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Stefan Tsanev: "Most Importantly, There Was the Word ‘Freedom’ in Our Poems"

bta.bg · 4dShare

At 90, renowned Bulgarian poet and playwright Stefan Tsanev looks back on a literary career shaped by the idea of freedom. Speaking to BTA by phone on his birthday, Tsanev recalls how he and fellow poets introduced free verse and challenged the artistic rules of the time. "With free verse we broke the rules, which was the most important thing, and there was the word ‘freedom’ in our manifestos and in our poems," he said. For Tsanev, the 1960s remain among the brightest periods of his life - particularly 1962 and 1965, as well as the beginning of the 1970s. It was then, he said, that he and his fellow poets Konstantin Pavlov and Lyubomir Levchev helped change the course of Bulgarian poetry. "Then my friends and fellow poets Konstantin Balov and Lyubomir Levchev and I changed the style of Bulgarian poetry by introducing free verse into Bulgarian literature," Tsanev said. Free verse was largely absent from Bulgarian literature at the time, with only a few isolated examples by poet Elisave

First report: Stefan Tsanev at 90: Bulgaria's Unyielding Voice of Poetry and the Stage — bta.bg, 4d