Nikolay Donchev

At the end of 1961, a "panorama" of contemporary literatures in the world was published, very luxuriously published in Paris in French by the well-known publishing house Hachet. The book is included in a series entitled "From the World", edited by Jean-Claude Hubert, with a foreword by the famous French essayist Roger Caillois, director of the Department of Literature and Art at UNESCO. "Contemporary Literatures in the World" is a collective work, carried out with the cooperation of twenty-one writers, among whom are the names of prominent French critics and connoisseurs of foreign literatures.

1963 Book 3 Henri Barbusse, humanist writer and soldier of peace

Poets are less fortunate than prose writers in that, due to the structure of their original speech, they are more difficult to reach for a foreign reader. The translation of a poem far exceeds the difficulties posed by the translation of a work of fiction into prose. That is why there is a great discrepancy in the popularity of poets and prose writers. While a poet of great magnitude, Alberto Moravia, has long since crossed the borders of his homeland through the translations of his novels, a Giuseppe Ungaretti is known abroad to a very narrow circle of readers, mainly poets. I believe that we can more easily imagine contemporary Italian literature without Moravia than today's Italian poetry without Ungaretti. For the author of "The Buried Port", of "A Sense of Time", of "Alegria" is a moment in the development of contemporary Italian and European poetry.

The last three months of each year are some of the busiest in French literary life. During these three months, French publishers compete to publish new books, mainly novels, which participate in the great competition for the Goncourt, Théophraste Re-Nodo, Femina, Enteralie, Medici prizes... This revival of the literary market causes considerable concern to literary critics in the pages of the authoritative Parisian newspapers and weeklies such as Le Monde, Le Figaro Literaire, Le Nouvelle Literaire, Le Lettre Française, Carrefour, and Express. Often, the pages of these newspapers carry out that "triage" that greatly facilitates the final decisions of the numerous juries called upon to determine the lucky laureates from among the large number of candidates. Of course, sometimes factors that are more interested in the material side also influence the selection of laureates - these are the publishers, who have their own connections in the composition of the committees themselves. Naturally, this is no secret. The competition in this regard is great, the tension is strong. Because - what does it mean for an author, for his novel and therefore for his publisher to be awarded the Goncourt Prize, the monetary value of which is only five thousand old French francs or today's fifty... This means a dizzying rise in the barometer of circulation: from the initial five thousand copies, the "awarded" book begins to be published in successive editions of a thousand copies each, to reach a circulation of over one hundred, two hundred and often three hundred thousand copies. Would Françoise Sagan - despite the advertising of her publisher Julier - have reached half a million copies or even more if she had not received the critics' prize and if - this is also of great importance in France - the laudatory words of Françoise Mauriac and the late eminent literary critic Robert Kemp had not appeared in print for her first book, "Good afternoon, sadness"! Indeed, Françoise Sagan was a rare exception in terms of the circulation of her books, since not only her award-winning novel marked a record number in sales (810 thousand), but also her subsequent books: "A Famous Smile" and "In a Month, in a Year" marked impressive figures in their circulation: the first 500 thousand, the second 400 thousand.

The Syndicate of Literary Critics in France published a volume of the materials of the First International Colloquium of Literary Critics, held in Paris from 4 to 8 June 1962. The Syndicate of Literary Critics is an association founded in 1948 by the late prominent literary critic Robert Kemp, who was its chairman until his death in 1959. This syndicate took the initiative for the first international meeting of literary critics, with the participation of representatives from sixteen countries, including the USSR and the USA. Representatives from the socialist countries: Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary, also attended the meeting. The meeting was opened on June 4 with a welcoming speech by the Director General of the Department of Literature and Art at the Ministry of Culture, Gaëtan Picon, himself a renowned literary critic and essayist, author of a number of works such as "Panorama of New French Literature", "Panorama of Contemporary Ideas", "Introduction to an Aesthetics of Literature", etc. In his welcoming speech, Gaëtan Picon also developed some thoughts on the role and mission of literary criticism, stating, among other things: "One is struck by the insight and depth of contemporary criticism. Our good teachers of the last century would be surprised if they read some of today's critics. Rimbaud would not have felt any surprise at all before René Chard, nor Baudelaire before Henri Michaux, but Jules Lemaître, of course, or the very perceptive Sainte-Beuve would have felt a certain surprise before the methods of Georges Poulet, Maurice Blanchot, Roland Barthes, and even - despite the clarity of the vision - before the writings of a Curtius or a Marcel Raymond.

It cannot be said that Bulgarian literature is known in Western European countries. This is most clearly demonstrated by the sometimes very strange notes that appear in some Western publications, and serious ones at that, such as "Larus Mansuel" for example, about our literature, in which, in addition to gross factual errors, we also find such assessments that directly arouse both bewilderment and a smile. Wasn't the short essay on Bulgarian literature in the luxurious edition of the large Parisian publishing house Hachet "Contemporary Literatures in the World", which was also promptly noted on the pages of "Literary Thought", really simply comical? But was there not some intention here, in the article by this author, Bernard Georges? Many things that this text contained give us decisive grounds to assume some intention.

The First World War had already ended when, in mid-1919, I took off the epaulette of a hastily made second lieutenant. Then, during this unfortunate war, which brought so much suffering and deprivation to the people, from the so-called "school for reserve second lieutenants" in Knyazhevo, after a few months of training, candidate officers emerged, who were immediately sent to the fronts and to the rearguard. From Ruse, where I was demobilized, in semi-civilian clothes, I found myself in Sofia to enroll in university. In Sofia, the aftereffects of the war that ended catastrophically for Bulgaria were keenly felt. Poverty in material life, heartbreak and despair in spiritual life! The people reacted strongly, possessed by anger against those responsible for the catastrophe. Foreign troops were marching through the streets of the capital, the French general Chrétien was in charge of the country... The national poet Ivan Vazov had published a small collection of poems under the title "It Will Not Perish!" to encourage his people, to bring serenity to their deeply troubled souls, to restore their faith in more glorious days:

In 1922, the twenty-year-old Kazi published his first book under the title "The Blue Chrysanthemum". Svetoslav Minkov published his first book with Dimir Polyanov, born three years earlier. He debuted alongside the then-young Vla. The latter's collection of short stories was entitled "Death". Not long after, their names appeared on the pages of the magazine "Zlatoroga", around which some of the most famous writers of the time were grouped. Minkov's friends liked to joke about the title of his book, asking him in which garden he had seen a "blue chrysanthemum", when chrysanthemums are usually yellow and white. Of course, the joke did not irritate or anger Minkov, he accepted the tease with that typical Minkov smile, in which there was both shyness and mystery. He did not answer with words, he was by nature silent, I would even say withdrawn into himself. In those years, Minkov still loved meetings in the shady Sofia pubs, and there among friends, in the haze of tobacco smoke, in front of a glass of wine, he became talkative and spoke, rather told things, sometimes very bizarre, incredible, in which he seemed to believe, because what he said had an accent of faith, of conviction. But he was funny.

The last two or three months of the year bring a special excitement to French literary life. Numerous publishing houses are in a race to release new books, mainly books by young writers, by debutants, who participate in the competition for literary prizes. The tension reaches its peak in the second half of November, when the first literary prizes are announced. Before that, all sorts of "predictions" are made, guesses about one or another author, about one or another book. Of course, these suggestions also provide guidance, and often the literary prizes are awarded to some of the names that have already been launched. A healthy tradition has already been established in this regard, which, during this small section of the end of the year, causes a certain increase in interest among the public in the literary production offered to it. Literary barometers show the coefficient of sales of various books, among which novels occupy first place. On the competitive field, so to speak, they are at the forefront.

We know under what circumstances and when Nikola Vaptsarov wrote his two death poems: "Farewell", dedicated to his wife, and "The Fight is Mercilessly Cruel". The poet wrote under them the date July 23, 1942 and the hour - 2 p.m., on the very eve of his execution. The excitement that overwhelms us when we read these two poems of two stanzas is irresistible: they sound in our hearts and memories, vibrate as if each verse is a string, constantly vibrating under the pressure of a feeling, immeasurable in its depth, a sublimation of a shaking lyricism. Perhaps before Vaptsarov, only in Botev - in his "Farewell" - do we find such dramatic tension and feel such a conquering power of the lyrical wave.

Choosing November to stay in Paris has, on the one hand, the convenience that cultural life has already begun there, people are in their places, theaters and various institutions related to science, literature, art are open; on the other hand, it is - in terms of weather - the most fickle month, at that - unpleasantly cool, unwelcoming, with fog and rain that ties one hand to the umbrella, while with the other you have to clutch under your arm the bag with the address book, with all sorts of notes, with one or another purchased book... The "metro" card should also be at hand, because, although the fares have increased, it still remains the most convenient and cheapest means of transport.

The French moralists, to whom the late Gerard Boer dedicated a book of insightful essays a few years ago, are, compared to other French writers, little known in our country. In the past, perhaps the only one of our great writers, Stoyan Mihaylovsky, showed a constant and lively interest in the French moralists, with whose "Maxims and Reflections" he liked to embellish his original writings. But Mihaylovsky did not deal with translations, in order to give us "selected pages" at least from those authors in whom he found a rich source of creative inspiration. In our periodicals of the past, fragments of the work of the French moralists are occasionally found, among whom La Bruyere and François de La Rochefoucauld are the most famous. Joubert, Chamfort and Vovnard, who lived later than the first two, are comparatively much less known in our country. Even Mikhailovsky, who was more carried away by the "reflections" of a certain Madame Svechin and whom he often quoted in his own writings, did not seem to have shown any particular interest in Joubert and Vovnargh. The latter, who had a short life, as he died at only 32 years old (1715-1747), compared especially to La Bruyere and La Rochefoucauld, is the most optimistic: Vovnargh believed in the noble impulses of the human heart and in the purity of its passions. Last year, a young French essayist and critic, Henri Bonnier, published Vovnargh's works in two volumes at the Hachet publishing house in Paris. It is also interesting to note that Vovnargh in one of his texts criticized some of La Rochefoucauld's "maxims."

One of the interesting facts that characterizes the development of our national literature in the period after September 9, 1944, and especially in the last two decades, is the growing interest abroad in the work of our writers and, along with this, the increasingly active exchange between the People's Republic of Bulgaria and other countries - socialist and non-socialist - in the field of culture.

The anniversaries of the birth or death of great and notable personalities, connected through their work with a certain era in the history of the cultural conquests of humanity, are a good occasion to put us in a "dialogue with the past", as the prominent French literary historian Professor Jean Pomier titled one of his works, and to allow us to look at their ideas, concepts, and influences from the standpoint of our modernity, with a view to seeing the place they have in the panorama of their national literature, as well as in the general panorama of world literature.