The poems of Ivan Vazov

At the beginning of 1884, for several months, three poems by Vazov were published one after the other on the pages of the newspaper "Narodniy Glas" and the magazine "Nauka". These are "Sallust's Sneeze", "Sinai Rose" and "In the Kingdom of the Samodivs" - titles that in themselves already suggest something new about the author's searches in the field of poetry. And indeed, all three works lead us into new areas of life, beyond the boundaries of folk life, from which the author had drawn material until now. Only "Sinai Rose" could be connected in a certain sense with the thematic scope of his previous poems - insofar as it depicts the fate of a Bulgarian girl, captured during the Russo-Turkish War and sold into slavery in the distant Sinai desert. But in spirit and style, this is a purely romantic work that has nothing to do with the tone and character of "Vidul", "Gramada", "Trayko and Riza", and "Zagorka". The poet who lifted the heavy burden of Trayko and called Ruska a "peony flower" is simply unrecognizable here.