Poetry
Моторни песни
Not translated into English
Nikola Vaptsarov · 1940
Opening lines
Ето — аз дишам,
работя,
живея
и стихове пиша
(тъй както умея).
Here I am: I breathe,
I work,
I live
and I write verse
(as best I can).
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from bg.wikisource.org
Synopsis
Twenty poems in four cycles: songs of man, songs of the homeland, songs, songs of a country. The speaker breathes, works, lives and writes verse as best he can; he measures himself harshly against life without hating it, and holds to a faith that will not be taken from him. Spring enters the factory like a young woman who wants to take the first shift; a stoker remembers a comrade who coughed as he shovelled coal; a letter reminds a former sailor of the sea and the engines.
Context
The author published the collection in 1940 at his own expense, under the name of Nikola Yonkov, in fifteen hundred copies; the censor removed a poem about Spain and cut the end of another. The opening poem, Foi, sets out its programme. The language mixes several registers, including everyday speech, to speak of the machine, which can enslave as well as free. On publication, the book received only a few friendly reviews, with no echo in the major criticism.
Who it is for
Short poems, often in spoken language; the collection does not exist in full in French, but selections have appeared with Seghers and with Baschet.
Prizes and reception
Translated into dozens of languages; his poems Foi and Lettre are on the syllabus of the Bulgarian maturity examination.
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