About the Library > History > Pencho Slaveykov

Born on April 27,1866, in Tryavna Died on May 28, 1912, in Brunate, Italy

Publications: Momini salzi (1888); Epicheski pesni v.I (1896); Blyanove (1898); Epicheski pesni (1907); San za shtastie (1907); Na ostrova na blazhenite (1910); Karvava pesen (1911);

Pencho Slaveykov was born on April 27, 1866, in the town of Tryavna. After an upbringing in the country, he studied literature and philosophy in Germany (1892- 1908) and traveled widely despite being an invalid after 1884. Pencho Slaveykov, who was inspired especially by Goethe, Heine, and Nietzsche, as well as by the simple eloquence and realism of Bulgarian folk songs, is best known for his unfinished epic poem "Kurvava Pesen" ("Song of Blood"; written 1911-12; published 1913), which describes the sacrifices of the Bulgarian people in their struggle for the independence. He was also an outstanding essayist and translator of German literature. His poetry marks the beginning of an epoch in Bulgarian literature: he opened up man's inner world, he was interested in the individual, in suffering, in efforts to rise to the level of the superman, so that even in his epics on national themes he attacked problems of individual psychology. He returned to Bulgaria to become director of the National Library and the National Theatre, and to collaborate in the "Misal" review. His early death on May 28, 1912, in Brunate, Italy, where he had retired, driven by political intrigue, prevented his nomination for the Nobel Prize propozed by the Swedish Prof. Al. Yensen, translator of his "Song of Blood" and other works. An essay of his on Bulgarian folk poetry appeared in English in H. Bernard's Shade of the Balkans, 1904.