Young poets. Parvan Stefanov. Hristo Fotev

I will not talk about the poems of Parvan Stefanov, written before 1956 and not included in his first book - as is known, out of the numerous songs of enthusiasm, he included in "Falcon Feathers" only one soldier's cycle. Therefore, I will say that he started from a relatively high level. To begin with, I will take his first poems from the newspaper "Narodna Mlazed" (1949), his first book, which appeared in 1956. It was a time when he was one of the most popular young poets. His poem "The Stone Boy" (in Russian translation) received the prize of the Fifth World Festival of Youth and Students in 1955, it was read and copied, recited on every occasion, and the 24-year-old author left for Warsaw, from where he brought a notebook of poems and a love for Chopin's homeland, to whose fate and poetry he would permanently join. I say this because it is impossible to explain the entire subsequent development of Parvan Stefanov without the beneficial impact of his Polish meetings and experiences, predetermined by the happy decision of the festival jury. What made "The Stone Boy" appeal to the members of the jury and especially to its chairman - the prominent Turkish poet Nazum Hikmet? If we now read the collection "Falcon Feathers", we will find other, more mature poems, such as "Accident", "The Dance of the Negro" (it enjoyed success in literary readings), "Grass", "Ballad of the Three Fir Trees". Only now would it be the turn of "The Stone Boy" - it modestly takes its place among the good poems of the young poet. At that time, it bribed with its pure romance, connecting our dreams of today with the ideals of those who gave their young lives in the struggle. The concluding verse, revealing the true possibilities of the poet, has a special power: