For Global Astronomy Month 2020 (222): Inertia of Inertia (68)

By Andrei Dorian Gheorghe (text and photos) and Florin Alexandru Stancu (design)

Published: Friday, August 28 2020 18:16

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“FAT FRUMOS” IN MODERN TIMES
(Bucharest, July 25, 2020)
Astro-photo-poem (cosmopoem) by Andrei Dorian Gheorghe

“Fat Frumos” (Beautiful Boy in English) is
the traditional hero in the Romanian tales.
He uses to fly with his
“Calul Nazdravan” (Magic Horse in English)
to the Moon, Sun and stars,
and kills the dragons that steal
the Sun and the Moon,
provoking eclipses.

In 1966, an architect who had been forbidden
for 20 years by the dictatorial regime,
Ion Lucian Murnu,
reappeared with a fine monument
dedicated to Fat Frumos in the Herastrau Park.

The spirit of the hero is admirably synthesized:
in that sculpture:
we can remark he is flanked
by the Sun and the Moon,
and flies among the stars with the Magic Horse,
while under him a dragon-man falls into the abyss.

Obviously, more famous observatories
wanted to employ Fat Frumos,
offering him excellent salaries,
but he organized a press conference:

“The salary is not important for me.
I wouldn’t like to make universal research
in an office, writing analyses and operating
a performing computer or a remote telescope.
I prefer to remain a free astronaut-astronomer.”

“Now please excuse me,” ended Fat Frumos,
“I have to leave you because
my horse informs me that
a few dragons have occupied a sunspot,
while others are resting in a lunar crater.”