Pencho Slaveikov’s Birthday

Pencho Slaveikov was born on April 27, 1866 in the town of Tryavna (central Bulgaria). He was the youngest son of Petko Rachev Slaveikov. Pencho studied in Tryavna and Stara Zagora where his father was a teacher. The memories of the Russo-Turkish War, which he survived in Stara Zagora, were later materialized in his Karvava Pesen (Bloody Song). After the end of the war he moved to Sliven, and later to Veliko Tarnovo. At the end of 1879 the family settled in Sofia, where Pencho Slaveikov studied until 1881. He continued his education in Plovdiv. In January 1884 after an accident he came down with a bad disease. Despite the long treatment in Plovdiv, Sofia, Leipzig, Berlin and Paris, he still had incurable injuries – hard walking (he used a walking stick), writing and speaking were difficult. After a three-month fight with death Slaveikov sank in gloomy thoughts and had melancholy fits. At the beginning of 1890s another trend of Slaveikov’s poetic thought appeared – deep absorption in the world of historic characters, great authors, heroes of spirit. In 1892 in the Misal (Thought) Magazine appeared the first editing of the poems Cis moll, Sarce na Sarcata (Heart of Hearts), Uspokoenia (Reliefs), Frina. He lived in various cities abroad. The strong spirit oppression worsened his health. Slaveikov made heroic efforts to work. At the end of November he went to Italy – his longest stay was in Rome for three months. At the end of May 1912 he went to the resort village of Brunate at the Como Lake, where he died on May 28. For his untimely death the Nobel committee did not take in mind the proposal of the Swedish professor Al. Jensen (translator of Bloody Song) to reward Slaveikov a Nobel Prize. Slaveikov was buried in the village graveyard and his bones were brought to Bulgaria in 1921.