site.btaPreviously Untranslated Works by Polish Nobel Laureate Henryk Sienkiewicz to Be Presented in Sofia

The book From Deep Antiquity, which contains works by Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz (1846-1916) that have not been previously translated into Bulgarian, will be presented at the Polish Institute in Sofia on September 30, said the translator of the edition, Natalia Boyadzhieva, on Wednesday.

According to her, the book, published by Iztok-Zapad, offers a selection of works that expands, updates, and re-discovers the Nobel laureate’s presence in Bulgaria, uniquely revealing three key traits of his captivating creative world, presented in three parts.

The first part, “Gods and Men”, tells legendary and fairytale stories of the Ancient East and Antiquity and portrays encounters between the divine and human worlds, Boyadzhieva said. "Here, his love for the world of ancient civilizations is revealed—civilizations he recreates with deep, detailed knowledge and a poetic feel for their history and culture," she added.

The second part, "Let Us Follow Him", reflects Christian civilization and Polish spirituality. Sienkiewicz’s credo, according to the translator, is: “Love triumphs—in both the ancient and Christian worlds.”

According to Boyadzhieva, the third part, "Tales of the Polish Fate", includes stories that embody the author's strongest patriotic inspiration.

Henryk Sienkiewicz is remembered for his historical novels, such as the Trilogy series and especially for his internationally known best-seller Quo Vadis (1896). In 1905, he won the Nobel Prize for his lifetime achievements as an epic writer.

Natalia Boyadzhieva was born in 1960 in the Bulgarian Black Sea city of Varna. She graduated in Bulgarian and Russian philology at Konstantin Preslavsky University of Shumen. She worked for 35 years as a Bulgarian language and literature teacher in her hometown. Since 1990, she has also been a freelance journalist and a member of the Union of Bulgarian Journalists. In 2007, she received an interview award in the Golden Trident Journalism Competition, organized by the Press Journalists’ Society – Varna. She is the author of a short story collection about China, Light from the East, first published in 2016, with a second edition in 2019 and a third in 2024. Her second collection, The Faces of the Philippines, was published in 2018, with a second edition in 2022. Boyadzhieva translates from Russian, English, Polish, and Italian, and teaches these languages.