As always, he continued to write and publish poetry notably, on the occasion of the death of the former ruler of Muntenia, Barbu Dimitrie ªtirbey, he published a leaflet, La moartea principelui ªtirbey. He renewed ties to his family his father promised him a regular allowance to pursue studies in Vienna in the fall. Still in summer 1869, he left Pascaly's troupe and traveled to Cernãuþi and Iaºi. That summer, he quite by chance ran into his brother Iorgu, a military officer, in Ciºmigiu Gardens, but firmly rebuffed Iorgu's attempt to get him to renew ties to his family. On June 29, various members of the 'Orient' group were commissioned to go to different provinces. On Aphe was a co-founder of the 'Orient' literary circle, whose interests included the gathering of fairy tales, popular poetry, and documents relating to Romanian literary history. Also at this time he began his novel Geniu pustiu (Wasted Genius).

He also paid his rent by translating hundreds of pages of a book by Enric Theodor Rotscher, although this never resulted in a completed work. Through this period, he continued to write and publish poems. He soon settled in Bucharest, where at the end of November he became a clerk and copyist for the National Theater. Both of these were among the leading Romanian theatrical troupes of their day, the latter including Matei Millo and Fanny Tardini-Vladicescu. In 1867 he joined the troupe of Iorgu Caragiale as clerk and prompter the next year he transferred to the troupe of Mihai Pascaly.

This began a steady series of published poems (and the occasional translation from German). It was Iosif Vulcan who suggest to Mihai Eminoviciu the 'nome du plume' Mihai Eminescu. On February 25 his poem De-aº avea was published in Iosif Vulcan's literary magazine Familia in Pest. In January of that year Romanian teacher Aron Pumnul died and his students published a pamphlet, Lãcrãmioarele invãþãceilor gimnaziºti (Tears of the Gymnasium Students) in which appears a poem entitled La mormântul lui Aron Pumnul (The Grave of Aron Pumnul) signed 'M. The first evidence of Eminescu as a writer is in 1866.

Poesii by Mihai Eminescu