The Bulgarian Reception of Jerzy Liebert: Bringing Him Out of the Shadows

Abstract

The article is structured as follows: its fi rst part is a review of the Bulgarian reception of Jerzy Liebert (until 2018), while the second focuses on new results (2018–2019). Emphasis is placed on the only translations of two poems by Liebert, which are included in The Modern Polish Poets anthology, published in 1967, – Foxes (Lisy) and Jurgov Pub (Jurgowska karczma). These were translated by one of Bulgaria’s best poets and translators, Parvan Stefanov. He belongs to the generation of so called “quiet lyric poetry” in Bulgarian literature, which mounts a lyrical opposition to the propagandist and ideologised poetry from the time of the communist regime. The amplifi cation of the reception of Liebert was actually the result of a voluminous Polish issue of Bulgaria’s leading Literary Newspaper titled “Polish Literature between the Two World Wars” (34/2018). This issue contains two new translations of poems by Liebert (The Rider/Jeździec, Love Verse/Wiersz miłosny) and the fi rst translated article on Liebert published in Bulgaria: Jerzy Liebert – The Ordinary Poet by Anna Marta Szczepan-Wojnarska. The subsequent corrections of the Bulgarian translation receptions of Liebert appear in the second and expanded edition (June 2019) of the anthology Polish Poetry between the Wars (ed. by Panayot Karagyozov), where a total fi ve new translations were: the aforementioned The Rider and Love and Verse I Learn from You, Human (Uczę się Ciebie, człowieku), The Beginning of Autumn (Początek jesieni), Snow (Śnieg). The new translations are by the author of this article.