Nikolai Liliev

(pseudonym of N. Popivanov). Born May 26, 1885, in Stara-Zagora; died Oct. 6, 1960, in Sofia. Bulgarian poet and cultural figure. Member of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (1945).

Liliev’s first works appeared in print in 1905. He will be remembered as a symbolist poet who managed to overcome much of the abstraction of symbolist poetics. Liliev’s verses are characterized by melodiousness, refined form, and pure language —for example, the collections Birds and Nights (1918), Moon Shimmer (1922), and Verses (1932). Liliev was head of the literary section of the National Theater in Sofia (1924–28 and 1934–60). He translated Shakespeare, Hugo, and Maeterlinck into Bulgarian.