Burgas Free University began this year's Month of the Enlighteners with a lecture and discussion at its Faculty of Education and Humanities. The university is named after Prof. Dr Asen Zlatarov. The speaker was Prof. Eugenio López Arriazu of Argentina, the first translator of Hristo Botev into Spanish.
The faculty marks the month every year, but it has never opened it with a guest like this.
Prof. Arriazu heads the Department of Slavic Literatures at the University of Buenos Aires. He is a Slavic scholar, poet, writer and translator, and speaks five languages. He has written academic works and collections of essays and poems. His historical novel "Lembý" recently came out in Bulgarian.
He gave the lecture in fluent Bulgarian. He spoke about his university in Buenos Aires, a city of many millions, how hard it is to get to know a people through its literature, and what it takes to translate classics from their original language into another.
The hall filled with lecturers, students and admirers of the guest. When the lecture ended, the questions kept coming.
He came to Burgas at the invitation of Prof. Nelya Ivanova, who has taught linguistics at the university for many years. Prof. Nadezhda Kaloyanova, the dean of the faculty, introduced him.
The university was also linked to a literary prize in October. It put forward Prof. Yuliya Krasteva's nomination for the Dobri Chintulov prize of Sliven, and she won it.
Prof. Arriazu left with an invitation to visit Bulgaria and the university again.