site.btaPoet Boris Hristov at 80: A Voice Beyond the Mainstream

Renowned Bulgarian poet Boris Hristov turns 80 on August 14. As Bulgaria marks this literary milestone, it’s worth recalling the words of another great writer, Radoy Ralin, who once said that Hristov was to literature what his opera-singer namesake was to the world of opera.

Boris Hristov was born on August 14, 1945, in Krapets, Pernik Region, Southwestern Bulgaria. He graduated in Bulgarian Philology from Sts Cyril and Methodius University of Veliko Tarnovo in 1970. He worked as a teacher in Pernik from 1971 to 1972. Until 1981, he was a screenwriter and editor at the Boyana Film Studios, and from 1982 he became an editor at the literary almanac Struma. Since 1992, he has also worked as a journalist and editor for Feniks magazine.

His literary debut came in 1975 with a cycle of poems titled On the Seventh Day, published in the anthology Three Young Poets alongside Parush Parushev and Ekaterina Tomova.

A bold debut: Evening Trumpet

His first standalone poetry collection, Evening Trumpet (1977), was met with acclaim in literary circles. It was considered a striking and exceptional event in then communist Bulgaria, where literature was dominated by ideological constraints and prescriptive norms.

Hristov’s unconventional creative voice aligned him with dissident circles. Nonetheless, Evening Trumpet saw a second edition in 1979, with an impressive print run of 3,200 copies, virtually unheard of for a debut poetry book at that time. His penetrating verse captivated readers and earned praise from critics, paving the way for invitations to editorial boards and international projects, including the International Writing Program in Iowa, US, in 1984.

A literary voice across genres

His second poetry collection, True Cross (1982), was also a success and marked a turning point in his creative path. After this, Hristov expanded into prose, although he never completely turned away from poetry. Following the democratic changes of 1989, more poetic works appeared, including the anthology The Wings of the Messenger (1991), translated into English, Words Upon Other Words (1992), Evening Trumpet. True Cross (2000), and Poetry (2004).

Hristov is also the author of the novel The Father of the Egg (1987), which was adapted into a film of the same name by director Henri Kulev. He went on to publish several more prose volumes and wrote screenplays for numerous feature, documentary, and animated films, including The Ship (1980), The Death of the Hare (1982), I Dream of a Music (1983), and Labyrinths (1984).

Both his literary output and screenplays were largely realized, distributed, and fully appreciated only after the end of Bulgaria’s totalitarian regime on November 10, 1989.

His poetry has been translated into English, German, Russian, Italian, and Hindi. He has given solo recitals in Toronto, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Athens, Munich, Hamburg, Delhi, and Warsaw.

Withdrawal and contemplation

Since the mid-1990s, Hristov has lived in the mountain village of Leshten, near Gotse Delchev in the southwest of Bulgaria, where he and his wife work creatively in various artistic disciplines, far from the distractions of urban life. This retreat mirrors one of the key themes in his body of work: withdrawal. Since then, his public appearances have been rare.

One such occasion was November 30, 2000, when he travelled to Sofia to receive the Grand Prize for Literature from Sofia University. He became the second recipient of the award after the eminent writer and historian Prof. Vera Mutafchieva. Another was on May 29, 2009, in Plovdiv, where he accepted the Orpheus Wreath, awarded by the “Plovdiv Reads” Literary Festival.

A career of accolades and integrity

Hristov has received multiple prestigious literary awards, including:

• The Nikola Furnadzhiev National Poetry Prize (2009)
• The Grand Prize of the Peroto Literary Club (2015)
• The National Vazov Prize for Literature (2020)
• The Yavorov Poetry Award (2023)
• The Ivan Dinkov National Poetry Prize (2024)

Boris Hristov may have accepted literary and academic awards, but he has declined state honours. In 2010, he refused the Order of Sts Cyril and Methodius, First Class, which the Bulgarian government had decided to award him for his outstanding contributions to culture and the arts. In an open letter, Hristov explained that the government's proposal conflicted with a personal decision he had made long before the fall of communism in Bulgaria—to decline all state honours, regardless of the political party in power.

Below is one of Hristov’s signature poems, translated into English by Stefan D. Stefanov:

EVENING TRUMPET

Under flaming sun life fiddles with us
      we rub out our feet from the hot stone...
But when evening descends from the heavens,
      I’ll take my trumpet and sit on the threshold.
Enough have I wandered around those walls
      like the chime of a bell that was broken.
I have to play it, I have to tear down
      the silence – and let but the cry to persist.
I want the wind torrid to howl and
      to blast wide open the doors.
I want the earth to start marching anon
      after the crusade of the crickets.
I want the barbed wire round your home
      with my song to sever.
I want the neighbour that pretends
      to be deaf to recover his hearing.
I want the thief his fingers to tie,
      the warden a heart to buy for himself.
I want some of my tears to shed
      into the eye that is rusting.
I want the fair to us to return
      again – to sweep off the dust.
I want him to die of laughter and tickle
      who is dying of boredom.
I want us over the dead
      to keep sentry till morning.
I want to all sleepers to say:
      there is time enough to be sleeping...
I have to play in the numb night
      until I hear coming to me
The voice of a thousand trumpets distant.
      Or of an archangel invisible.