Prof. Floare R. Cândea – A Dialogue with the Poet and Prose Writer Anișoara Laura Mustețiu
Interview conducted by Prof. Floarea R. Cândea
Published in the Gutenberg Magazine (printed format) Arad, in the magazine Armonii Culturale in Vrancea, and by the publicist George Roca in Bumerang Magazine in Sydney. Translated from the Romanian language.
Preface
In this evocative dialogue, Floarea R. Cândea—Editor-in-Chief of Gutenberg Magazine—invites readers into the luminous world of Anișoara Laura Mustețiu, a Romanian-born poet and prose writer whose life journey spans continents and cultures. From the streets of Timișoara to the shores of Sydney, Laura shares her reflections on exile, identity, creativity, and the enduring power of friendship and memory.
About the Author
Anișoara Laura Mustețiu is a Romanian-born poet, prose writer, and cultural ambassador whose literary voice bridges continents. With a background rooted in Timișoara and Transylvania, and decades spent in Germany and Australia, her work explores themes of identity, longing, resilience, and the sacredness of memory. She is the author of four published books in Romanian and English and the creator of the weekly radio show Emoții și Iubire on ProDiaspora Radio, broadcast from Sydney.
Her books can be found in bookstores worldwide.
Recorded by,
Floarea R. CÂNDEA
Editor-in-Chief of Gutenberg Magazine
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: A warm welcome to the New Year! Choosing a guest for this moment is no coincidence. “Welcome,” Anișoara Laura Mustețiu from Sydney! From Arad… via Timișoara… Sydney is quite a leap. A threshold or a passage? Why?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: Thank you very much for the invitation, Mrs. Floarea Cândea. I am deeply honored. In life, we never truly know where our steps will take us. Nothing is strictly defined. Timișoara was the place destined for my birth, and I’m grateful for that. Sydney is a threshold I crossed willingly, enchanted by the magic of discovering a new world. Still, my life’s journey has been a bit more complex… I could say that Timișoara, along with my grandparents’ village in Transylvania, cradled my childhood, while the town of Speyer in Germany—where I lived for twenty-four years—was the garden where I blossomed. Sydney is the shore where I’ve anchored the ship of my life, indefinitely.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: A beautiful journey, like a spiritual geography! When did this exodus begin, and how?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: The word “exodus” is well chosen, because indeed, my departure from Romania in 1990 wasn’t just a simple trip or a voyage to a foreign land. I was part of a mass emigration of Romanians, especially young people, just a few months after the 1989 revolution and the hard-won freedom. For me, this exodus was a trial. Back then, around 1990, the foreign land felt like a racetrack, where I was running in my own game of chance. But I was lucky, because I emigrated to Germany—a country where human qualities are respected and valued. These opportunities and recognitions became guiding truths for me. They inspired me. Of course, it wasn’t easy. But as the French philosopher Albert Camus once said, I understood early on that in the depths of winter, within me “there is an invincible summer.”
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: Timișoara, known as the City of Flowers, intoxicates the years of those who’ve left! Is leaving a choice or a twist of fate?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: In the genesis of things, countless truths hide their faces. When I think of my hometown, I feel drops of conflicting emotions flowing through my heart. Love. Admiration. Sorrow. When I look at Timișoara, I don’t just see it from the city center. I see it from that dusty corner where I once stood, at a tender age. Timișoara is like a rose. Beautiful. Intoxicating. But it also has its thorns, which wound. My departure was a choice. An escape. A decisive moment when I pulled hard on the sails of my ship, changing its course toward the sun and storms of the unknown. I’m reminded of a few verses I wrote in 2020…
“I’m just a lost emigrant / in a world full of mystery, / an emigrant who fought / for luck, with all his might. / I’m lost among strangers, forgotten / by country and customs, uprooted, / I’m a stranger among strangers / and yet, the one who won’t forget.”
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: We don’t know each other, we glimpse one another through the quill’s edge and the muse’s gaze. We’re moved and admire each other’s literary creations! A pure coincidence brought our literary paths together… And yet… Is it empathy? Or a friendship of words?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: As I’ve said in my broadcasts on ProDiaspora radio, I adore your writing. I adore your poems and literary texts. They’re full of beauty and originality. But to my joy, behind the literary talent, I recognized a soul full of human kindness. A pure and rare kindness. I consider myself lucky to have you as a friend, even if we’re on different continents.
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: From the ripples of emotions, from the genealogy of feelings, I sense warm springs of thoughts and reflections flowing into lyrical muses. I often fortify them in the pictogram of words—in poetry and prose. Longing is a phrase of the soul’s experiences, metamorphosed from the sublime to bittersweet melancholy. And writing, yes, you’re right, is a balm. The fact that I write and publish in my native language confirms this. For what else but longing—for country, friends, memories, culture—could inspire me to write in Romanian after thirty-two years abroad, here on a distant continent, surrounded by an English-speaking world? Timișoara remains a mirage for me, often appearing in the mirror of memories. I must confess, I still love it… Most of my friends from Timișoara are scattered across the world. But when I return to Romania, I have a small corner of paradise. It’s in my grandparents’ village, Bucerdea-Vinoasă, near Alba Iulia. There, I have dear friends who welcome me with open hearts whenever I visit. I believe there is always a spiritual connection—between people, events, and places. Culture, traditions, lived memories with parents, grandparents, and loved ones—all are woven into this living, spiritual bond between where I was born and where I am now. A part of life’s essence lies in these experiences.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: What did you bring, what did you leave behind, and what have you kept in your new home, now your soul’s homeland?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: In 1990, I left with just a sports bag and a few clothes. But everything truly important I carried in my heart and mind. The teachings from my parents, grandparents, teachers—knowledge, traditions, and culture. Only later did I realize I had taken a small fortune with me. Most of my former classmates from the “C. D. Loga” Mathematics-Physics High School and the Philology-History High School became doctors, lawyers, judges, university professors, scientists, ambassadors, ministers. These achievements reflect their qualities and the value of the education our generation received. I, too, carried precious teachings that I’ve put to good use. Of course, throughout life I’ve gathered other valuable lessons, and fresh drops of recognition, absorbed from life’s rains.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: Does longing hurt? Is writing a balm? What about the friends left behind in Timișoara? In the country? What’s the bridge, and what role does it play?
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: We are bound by roots and by times, by Banat—always leading—and Arad… always shining… by our dress and dialect… And yet… why did you leave?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: It’s hard for me to answer that question. It stirs a paradoxical feeling, a simultaneous burst of storm and sunshine. I feel that a simple answer wouldn’t suffice. Beneath the fragrance of the question lie answers where the embers of past events and emotions still smolder. Some echoes can be found in my book Fragments of a Woman’s Life (A Collection of True Stories), recently published under the Romanian-Australian Cultural Publishing House, and available on Amazon. In the coming weeks, the book will also appear on the shelves of bookstores in Romania.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: What does Laura Mustețiu do in summer, when it’s winter at the antipodes—or vice versa? About family, as fruit… exotic and prosaic—what would you say?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: It still feels strange when winter settles in June and summer begins in November. But that’s how it is here in Australia. I had to adapt. Even stranger is that, since living near the beach, I rarely visit it. Everything here must be enjoyed in moderation. The Australian sun is scorching. And the Pacific Ocean—wild, tumultuous—very different from the sea’s gentle song. I prefer peace, harmony. I find them at home, with my husband, in the flower garden, near beautiful souls. Near the five-million-strong metropolis, I listen each morning to the giggling Kookaburra birds frolicking among tree branches adorned with lilac Jacaranda blossoms. In the near distance, kangaroos leap from dry forests, gather in groups, and sniff out fresh food from the fertile fields of Hunter Valley. But as I said, I find harmony and grace in the garden. Nature always radiates such a pleasant energy. I love to absorb beauty from nature’s sap and transform it into words, into verses, into stories—to aspire toward words sanctified by light.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: What is Romanian in Sydney—dishes, memories, garments, preserves… metaphorical ones? And what does a Romanian who adores summer rains and blossoming trees do?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: In 2014, when I arrived in Sydney, I was surprised to discover a little Romania. I took part in Romanian cultural events, concerts with Romanian artists, book launches, and I met many talented Romanians. Some of them became dear friends. The cultural atmosphere here inspired me. Its effects on me were surprisingly beautiful. It culminated in the publication of four books, in both English and Romanian. Since February 2022, I’ve been working as an editor at ProDiaspora Radio, where I create a weekly show of poetry, prose, and music in Romanian, titled Emoții și Iubire (Emotions and Love), broadcast from Sydney. My husband, Joseph Viveiros, who is Australian with Portuguese origins, has supported me wholeheartedly in making my dreams come true, offering me the rare luxury of time to focus on writing and on all the activities that celebrate and promote Romanian culture.
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: We’ve journeyed through human splendors! What are Friendships, and do you believe in their eternity?
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: Friendship is a soulful symbiosis woven with branches of light… It is like a divine breath on Earth. Friends are angels, proof that we must not lose hope in a better, more beautiful world. Your question reminds me of a poem I wrote in 2021:
There Are People in Life…
“There are people in life who lift us high,
with their warm, tender, boundless soul,
on fleeting paths of fate, they teach us why
to cherish all that’s good, and whole.
There are people in life who bring us low,
with their indifference, or a careless word,
and all that’s good in us, they fail to know—
from pain, we learn what’s sacred, what’s heard.
There are people in life who sometimes leave
a noble lesson in the arms of memory,
they guide our steps on a warm, bright beam,
when the soul is lost in shadows of reverie.
In time, I’ve learned from silence to draw grace,
to hear ballads of flowers, and the heart’s deep ache,
I lose myself in ideals, in dreams I chase,
and in angels on the path, I hope more with each step I take.”
Floarea R. CÂNDEA: A thought for Romanians, and one for those back home (in Timișoara or other corners of your soul). Thank you!
Anișoara Laura MUSTEȚIU: I wish everyone love, harmony, and health. May there be peace on Earth! Thank you for your attention!
Recorded by,
Floarea R. CÂNDEA
Editor-in-Chief of Gutenberg Magazine
Arad, Romania
18 January, 2023
