Constantin Aurel Dragodan (en)

“I am bound for life by the serene face of Aurel Dragodan”

The other prisoner I sat with was a student, also from the elite Brotherhood of the Cross; he had also been in prison since 1941. His name was Aurel Dragodan, but everyone called him “The Master”. I stayed with him the longest and discovered in him a poet of great value, another brilliant example of our generation. Born in 1919, he was a student at the Faculty of Law in Bucharest when he was arrested for being a legionnaire and sentenced to 25 years in prison, of which he served 23 without interruption. I remember fragments of his poetry because […]

Aurel Dragodan – a modest boy with the figure of an ascetic

Now I found myself in a room with my nephew Aurica Dragodan, who was in prison in 1941-1942. He was called the teacher because he had taught many people in his life. He was from Alexandria and had lost his freedom after the events of January 1941, in a trial against the Brotherhood of the Cross. He was a slender boy, with the figure of an ascetic, no wonder after so many years of living in the prison cauldron. Arghezi himself had remarked that “hunger and the torment of patience / Sticks their bellies to their spines”. But he was […]

Constantin Aurel Dragodan – a simple, modest, sincere and kind man

Dragodan is a simple, modest, honest and kind man. You have never heard of this poet because he grew up in Aiud and wrote good poetry there. His friends and secretaries can tell you about his poetry. If you want to know some of his work, go to the Military Court in Bucharest and you will find it on file. Dragodan was condemned because he ‘saw’ Lenin triumphant and self-satisfied as he crossed the country full of dungeons and camps. But his poetry is not only political, it is also material. (Ioan Ianolide – Return to Christ. Document for a […]

Aurel Dragodan – a man who had the self-control of a saint

A few months ago someone told me that he had stayed in Aiud with a veteran of the dungeons, a man who had spent more than twenty years as a political prisoner. A man who had the self-control of a saint. And who, although a victim of the Antonine dictatorship, still had words of reconciliation with his fate and not a word of hatred against the Marshal, against his oppressors. His name was Aurel Dragodan, nicknamed “the poet of Aiud”. I know another, Octavian Popa, who also spent many years in prison, but who, like Dragodan – I was told […]