Poetry
Жени и вино! Вино и жени
Not translated into English
Kiril Hristov · 1897
Opening lines
Прости мъртвило, роден край, прости!
Пред мене нов живот се днес открива,
Farewell, torpor, native land, farewell!
Before me today a new life opens,
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from chitanka.info
Synopsis
Women and wine! Wine and women!: the poet proclaims a new motto for life. He rejects the social and populist wisdom of his time, its ideals and the reasonable life, frees himself from public duties as from morality, and demands complete freedom for his passions. The emptiness of his native country weighs on him like a burden, and he takes his leave of it to go far away.
Context
The poem appeared in 1897 in the collection Trepeti under the simple title of Hymn, and received its own title only on passing into the collection Himni na zorata. Tsvetan Minkov sees in it the beginning of a poetry of personality, in youthful collections dominated by eroticism and a vitalist hedonism, which earned their author acclaim as a first-rate lyric poet; Lyubka Lipcheva-Prandzheva recalls that he is held to be the creator of Bulgarian erotic literature.
Who it is for
A few stanzas that are still recited; no French or English translation has been found.
Prizes and reception
Counted among the most popular and most frequently recited poems in the Bulgarian language.