Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.
~John Wain
In the past I have featured folk ensembles named Horo. Here is another group with that name from Kozloduy, Bulgaria.
The town of Kozloduy is best known as the place where Hristo Botev landed after hijacking the Austrian steamship Radetsky on his way to Bulgaria from Romania to organize an anti-Ottoman uprising. He was shot and killed on June 1, 1876 near Vratsa.
Hristo Botev was one of the key figures in the overthrow of Ottoman rule in his country, and is much revered by the Bulgarian people. He left a legacy of revolutionary poetry.
There is a replica of the Radetsky docked in Kozloduy, now used as a museum ship. It houses memorabilia of Hristo Botev. The Austrian
shipping company destroyed the original Radetsky in 1924. Forty years later, a group of school children raised money to build a replica, to be used as a museum, which opened in 1966.
In video #1 the group dances on the deck of the Radetsky. They wear dresses instead of traditional Bulgarian folk costumes. (How can they dance so well on those high heels?) It looks like they're doing a dance from the northern folklore region; if anyone out there can name that dance, please post it in the comments section.
In video #2 the dancers remind me of bees in their yellow T-shirts and black pants. The dance is Sitno Selsko za Poyas (za poyas means belt hold) from the Shope folklore region. It's similar to another dance from that area: Graovsko Horo.
Video #3 is a medley of two dances: the Vlach Trei Pazeste and Sitno Selsko (same dance as the previous video.)
There is also a group of dances from Romania with the name Trei Pazeste; there are different variations depending on the town they originated. The steps in Bulgarian Vlach dances are similar to dances in Romania.(See my post on Vidinsko Horo).
The ensemble is decked out again in yellow and black; in fancier costumes this time. If you want to skip the introduction and the logo, the dancing starts at 2:14.
There is no power over those who are ready to lose their lives in the name of freedom and the good of humanity.
- Hristo Botev
Today's "patron saint" of Bulgaria will be Hristo Botev, a poet and revolutionary who lived during the 19th century. He was born on January 6, 1848, and died in June 1876.
The combination of poet and revolutionary is often found in countries with a violent history. What is ironic is that poets, in general are usually very peaceful people, who despise violence and conflict. They are also idealists.
There are a number of countries with a literary history of revolutionary poets, such as Scotland (Robert Burns), Cuba (Jose Martí), China (Mao Zedong), and the United States (Phyllis Wheatley). Hristo Botev and Ivan Vazov (who will be mentioned later) are Bulgaria's contribution to the world of revolutionary poetry.
Hristo Botev died before the age of 30. He wrote 20 poems during his lifetime. Besides writing poetry, he was a teacher, writer, journalist, and revolutionary. He is considered a national hero in Bulgaria. Every year on June 2, the anniversary of his death, sirens sound at noon for several minutes and the entire country comes to a standstill. The city of Botevgrad is named after him, as well as a number of schools, sports stadiums, and even a program on the Bulgarian National Radio!
He was one of the key figures in the overthrow of Ottoman rule in his country, and is much revered by the Bulgarian people.
Bulgaria and a good portion of the Balkans had been under Ottoman Turkish rule for about 500 years, until the the end of the Russo Turkish War in 1878. Their rule was somewhat harsh; the Balkans have always been a hotbed for conflict, especially of the religious kind. The Turks were Muslim, and the Bulgarians, Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Bulgarians chafed under the Ottoman yoke; the Turks suppressed their religion and culture and taxed them heavily. They also took a number of Bulgarian boys away from their families and conscripted them into elite fighting units called the Janissaries. This did not sit well with the Bulgarians, either.
Hristo Botev's goal was to free his country from Turkish oppression. He was especially influenced by the Polish and Russian revolutionary movements and writers; nearly all his poetry was based on patriotic and revolutionary themes. Here is "The Hanging of Vasil Levski" in an English translation:
Vasil Levski was executed for spreading revolutionary ideas, and attempting to start an uprising, and this was Botev’s account of his death. It is very moving, graphic and sad. Poetry is emotion put on paper, and it’s not always about beautiful things. The description and its meaning to the poet, and to his readers, are what constitutes his message.
One of the most famous incidents in Bulgarian history, and one that was in part, responsible for the overthrow of Ottoman domination of Bulgaria, was the May, 1876 takeover of the Radetsky, in which Botev, accompanied with about 200 men, dressed as gardeners, hijacked an Austro-Hungarian steamship. He, with a group of revolutionaries, exiles, living in Romania, were fed up with the situation in Bulgaria, and decided the time was ripe to return home and overthrow the Turks. Their plan was to cross the Danube into Bulgaria and join other rebels in hiding in the Vratsa region. His group, disguised as laborers, boarded, and as soon as they left Romania, Botev made the following demands to the captain:
(translation from Wikipedia)
“Mr Captain! Dear passengers! I have the honour to notify you that Bulgarian rebels, whom I have the honour to be the voivode of, are located on this steamship. At the price of our livestock and our agricultural instruments, at the expense of great efforts and sacrifice of our goods, finally at the price of everything which is dear in this world (without the knowledge and despite the pursuit of the authorities in the country whose neutrality we respected), we have provided ourselves with what is necessary to us, in order to come to the assistance of our revolting brothers, who are fighting so brave under the Bulgarian lion for the liberty and independence of our dear Fatherland — Bulgaria. We pray to the Lord that the passengers do not worry at all and remain calm. As for you, Mr Captain, I have the hard duty to invite you to place the ship at our disposal until our very getting-off, while at the same time I declare that even your smallest resistance will put me in the sorrowful necessity to use force and against my will to revenge for the disgusting incident on board the Germany steamboat in Rousse in 1867. In one case or the other, our battle cry is the following: Long live Bulgaria! Long live Franz Joseph! Long live Count Andrássy! Long live Christian Europe!”
A poem by Ivan Vazov describes the Radetsky incident. Vazov was also a poet, writer, and revolutionary, and a contemporary of Botev. He lived long enough to see the Ottomans overthrown. Fortunately for him, he did not live to see the Nazis and later the Communists, since he died in 1921.
This is the poem "Radetsky" (translation found on Wikipedia, now deleted) by Vazov and a YouTube video of the song created from the poem. (Translations from Bulgarian can get a little strange but this one is actually quite good).
The placid white Danube is excited And splashing merrily, For the Radetzky is proudly sailing, On its golden waves. But as Kozloduy is sighted A horn sounds on the ship, A banner is unfurled. Young Bulgarian warriors Suddenly appear, On their foreheads lion badges, Ardour in their stare. Proudly there stood before them, Their leader young, And thus spoke he to the captain With bare sword in hand. ‘I am a Bulgarian voivod, And these are all my men. We are speeding now for freedom to spill our blood today. We are speeding to Bulgaria, To offer our help, And from oppressive tyranny To rescue her today.'
The captain, Dagobert Engländer, was quite taken with Botev’s demeanor and described him as personable and well-mannered. He was impressed with the Botev’s willingness to die for a noble cause, and agreed to his demands. He wished the revolutionaries well when they docked in the Bulgarian port of Kozloduy, and this was all accomplished peacefully, without bloodshed.
By the way, the ship was named after an Austro-Hungarian general, Joseph Radetzky von Radetz. He was immortalized in a march by Johann Strauss Senior, this is his most famous work, the Radetsky March. Every year (except for 2005) this piece has been the rousing finale of the yearly Vienna New Year's Day Concert. Another interesting fact: the composer was the father of the man who wrote that very famous waltz about the Danube :)
There is a statue of Radetsky in Vienna, and a town named Radetski in Bulgaria. Everyone in Bulgaria is familiar with the name Radetsky, and it’s written forever in their history books as well as Austria’s.
Here is the account of Botev's death from last year's Bulgarian National Radio entry on the Internet (which is no longer on their web site, so I have quoted it here).
At that point, when Bulgaria was in the fire of the April events, when the houses of the rebellious Bulgarians were set on fire and the bodies of the slaughtered lay unburied, 200 brave young men decided to cross the Danube River and return home to fight side by side with their compatriots. On May 29 they set off from Giugriu determined to fight for Bulgaria’s freedom. Hristo Botev was their leader. On May 30 they set foot on the Bulgarian bank of the River at the town of Kozloduy and headed for the Balkan Range. After heavy and unequal fighting with the Turkish police units and regular army, on June 2, just below Okolchitsa Peak, in the region of Vratsa, Northern Bulgaria, Botev’s detachment was inflicted the heaviest blow and its leader – Hristo Botev was killed in battle. He was only 27.
If you love Balkan music and dance you have come to the right place! The Alien Diaries began in February 2010 and is updated at least twice a month.
This blog is dedicated to the memory of my cat Fatso (see avatar), who passed away on April 9, 2011 from congestive heart failure. He was the inspiration for several of my early posts.
Don't forget to check out my second blog, Light and Shadow, for some humor, satire, photos and poetry!
