Senior state officials and people of culture laid flowers at Grigore Vieru’s bust on the Alley of Classical Writers in the morning of February 14, when the poet would have turned 80. The president of the Writers Union of Moldova Arcadie Suceveanu said that Grigore Vieru is the poet who created the most beautiful poems in the Romanian literature dedicated to the mother, history and motherland and became a symbol of the Romanianism in Bessarabia, IPN reports.

“The songs on Grigore Vieru’s poems are permanently sung and this is a sign that Grigore Vieru is becoming a national symbol. “He is a poet who lives after his death. Literarily speaking, leaving after death is a clear sign of classicism. He continues to be read and loved. Monographs and works about Grigore Vieru appear. We intend to issue a critical edition of four volumes that will contain all the poet’s works, together with the Ministry of Culture,” stated Arcadie Suceveanu.

Acting Minister of Culture Monica Babuc said Grigore Vieru is present in our lives by his works, songs and his special way of being. “We remember him frail and surprised at his readers’ love, very timid and very powerful in his message for our culture and language and very courageous for our national ideals,” she said.

Grigore Vieru died in the hospital on the night of January 18, 2009 as a result of a road accident that occurred on January 16.