Vassil Levski
1837 - 1873

Idol | Biography | Beliefs | Nickname | Ritual | Poem | Grave
Vassil Levski

Flowers

   The poem The hanging of  Vassil Levski by Hristo Botev (see the box at right) expressively depicts the deep  grief and dark hopelessness after the death of Levski.  I post  below the poem in Bulgarian.  In my opinion, no translation will ever be able to convey the mood  of these verses. 

 

Yet, here it is, in English, provided by "Slovoto".

Hristo Botev
     Hristo Botev is another titan in the revolutionary movement during the Bulgarian revival, poet and writer, and the closest friend of Levski for the short period from the moment they first had met to the time of Botev's death on peak Vola in Vratza Balkan

     Everyone in Bulgaria, an adult or a child, knows Botev for his verse in the poem Hadji Dimitar:
"The one who falls in a fight for liberty never dies."

Botev's verse

 
ОБЕСВАНЕТО НА ВАСИЛ ЛЕВСКИ 

     О, майко моя, родино мила, 
     защо тъй жално, тъй милно плачеш? 
     Гарване, и ти, птицо проклета, 
     на чий гроб там тъй грозно грачеш ? 

     Ох, зная, зная, ти плачеш, майко, 
     затуй, че ти си черна робиня, 
     затуй, че твоят свещен глас, майко, 
     е глас без помощ, глас във пустиня. 

     Плачи! Там близо край град София 
     стърчи, аз видях, черно бесило, 
     и твой един син, Българийо, 
     виси на него със страшна сила. 

     Гарванът грачи грозно, зловещо, 
     псета и вълци вият в полята, 
     старци се молят богу горещо, 
     жените плачат, пищят децата. 

     Зимата пее свойта зла песен, 
     вихрове гонят тръни в полето, 
     и студ, и мраз, и плач без надежда 
     навяват на теб скръб на сърцето.

    This monument, standing in the center of Sofia today, is erected at the place where Levski's gallows was.  Then, in February 1873, this spot was in the outskirts of  Sofia, in a deserted field covered with pristine snow. The  blizzard tumbled briers in the field and the only sound was that of howling wolves

Levski's monumentin Sofia


 The hanging of Vasil Levski
                                                                            Boris Angelushev, 1942
 

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Created:  December, 1999

Updated: 11 November, 2011


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