Poetry
Епически песни
Not translated into English
Pencho Slaveykov · 1896
Opening lines
Отдавна спят Атини в сън дълбок,
от празненствата на Деметрис морни;
и мяркат се по месечина само
самотни люде, низ свещений път
от Елевзис завръщайки се късно.
Athens has long been sleeping a deep sleep,
weary from the festivals of Demeter;
and only by moonlight there flit
lonely people along the sacred way,
returning late from Eleusis.
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from chitanka.info
Synopsis
Chants épiques: a cycle of narrative poems, published in two books from 1896 to 1898, which the author never ceased to rework. The poem he devotes to Beethoven, the future Cis moll, is placed under a phrase of the composer's about fate knocking at the door; through the fate of great artists, Beethoven or Michelangelo, the author often speaks of himself. His later editions make room for poems drawn from village legends, such as Ralitsa, published in 1902.
Context
The first book appeared in 1896, during the author's studies in Germany, and the second in 1898, the year of Blyanove; the successive states of the cycle do not contain the same pieces. Svetlana Stoycheva shows that the poem on Beethoven, published in 1892 in a review under the title Fis-dur, received its epigraph in 1896 and its definitive title in 1902. The cycle belongs to the aesthetic individualism that the author defended with the Missal circle, and to his taste for popular song.
Who it is for
A collection to be taken piece by piece; no French or English translation of the cycle has been found.
Prizes and reception
The first major book of a poet who, with his father, brought European ideas into Bulgarian literature.