BRESLASU, MARCEL

BRESLASU, MARCEL (Bresliska; 1903–1966), Romanian poet and musician. Breslasu was born in Bucharest, where he studied law and music. His biblical poem Cantarea Cantarilor ("Song of Songs," 1938) was staged as an oratorio at the Bucharest Opera. Best known as a fabulist, he also wrote Niste fabule mici si mari pentru mari si mici ("Fables Small and Big for the Big and Small," 1946) notable for their originality and didactic satire; Dialectica poeziei sau cantece despre cantec ("Dialectics of Poetry or Songs about Song," 1957); Alte niste fabule ("Other Fables," 1962); O noua poveste a vorbei ("A New Story to Tell," 1963), all published in Bucharest. He also published volumes of poems for young adults. Breslasu was known for the musicality of his verse. During the 1930s he published poems in Jewish journals too, using the Hebrew pen name "Ahad Katan." After World War II Breslasu, who became a Communist in 1942, became a politically engaged poet. He published "socialist-realist" poems and was editor of the literary review Secolul XX ("The Twentieth Century") from 1961 to 1966 after serving as rector of the Bucharest Art Institute in 1950–53. He   also wrote nonconformist poems, including love poems and a long poem based on the biblical book of Job. They were published only in fragments after his death. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: A. Mirodan, Dictionar neconventional, I (1986), 231–37; A.B. Yoffe, Bisdot Zarim (1996), 212–15, 443. (Lucian-Zeev Herscovici (2nd ed.)