Athanase Vantchev de Thracy is one of France’s greatest contemporary poets. His CV is impressive: 29 collections of poetry, written in classical and blank verse, comprising all forms of poetic expression, ranging from sonnets to hymns, various treatises and a doctoral dissertation on Paul Verlaine. This is just a sample of the work of a brilliant and prolific author, an outstanding intellect and polyglot - an honorary laureate of many national and international literary awards - and one of the best global messengers of Bulgarian culture.

I met him at the international conference entitled Bulgaria - a crossroad of civilisations and cultures at NDK on The Day of Buditelite (educators)"\, an auspicious date in history celebrating Bulgarian educators and scholars through the ages.

De Thracy is a rare bird - a creative man of outstanding talent unaware of his status as a living legend. He’s natural and spontaneous, full of humour and self-irony. He has the joie de vivre of a child prodigy, speaking about serious matters with his tongue firmly in his cheek.

"This is one of Bulgaria’s greatest holidays," he said apropos Buditelite, Bulgarians’ special spiritual holiday, Enlighteners’ Day. "Education is central to making the world a better place. I’m worried about the younger generation. They seem not to know enough about the best of their national heritage and they are mostly keen on ‘the shady part’ of Western culture, I would dare say the so called subculture. What’s the mission of Buditelite today? I think its mission is to awaken people to a more meaningful life, to boost their awareness of society, both locally and globally..."

Making Bulgaria first-rate
De Thracy deliberated aloud, interspersed with poetry in various languages. I reminded him of a good Bulgarian tradition in the spirit of Buditelite. After liberation from Turkish occupation, many young people were sent by their parents to study at university abroad to imbibe the best of western European culture. But many came back and served their country in the best possible way, contributing greatly to Bulgaria’s "retarded accelerated development".

"Yes, that’s right," said De Thracy. "Young Bulgarians who study and work abroad should be reminded of this Revival period tradition. And they should come back and share their Western experience to help turn Bulgaria into a first-rate EU country."

When I highlight the decline of Bulgaria’s educational system, citing corruption and cheating, De Thracy was vehement:

"This is not the practice in the West, both at school and university. There are rich values and traditions in education and they are strictly kept, both by teachers and students. But, sometimes, there are isolated negative cases. As at a university in the South of France where they traced a Chinese channel for buying diplomas. They were discovered very quickly and duly punished."

Temple of poetry
De Thracy alludes often to Bulgarian education and its longstanding importance ever since the Revival period.

"When I got a fellowship and arrived in Paris in the 1970s, I spoke the best French of all the foreign students. This speaks for itself about the quality of Bulgarian education.

Later, I was capable of using French creatively, writing my own poetry and translating the best Bulgarian poets, both classical and modern. I would like to single out one among the modern poets, Radko Radkov, who died recently. He is a bright star in world poetry. His love sonnets are comparable to Shakespeare’s and Petrarka’s. His verse historical dramas like Theofano are comparable to TS Eliot’s and they deserve to be produced in the best European theatres. I have translated many of his works and he already belongs to the pantheon of the great poets. So, he is there to live forever."

It was time for De Thracy to read his essay, dedicated to the image of the rose in the history of world poetry.

"Could you name a dream of yours, still to be fulfilled?" I asked him.

"Certainly, I have such a dream!" he said, laughing like a mischievous boy, his eyes acquiring a roguish sparkle. "I dream of having a temple built, a temple to world poetry, provided with all the latest multimedia/state of the art/equipment. I’m sure it will make a difference to the souls of those who make a pilgrimage there. And this will make the world a better place, won’t it?"