interwar authors had even survived into the 1960s. It was only in the late 1990s, upon reading a biographical dictionary compiled by
Mircea Zaciu, when he realized that he and Cavarnali had been contemporaries. Ecaterina outlived her brother by more than 30 years, her first and only published volume appearing in Romania in 1998, when she was aged 80. ==Work==