VALERI PETROV PASSED AWAY

Valeri Petrov, one of the most prominent Bulgarian poets, script writer, author of plays and translator died on 27th of Auguist, at the age of 94, in Sofia Military Hospital.

Loved by many generations of Bulgarians, the favourate author will be missed and forever remembered for his creative contribution to Bulgarian literature and film art.

Valeri Nissim Mevorah, better known by his pseudonym Valeri Petrov, was born on April 22, 1920 in Sofia.

The master of the written word has left a heritage of wisdom, love and optimism on the hundreds of pages of his work. He was a source of inspiration as he wrote and translated until his last breath and never lost his sense of humour and optimism.

In recognition of his enormous work, Valeri Petrov received many awards. He was a winner of the European Citizen’s Prize of the European Parliament, received “Askeer” award for overall achievements in theatre art, Yavorov Award and Botev award for poetry and recognitions of his excellence in the field of Bulgarian film art. One of the most recent stage plays, “The Heart is a Pawnbrokers Shop” is based on his poems.

At the age of 15, Valeri Petrov published his first book “Ptitsi kam sever” ("Birds Northwards"). Later he wrote the poems “Palechko ("Tom Thumb"), Na pat ("En route"), “Kray sinyoto more” ("By the Blue Sea"), Tavanski spomen (“A Reminiscence from an Attic").

Besides being a great poet, Valeri Petrov also proved to be an exceptionally talented author of books for children and adults, film scripts and is recognized as one of the best translators of William Shakespeare’s works from English into Bulgarian. He was also a translator from German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.

He is the author of the screenplays of the films “A shooting Day”, "On the Small Island", "A Knight without an Armour", “Yo Ho Ho” and other. The plays “When Roses Dance”, “Theatre, My Love” and “To Put it Mildly” remain masterpieces on stage.

In the autumn and winter of 1944 when Bulgaria joined the Allies in the Second World War, he worked at Radio Sofia and then as wartime writer with the “Frontovak” newspaper (“Front Fighter”). After the war, he became one of the founders and deputy chief editor of the humour and satire newspaper “Starhsel“(“Hornet”) (1945-1962). He also served as a doctor in a military hospital. From 1947 to 1950 he worked in the Bulgarian Embassy in Rome as a press and culture attaché.

The great poet was elected an MP in the Seventh Grand National Assembly.

He was entered in the honorary list of the International Council for Children’s Book and was nominated for the Nobel Prize. Since 2003, he is an academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Science.