Valeri Petrov


Valeri Petrov, was a popular Bulgarian poet, screenplay writer, playwright and translator of paternal Jewish origin.

Early life

Born in the capital Sofia to lawyer Nisim Mevorah and high-school French teacher Mariya Petrova, Valeri Petrov studied at the Italian School in the city, finishing in 1939. He graduated in medicine from Sofia University in 1944.

Languages

Valeri Petrov was fluent in Bulgarian, English, Russian, German, Italian and Spanish. His English language was at such a high level that he translated the complete works of Shakespeare. He probably knew also French and Hebrew.

Poet and playwright

When he was 15, Petrov published his first independent book: the poem Ptitsi kam sever. In this and subsequent publications he used his non-Jewish mother's surname or other pseudonyms because of the pro-Nazi regime in Bulgaria at the time. He later wrote the poems Palechko, Na pat, Juvenes dum sumus, Kray sinyoto more, Tavanski spomen and the series Nezhnosti.
In 1978, Petrov wrote the children's musical Button for Sleep. He is particularly esteemed for the quality of his translation of the entire works of Shakespeare - the authoritative rendition of the Bard in Bulgarian.

Journalist

In the autumn and winter of 1944, when Bulgaria switched sides and joined the Allies in the Second World War, Valeri Petrov worked first at Radio Sofia and then as a wartime writer with the newspaper Frontovak. Following the war, he was among the founders of the humoristic newspaper Starshel and its assistant editor-in-chief. He served as a doctor in a military hospital and in the Rila Monastery.
Between 1947 and 1950, Petrov worked in the Bulgarian legation in Rome as a press and cultural attache. During the time he travelled to the United States, Switzerland and France, delegating to various forums.
He was also an editor in a film studio and in the Balgarski pisatel publishing house. He served as a deputy in the Grand National Assembly. Since 2003, he was an academician of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. Politically, he was a leftist and a socialist since his schooling in the Third Bulgarian Kingdom, through the Communist period, and until his death.

Death

On 27 August 2014, Petrov died from a stroke in a Sofia hospital. He was 94.

Works

in Graham Land, Antarctica is named after Valeri Petrov.