His poems began as a thought that should not be lost. In the camp on the island of Persin near Belene, Yosif Petrov composed them in his mind, repeated them until he remembered them, and after his release he wrote them down and hid them in jars buried in the ground. Decades later, these texts would appear in the book “Cry from Hard Labor“.
On October 16, 2004, the poet died at the age of 95. He was born on May 14, 1909 in the village of Chiren, Vratsa region, and from a young age he combined teaching, literature and public life. He graduated from the Secondary Mechanical Engineering School in Sofia, studied “Consulate and Diplomacy“ at the Free University, and later worked for about 30 years as a teacher of electroplating. He was also a Humboldt scholar in Germany.
Poetry between freedom and silence
The first collection of poems by Yosif Petrov – “Native Land“ – was published in 1939. Until 1948, he published more books, but after that there was a long period in which his work remained outside the official literary life. The reason was also his political position as a participant in the agricultural opposition.
After the events in Hungary in 1956, Petrov was sent to the camp on the island of Persin, where he spent about three years. There the poems were born, which would later make up “Cry from Hard Labor“. He himself says that he kept them in his memory because he had no safe way to store them.
„Poetry is my second life“
After the changes of 1989, Yosif Petrov's books began to reach readers again. In addition to „Cry from the Hard Labor“, he published „Different Variegated Flowers“, „You Called Me, My Native Village“, „Laughter and Bile“ and „Decamerons Like Candy”. His poems combine personal memories, camp pain, humor, and anxiety about the fate of Bulgaria.
In 2002, the poet briefly formulated his life credo:
„Modesty, honesty, hard work, thrift.“The words are part of a conversation in which he defines poetry as „his second life“ and speaks of his greatest pain - Bulgaria.
From literary silence to the parliamentary rostrum
Yosif Petrov remains in memory not only as an author. In 1990, he opened the first session of the Seventh Grand National Assembly as its oldest member and honorary chairman. In his speech, he defined the assembly as being called upon to lay the foundations of a “new, free, independent, democratic and legal state“.
In 2000, he was awarded the “Stara Planina“ Order - first degree. But the most unusual image of Yosif Petrov remains that of the man who turns memory into a refuge: he writes poems without paper, keeps them for decades and finally returns them to readers.
Sources: btvnovinite.bg, literaturensviat.com, artoteka.bg