The ninth International Poetry Festival “Grigore Vieru” is taking place in Chisinau and Iasi. In Chisinau, the event started with laying of flowers at the poet’s bust on the Classical Writers’ Alley in the morning of May 16, IPN reports.

Valeriu Matei, director of the Romanian Cultural Institute “Mihai Eminescu”, noted the poet imposed himself by his originality and had a specific thematic area and incomparable style. “Grigore Vieru is for now at the first posthumous generation of critical perception. His work resists and bears different angles of interpretation,” he stated.

Panpipe player Vasile Iovu said the current generations are obliged to commemorate the great poet Grigore Vieru. “Regrettably, I do not see who can carry the national flag as Grigore Vieru did,” he noted.

Attending the event and presented as the first tough critic of Grigore Vieru and one of the initiators of the festival, academician Mihai Cimpoi said Grigore Vieru was contemporary both with grownups and with children, while the events that are now held in all the lyceums and institutions of culture show once again that the poet is loved and is not forgotten.

Poet Ianos Turcanu remembered that when he was a child, he learned by heart Grigore Vieru’s poems, but then met him personally, at different cultural events. “I’m proud that I knew him. It is sad that he is no longer among us. He was a very talented man. For me, it is important on this day to return to Grigore Vieru’s work and to every time discover that he was a remarkable man,” stated the poet.

The first day of the ninth International Poetry Festival “Grigore Vieru” will end with an award ceremony at the National Puppet Theater “Licurici” at 6pm. In Iasi, the event will be held during May 18-19.