My God, how great was Gyr!

I was still in Aiud in the T.B.C. ward. A room with wooden bunks, stacked one on top of the other, covered with a mat and a blanket. (…)

It was here, when two rooms were taken out for a walk by mistake, that I met the most precious of us, Radu Gyr. He came in from the back, with his big glasses on his aquiline nose – a particularly kind man. He embraced me tenderly, took me by the arm, tightly, and we walked a few laps together. I felt small, embarrassed, as if he was paying us all this attention that I didn’t think we deserved. (…)

My God, how great Gyr was! How much light he was for us! How much he was our support! How much he was our guide! How much he was our solidarity! How much he was our thought! How much he was our comfort! How much love we had! How much our faith! How much was he our strength, our courage!

His verses were like oases in the desert! Like clear springs that moisten sunburned lips! Like a torch that guides you in the dark! Like the hand that guides you on the right path!

All the great poets were the ravishers of their time. Of the nation that gave birth to them at the right time. The poets gave us from the greatness of their souls what was most precious in the time they lived. Gyr was given to exist in a very special time and his mission was to be our guide, our impetus, our solidarity, our purity of soul. He was with us everywhere: on our walks, in our cells, in solitary confinement… He sang with us at Christmas:

We sit in heavy darkness
For us there is no star,
There is no light in the sky.
Angels in a hurry
For the damned
They bring no carols…

Or reveal our feelings:

We are silent, as if we have been silent for ages,
Like old lake bottoms…
With clenched fists we are silent.

When everything was down, when desolation and horror stretched like a stain and the beacon of hope flickered like a candle in the endless night, Gyr sent us where:

Arise, George, Arise, Joan…

(Deliu Iulian Bălan – Brother of the Cross or K-1942, Edited by Virgil Rațiu, Ed. Aletheia, Bistrita, 2002, pp. 37-40)