Grigore Vieru

Who is Grigore Vieru?

Grigore Vieru was a poet born in the village of Pererita, in the Hotin County of Bessarabia (then part of Greater Romania, now Briceni District in the Republic of Moldova). He is widely regarded as the national poet of modern Moldova, celebrated for verse that combines deep affection for mother, homeland, and the Romanian language with the folk cadences of Bessarabian oral tradition. Vieru worked for years as an editor of children's literature in Soviet Chișinău, publishing poetry collections such as "Numele tău" and "Taina care mă apără," and became a prominent public voice during the Moldovan national revival of the late 1980s, advocating for the recognition of Romanian as Moldova's official language and for closer cultural ties with Romania. He was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of Moldova and received the title "Poet of the People" of the Republic of Moldova. His poems, many of them set to music and sung as popular songs, remain deeply embedded in Moldovan cultural identity. He died in 2009 from injuries sustained in a car accident near Chișinău.

Sources: Grigore Vieru, Numele tău (poetry collection) · Academy of Sciences of Moldova, biographical records · Mihai Cimpoi, O istorie deschisă a literaturii române din Basarabia