Bulgarian Literature

BULGARIAN LITERATURE. Literature, in the sense of free artistic creation, dates in Bulgaria from the second half of the 19th century. During the first half of the 19th century and part of the second half, a considerable number of writers and pub licists devoted their lives and their works to the ideal of national re-birth. Of these, four stand out, in virtue of the quality of their literary work, of their practical activities, and of the importance of their achievements, which far transcended the narrow bounds of their time. Both as poets and as publicists, they laid the foun dations of Bulgaria's national life, and later, after the liberation of Bulgaria, they became figures of popular veneration. These four men were G. S. Rakovski, L. Karavelov, G. Botev (q.v.) and P. R. Slaveikov.

The influence of the social and political conditions of their day, with its absence of any personal or national liberty, combined with that of certain Russian ideological tendencies, taught these writers to believe that literature should be subordinated and adapted to the needs of social life. Thus their poems and dramas, with very few exceptions, attack a definite social problem. Their inner lives and the technique of their poetical work were, for them, of secondary importance.

Karavelov laid the foundations of Bulgarian narrative prose. His genius created types which have excited the admiration of readers from the Liberation down to the present day, and are still imitated by later writers. Botev, one of the most brilliant of Bulgarian poets, set the Bulgarian nation the example of the most sublime devotion in the name of love of liberty and of his native soil. Of all the Bulgarian poets ("bards"), it was he who produced the best and the most fiery revolutionary songs ; of all the revolu tionary poets he accomplished the most noble and glorious feat : at the head of an armed band he crossed the Danube, after seizing the Austrian ship "Radetzky"; then he marched to the mountains of Vratsa to die there fighting against Turkish troops.

P. R. Slaveikov enriched Bulgarian literature with the treasures of national poetry, whose wealth he first revealed. His works were based on popular tradition and folk-lore. He was the father of the Bulgarian epic.

The liberation of Bulgaria in 1878 undoubtedly altered political and social conditions, and created an atmosphere infinitely more favourable to literary production than the era of Turkish domina tion had afforded. Towards the end of the second half of the cen tury, Bulgaria had achieved complete stability as a State. At this time the country contained a considerable intellectual class, fitted for special work in every branch of intellectual and political life. Writers felt themselves released from their former duty of keep ing literature the handmaid of civic training; they began to devote themselves to pure poetic meditation.

The Work of Vasov.

Ivan Vasov is the most typical, most popular and most productive of the Bulgarian writers who by their lives and works linked together the two epochs which respec tively preceded and followed the revolution. He is known far be yond the frontiers of Bulgaria. His best novel, Under the Yoke, has been translated into almost every European language. During 5o years of literary activity (he lived 72 years, 1850-1922), Vasov excelled in every branch of literature. His immense output reflects every aspect of his nation's life. From his first poem The Pine, which appeared in 187o, a few years before the Liberation, down to his last collection of verse, My Lilac's Fragrance, which appeared in 1920, Vasov's lyrics are made up of an infinite variety of tones; echoes of the sorrows and the joys of a people's soul. Vasov hardly lived a life of his own. He feels his personality melt in the collective griefs and life of his nation. Thus social aspira tion is an essential and characteristic feature of his lyric poetry. Vasov's epic work—stories, poems, sketches, novels—is immense in quantity and embraces Bulgarian national life in all its mani festations and in every age. His most characteristic novels, which show both his literary qualities and his creative tendencies, are Under the Yoke, New Land and The Queen of Kazalar. The sub ject matter of these novels represents the three most important moments in the history of the Bulgarian people's political and spiritual life. Under the Yoke gives us a vivid, attractive and im pressive picture of the struggle of the Bulgars against the Turk. The principal hero of the novel is an intellectual and revolution ary, who devotes his life to the supreme end of lighting the torch of insurrection in the soul of the people. Under the Yoke is both a work of art and a faithful picture of the political situation, of social and family life, in Bulgaria at the most decisive moment of its history. Vasov's second and third novels, which are considered his best, thus illustrate the three successive stages of modern Bulgarian history. The few details of Bulgarian life not depicted in them are represented in his numerous short stories, poems and sketches. Vasov understood, however, that the aim which he had set himself, of reproducing a picture of Bulgarian life in its en tirety, could not be achieved if he confined his writings to modern times. He therefore delved into tradition and resurrected the past of Bulgaria, before the coming of the Turk, in a series of dramas. While his primary aim was to present all Bulgarian history in his dramas, he set himself at the same time to teach the present a lesson through the past. Throughout his work, Vasov pursued the practical goal of showing a moral, social and national example. In this respect he maintained the tradition of national poetry be queathed by the age which preceded the Liberation. The best known of his dramas are Towards the Abyss, Borisslav and Yvailo.

S. Michailovsky, who died in 1927, was Vasov's contemporary and spiritual brother. Without equalling the other's versatile genius or his imaginative power, Michailovsky was yet distin guished by remarkable insight, depth and wealth of thought, through which he expressed the ambitions of his ardent nature. He was Vasov's spiritual brother in so far as he, too, if in a different literary manner, devoted his talents to raising Bulgaria's spiritual life. Michailovsky in his satires scourged vice to show mobility and virtue rising triumphant. Educated in France, he was master of the subtleties of French literature and philosophy. His knowledge of French 17th and 18th century rationalism may have influenced his mind, which was often troubled by doubt. Towards the end of his life, this led to a Christian mysticism. His lay sermons are the product of this latest phase. Among his most important works are Novissima Verba, The Book of the Bulgarian People, and To-day Hammer, To-morrow Anvil. Among the other notable contemporaries of Vasov and Michailovsky may be mentioned Aleko Constantinov, author of a well-known and most humorous work, Bai Gagno, depicting the typical Bulgarian peasant, and Constantine Velitchkov, who, through his transla tions of Dante, Petrarch, Silvio Pellico and others, opened up to the intellectual world of Bulgaria the wealth of Latin and Italian poetry.

An Artistic Revival.

As was said above, from the '9os of the past century, Bulgarian literature shows two tendencies. First we have writers like Vasov, who have their roots in the literary tendencies of the pre-Liberation period; then the younger school, inspired by a burning desire to make a clean sweep of this slavery, to create work unencumbered by any moral, political or social ten dencies. In the short story, Anton Strachimirov, P. U. Todorov, G. Stamatov and Eline-Peline have attained considerable success. Strachimirov studies the intimate life of certain social groups (artisans and peasants), analyses their relations to social evolution as a whole, and thus shows us persons leading a more or less indi vidual life with their daily cares and daily joys. This writer later began to work on a broader scale, and gave us some novels which are considered, and rightly, to be among the better contemporary Bulgarian works. The national catastrophe resulting from the World War brought a certain disarray into his fiery soul, which was evidenced by the hurried novels which he produced after it. A. Strachimirov also produced several dramas which showed in contestable artistic qualities. The best known of his works are : Autumn Days, A Meeting, Mother-in-Law, Beyond and The Vam pire. Eline-Peline has chosen to display his talents in a still nar rower field : that of peasant life. He shows us characters which are at the same time true to life and softened by their creator's deep love for them. His latest work, which is of indisputable import ance, is his story The Earth; both in subject and treatment this work is more local than universal. In his later period Eline-Peline has written chiefly children's songs and stories. He is considered to-day the most popular writer in this field. P. U. Todorov is at once the originator and the master of the Bulgarian short idyll. He borrowed his subjects from popular legends, but made them turn round psychological and human conflicts of interest to all. He also wrote numerous charming symbolical dramas, which were based on ancient, popular myths. Apart from the delicacy of his poetic touch, the chief characteristic of his work is his feeling for har mony and rhythm. He died young, before his talent had fully developed. His chief works are : Idylls (collected), The Dragon's Marriage and The First. Georgi Stamatov is an original psycholo gist and a realist with clearly marked leanings towards naturalism. In his numerous short stories he exposes vice with unusual power. The problem of sex occupies his mind particularly. His style charms us by an indefinable quality which ranges from light humour to the most biting irony. The first aim of these four writers in their artistic output was to express, above all things, truth and pure "poetry"—pure, that is, and unencumbered by any extraneous matter. This is the particular quality which distin guished them from Vasov. In lyric poetry, Pentcho Slaveikov, son of the P. R. Slaveikov mentioned above, set out to conquer the Liberation—spiritually speaking—by works of the most perfect technique. Some years before his death in foreign admirers were already considering his work with a view to the possible award of the Nobel prize. His poems are works of art sublimely woven on a canvas either profoundly national or simply human (see his Ralitsa and his Boiko), or universal moral conflicts, as Chelli, Symphonies of Despair, Consoled, etc. His greatest work, which achieves a degree of magic unapproached in Bulgarian liter ature, is his poem called A Song of Blood. This is the artistic expression of the most dramatic moment in Bulgarian history. Slaveikov is the first and the most powerful of the Bulgarian poets who in their poetry have truly followed a path emancipated from any influence of social tendencies. He was neither directly lyrical to an exaggerated degree nor exclusively individualist. His themes are always treated with a feeling as deep as it is fanatical for poetry and beauty, whether they are drawn from the eternal prob lems which perplex the human soul, or whether they spring from those born of national life. Slaveikov died in Italy in 1912. His chief works are : Dream of Happiness, In the Island of the Blessed, Epic Songs and A Song of Blood.

Poetry of the New Age.—P. K. Yavorov, one of the most brilliant Bulgarian lyric poets, was a younger contemporary of Slaveikov. His eyes remained fixed for ever on the life of his own soul, where the purest, but also the most violent, emotions mingled, giving birth to sublime suffering. The increasing intensity of his spiritual development can be clearly traced in his work. He began with humanitarian pity of his fellow-men to end in stormy and proud solitude. In 1902, at the moment when his great popularity had been sealed by solemn critical appreciation, Yavorov, like Botev, to whom he shows close affinities, bore his distracted dreams to the mountains of Macedonia, to sacrifice his work, his thoughts and his emotions on the altar of the Macedonian revo lutionary movement. The wealth of his lyric motifs, the depth of his feeling, the sincerity and moving force of his expression make him the lyricist of the new age, and also its best loved poet. In a mystic longing towards union beyond the grave with the soul of her who, first in life, and then in death, drew him irresistibly to her, Yavorov ended his life at the beginning of 1914. His chief works are : Poems, Waking Nights, and In the Shadow of they Clouds; At the Foot of Vitos and When the Thunder Growls* (dramas) and A Heyduk's Hopes (sketches of comitadji life). Cyril Christoc, a contemporary of Slaveikov, is a lyric poet who, owing to a weak heart, has been forced to live outside Bulgaria. He is master of sentimental, light and frivolous verse. The glori fication of gay and careless life sings through his rhymes. His style is technically admirable for its suppleness, its vivacity and its lightness. His works include Shadows of the Evening, Vibrations, Songs and Sighs, etc. In more recent times a great number of writers and poets have been working with enthusiasm in the fields of lyric poetry, the short story and the novel, and revealing not only a new sense of literature, but also new forms. To-day the doors have been thrown wide open to the influence of the litera tures of Western Europe. This influence is particularly apparent in the work of some of the younger lyric poets of Bulgaria. Under it a special school of the lyric has been developed with success by Nicolai Liliev, Todor Trainavov, Dimtcho Debelianov and Ludmil Stoyanov. Since about 1915 or 1920 these four poets, each with his particular qualities and potentialities, have represented the advance-guard of Bulgarian poetry. The work of this group of lyricists is marked by a purely individual sensibility, which some times gives rise to awkward and bizarre forms, new colours, new assonances and new groupings of words in the verse, new rhyme schemes, and in general, new motifs, in opposition to the tradition.

In the work of two young Bulgarian women, Dora Gabe and Elisabeth Beltcheva, we find simplicity in the artistic sense of the word ; that is to say, an absence of any searching or straining after artificial importance in choice of subject ; originality in form ; lim pidity and sincerity pushed to the point of candour. A whole group of young poets, among whom we may mention Stoubel, Pan taleyev, Raztzvetnicov and others, are following in the footsteps of the writers whom we have already mentioned. Among the most talented writers of fiction, we should mention Jordan Yovcov, Dobre Nemirov, Georgi Ratchev, Nicolai Rainov and C. Con stantinov. Rainov is a visionary by nature, and his work shows leanings toward mystic fantasy, and Ratchev sketches for choice the rare mental situations, which give his tales a naturalistic and sardonic character; the other three pursue a path of artistic realism. They portray scenes drawn from simple everyday life. Of the very young prose writers whose talent is undeniable, we should mention A. Karailyatchev and V. Polianov. (J. Br.)