Petre Stoica (February 15, 1931 – March 21, 2009) was a Romanian poet and translator. A native of the Timișoara area, he studied at the University of Bucharest before launching a career as a writer. Making his debut in the late 1950s alongside several better-known generational colleagues, he published a number of books over the subsequent decades. His poetry dealt with quotidian subjects and studiously avoided glorification of the ruling communist regime. After the Romanian Revolution, he briefly engaged with the political scene before withdrawing to Jimbolia, not far from where he grew up. There, he worked to enrich the town's cultural life. Life Born in Peciu Nou, Timiș County, in the Banat region, his parents were Adam Stoica and his wife Maria (née Bertan). As a child, he and his younger brother wandered around villages along the Bârzava and Timiș rivers, following their father, who headed a tax-collecting unit. After attending high school in Timișoara from 1942 to 1950, he studied at the Romanian-German section of the University of Bucharest's philology faculty, graduating in 1954. The choice of German was made by a dean seeking to meet a quota, but proved fortuitous for his later career. His parents were subjected to the Bărăgan deportations, and it was with difficulty that Stoica avoided being expelled from the university, particularly as he did not belong to the Union of Working Youth. While a student, he became friends with Modest Morariu and met Dimitrie Stelaru and Mircea Ivănescu; shortly after graduating, he drew notice from Paul Georgescu and Anatol E. Baconsky. In 1957, he took part in the formation of a group that included young writers passionate about literature, several of whom would achieve notoriety: aside from Morariu and Ivănescu, Nichita Stănescu, Matei Călinescu, and Cezar Baltag were also present in this collective. From 1955 to 1962, he worked as a proofreader at EPL and ELU publishing houses. From 1963 to 1972, he was the editor-in-chief of Secolul 20 magazine. In the later years of the communist regime, he withdrew to Bulbucata, a village on the banks of the Neajlov River, and spent time gardening. A supporter of the National Peasants' Party while an adolescent, he was briefly active in the revived Christian Democratic National Peasants' Party after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. At that point, he returned to Bucharest, writing feverishly for the newspapers in support of democracy and against a