Cezar Baltag (b. 26 July 1937, Mălineşti-Hotin - d. 26 May 1997 in Bucharest) was one of the poets of the 1960's generation associated with the turn from socialist realism to neomodernism (debuting in the same time with Nichita Stănescu and Ilie Constantin). A prestigious poet at the height of his career, he was an ermeticist influenced by Ion Barbu, Blaga and Eliade. He would continue to retain some prestige until the end of his life (when he eventually won the National Award Mihai Eminescu "Opera Omnia"), in spite of falling off the radar during the 1970s, after a quasi-mannerist phase with highly complicated books. His following books contained simpler poems, without betraying his metaphysical style, which is partially why his poems have little success among the followers of postmodernism. He was also an essayist and translator.