Yavorov’s poetry with a bilingual translation edition in France

Even at a time when Bulgarian literature is increasingly translated into foreign languages, evaluated and awarded internationally, our feeling that we are not known abroad, seems to be unchanging. When it comes to poetry, we are even more « anxious » because of the difficulty of achieving the double horizon of anticipation: The translation should be adequate, close to the original and in meaning, and in accordance with the poetic style of the original.

I remember years ago that French Slavic Slavic Leon Robel shocked the youngsters as we were, with his claim that the translation of a work should be considered as composed by all, with various translations. I say it, since very recently Peyo Yavorov’s poetry in French appeared in a new and voluminous volume (more than 80 poems) of the Sirsce Publishing House.

The publishing house, which took the name of the ancient wizard Circea, fascinates with a rich catalog in different genres, with many poetic collections being translated, classic and contemporary, from Russian, German, Chinese, Serbian, English: Anna Ahmatova, Pad. A. PO, Elizabeth Bishop, and already translations from the Bulgarian poet Peyo Yavorov.

The decision of the publisher and the translators for bilingual presentation is highlighted. In fact, this is the perfect way to show poetry in a foreign language. Not everyone will be able to compare to the Bulgarian original, but the sense of authenticity is very strong in such an approach. It is often difficult for us to believe that poetry can sound fully in another language.

For Yavorov, a canonical author whom everyone teaches even at heart, we are likely to be even more demanding. The assessment of the common sound is still fair to leave the French, who will read the new anthology of Yavorov’s poems, with a new way translated his classic title « After the Shadows of the Clouds » (MARCHANT DERRIRE L’MBRE DES NUAGES). The edition was shaped graphically restrained, with an excerpt from the poem, and you were dying, brought from the front of the cover and with a portrait inside the volume, mirrored on the title page.

First, it is worth presenting the initiators of the new poem. Compilers and translators are: First Bilyana Mihailova, for whom many do not suspect her dedication to the translation of Bulgarian poetry into French, as they know her as a linguist, Associate Professor Dr. Balkan Studies at Sofia University « St. Kliment Ohridski ». She co -authored with the French poet Bris Pyotti, the author of four poems, the creator, along with the poet Cedric Demanjo (Cédric Demangeot) of the literary magazine for contemporary poetry Moriturus (2001-2005).

In his magazine, he has published both his poems and translations from contemporary foreign poets such as the Italians Sandro Pena and Giorgio Capron and the American Robert Creeley. Here is the Brice Potti is already a translator in co -authorship and of Bulgarian poetry.

The preface introduces Yavorov’s work with several major accents. The special place of the poet in Bulgarian literary history, his characteristic anxiety and his ability to express the wisdom of the modern man from the beginning of the twentieth century is emphasized. The environment is outlined by which the poet manages to improve, the circle « thought », his readings, his translations, the connection with the French modernists and the Belgian symbolism.

Through the cited assessment of this poet by another poet, Atanas Dalchev, the characteristic of Yavorov’s « doubt » and the restless search for the exit from the mental suffering, the horror of being lonely, and never alone, has been highlighted. Translators also attract attention to other statements of Yavorov made before Mikhail Arnaudov, about the genesis of his poems, for the musical state he falls into when he begins to work. The citing poems have outlined the main topics in his creative world.

On the publishing site we read about Yavorov that it is « The first great representative of Bulgarian modernism », which « changes radically Bulgarian poetry ». And also that « Yavorov’s creativity cannot be separated from his own tragic fate, which destroys the boundaries between the personal and the public to turn the poet’s existence into a myth, the most dramatic and lasting myth in Bulgarian literary history. »

The choice of poems to embody this myth contains both the early works of the poet and his Sleeplessand his cycle InsightS The book at the end also includes several poems unlitted by Yavorov himself. Two letters were added to the poetic selection to Dora Gabe, a letter to Mina Todorova, the death letters of Yavorov to Dr. Kr. Krastev and Todor Alexandrov, as well as an unfinished resume told by Yavorov himself to Vladimir Vasilev.

This extension directly inserts the French reader into the existence of the Creator, shows his relationship with other poets, with his comrades from the Macedonian movement, and also outlines his pedigree and his path from a silent child to a commercial family to the crowned literary circles.

Without analyzing the translations in detail, I will point out that Poems sound fully in FrenchS Initially, the transfer of Bulgarian classical poetry to the French language and a cultural tradition inevitably confronted the transfer from the transfer from the silabotonic to the silabic system. Translators are looking for maximum adequacy regarding the ideas and images of the Bulgarian poet.

Bilinguality obliges and this is probably the idea – the French reader has access to the full meaning of the works, without compromise because of the formal aspects of the verse. The translations are even played with the French vocabulary to be corresponding to Javr’s word -made: for example, « enemy I am enemied », « good blessing », « god God » find their French couples.

In the poems, which are generally defined as symbolic, the depth, the fine nuanced of thought and the expression of gentle longing or split is achieved, the sense of play repetitions in the structure of the poems. So in works as Sigh, two nice eyes, magician, come!, Meet, idyll, in vain, mother, longing Others of the « Insomnia » cycle, the faithful vocabulary and poetic spirit was found. The « insights » also achieved the grief and hopeless Yavor thought, such as especially in I suffer, a ring with opal, a whisper alone, at the time of the blue fogS

The split of the Bulgarian poet in complex mental states has caused translators to seek solutions close to the French symbolic vocabulary, melodic and imagery. The Yavor poems in the new translation book, more than a hundred years after its creation, sound harmonious for today’s French audience.

Peyo Yavorov. MARCHANT DERRIRE L’OMBRE DES NUAGES. Poèmes. Traduit du Bulgaria et présenté par Bilyana Mihailova et brice Petit. Circé: 2024, 271 p.