The first Bulgarian kingdoms on European soil date back to the early Middle Ages.
The First Bulgarian Empire (632-1018) covered most of the Balkans and spread its alphabet, literature and culture among the Slavic and other peoples of Eastern Europe.
Around 1422, Bulgaria came under the rule of the Ottoman Empire.
In 1877/78, there was a war called The Russo-Turkish War. This somehow resulted in Bulgaria becoming established as a constitutional monarchy.
In 1945, Bulgaria became part of the Soviet Eastern Bloc.
In 1989, after the (appropriately named) Revolutions of 1989, the Communist party gave up its monopoly on power and Bulgaria transitioned into a democratic free-market capitalist system (at least in theory).
In 2007, Bulgaria became a member state of the EU.
***********
7,640,238 people live in Bulgaria (This makes Bulgaria the 94th most populous country in the world.).
Bulgaria’s ethnic breakdown goes like this:
84% Bulgarians
9% Turkish
5% Roma
2% “Other”
The official language of Bulgaria is (shockingly) Bulgarian. Bulgarian is a Southern Slavic language. It was the first Slavic language to be written down. Bulgarian uses a Cyrillic script. Here is the Bulgarian alphabet. According to Wikipedia:
Bulgarian demonstrates several linguistic innovations that set it apart from all other Slavic languages except Macedonian, such as the elimination of case declension, the development of a suffixed definite article, the lack of a verb infinitive, and the retention and further development of the proto-Slavic verb system. Various verb forms exist to express unwitnessed, retold, and doubtful action.
Bulgarians drive on the right side of the road.
82.6% of Bulgarians belong to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Countries Bulgaria is bordered by: Romania (to the north), Serbia and the Republic of Macedonia (to the west), and Greece and Turkey (to the south).
In recent years, Bulgaria has experience rapid economic growth; but it is still the second-poorest member state of the EU.
*********
OBLIGATORY TRANSLATIONS:
My eel is like a tiny hovercraft:
Моят змиорка е като една малка кораб на въздушна възглавница.
A rose is a rose is a rose.
Роза е роза е роза.
This is an excellent blog:
Това е една отлична блог.
Posts
After reading all three selections for today, I feel like Bulgarian (in comparison to Romanian and Moldovian) poets, or least the poems selected by the hopefully brilliant and unbiased editors, employ more ideas, images, etc that feel VERY poetic and maybe less spontaneous?. For example, "Apples", although beautiful, and so sad, invokes crickets, apples, grass. I think: Romantic, capital ‘R’, which is fine...but when I read, “And with toenail clippers you can cut the cables. The antennas. You can torment the mosquitoes along the banks of the Bahlui. You can create discomfort,” in “Bloody Bat Shit” I’m thinking Whoa, Nelly. Here’s some language. Here are about three layers of thought compressed into a couple of sentences/fragments. Maybe I mean that the language in the Bulgarian poems feels more familiar. This could be the work of the translator, or could be the Bulgarians' 'elimination of case declension, etc. (see above)’ that makes it read differently than R.'s and M.'s poetry selection. "The Clay Man" is great, and feels very political, "The fish doesn't believe that the net's hugging it,” while in “Apologetic Telegram” we are offered a moment like “kiss away my tears.” These moments are not as interesting to me, nor do they feel as specific and dark as the other two selections. Just an observation. No offense Bulgaria. With a 1, 2, 3 the responsibility is given to the Editors.
ReplyDeleteHey guys,
ReplyDeleterandomly came across this article and thought I should give my input since I am Bulgarian, now living it the US.
1st of all, when u say the 'Bulgarian Empire' and include dates like 632, you are wrong.
Facts tell us Bulgaria was NEVER an empire, nor did it exist before 681.
In Bulgarian schools, commie history teachers teach us a few questionable 'facts', like:
Bulgarians invented the slavic alphabet (WRONG)
Bulgarians invented the calendar (LOL... WRONG!)
Bulgarians invented the computer (WRONG)
Bulgaria is the oldest country in Europe (WRONG)
and so on...
So my point is that Bulgaria sucks, and when some1 tells u he's from Bulgaria, dont just say "awesome" or "cool", say "I'm sorry".