Райко

The 125th anniversary of the birth of Rayko Zhinzifov is a good occasion to look at him again as a poet and to indicate the place of his poetry in our literature, more precisely in our literary history, insofar as this place cannot yet be considered fully established. Our interest in our Revival, a truly important era in the development of our people, on the one hand, and our love for the literary heritage of those who created Bulgarian poetry, on the other, are a constant stimulus to return to his poetic image, to seek a living or historical meaning for his poems, to republish his poetic heritage, despite the voices of denial of his poetic gift that have been heard more than once. Assessments of Zhinzifov's poetry have been very contradictory since its appearance. While Lyuben Karavelov greeted the "New Bulgarian Collection", published in 1863, with a negative review (printed in the newspaper "Bulgarian Bee", issues 7, 8 and 9), Vasil D. Stoyanov pointed to its author as the most gifted among the young poets. This high assessment of Zhinzifov, given in an early critical study on contemporary Bulgarian literature, which remained unknown in our country because it was printed in Czech, in the central organ of Czech science and culture of that time - the Journal of the Czech Museum, is interesting. "Zhinzifov is still very young - writes here the future secretary of the Bulgarian Literary Society, which grew into the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences after the Liberation - and we can hope that in due time he will become a famous Bulgarian poet, and a lyrical poet, if Amor and the Bulgarian Villas do not abandon him. "1