Is without a doubt
the most widely read, the most beloved as well as one of the earliest
collections of Bulgarian folk songs. This book was widely read not only
by our people, but by other Slavs as well. Thanks to it, the world
received a taste of the richness of Bulgarian folklore.
The Croatian Bishop Strossmayer (1815-1905) not only paid for the
publication of the book with his own money, but he urged the
Croatian intellectuals to buy the book and become acquainted with the
rich folklore of the Bulgarian people. It was at Bishop Strossmayer's
suggestion, that Konstantin used Cyrillic script in place of the Greek
letters in which the original text was transcribed.
Most of the 660 songs are from Macedonia and also included are various
customs, beliefs, games, proverbs, legends, riddles and names. Their work
was read by generations after them and left a lasting influence on their
compatriots. Konstantin Miladinov, in his introduction to "Bulgarski
Narodni Pesni", very aptly observed
The folk songs demonstrate the degree of intellectual
development of the nation, they are a mirror of its life.
The songs were collected between 1854 and 1860 mostly by the elder
brother, Dimitar, who taught in several Macedonian towns (Ohrid, Strouga,
Prilep, Koukoush, Magarevo, and Bitolya) and was able to put into writing
the greater part of the 660 folk songs. Most of the songs were recited by
women. A young woman in his native town of Strouga sang 150 songs for him.
The songs from the Sofia district were supplied by the Sofia schoolmaster,
Sava V. Filaretov (1825-1863). Those from Panagyurishte, recorded by
Marin Drinov (1838-1906) and Nesho Bonchev (1839-1878), were
sent by
Vasil D. Cholakov (1828-1885). Raiko Zhinzifov (1839-1877), who
went to
Russia with the help of D. Miladinov, was another collaborator.
In his introduction to the collection, Konstantin Miladinov states that
the songs were collected from different parts of the Bulgarian land, not
from Macedonia alone. This is another testimony that the Miladinov
brothers, like the rest of the fighters and martyrs in the struggle for
Bulgarian National Revival, made no distinction between the people in
Panagyurishte and Strouga, Sofia and Prilep or Ohrid. St Clement and
St Naum were their saints and teachers; Simeon and Samuel were their Tzars.
It was in this spirit of national unity and as a boost to the Bulgarian
Revival that the two Miladinov brothers spent years of hard work and
many sleepless nights to collect and prepare their monumental volume
of Bulgarian folk songs 120 years ago. For this, they paid with their lives.
They died in a Turkish dungeon in Istanbul.
Folklorists abroad hailed the publication of "Bulgarski Narodni
Pesni" as
an important contribution to Slavic folklore. Translations of some of
the songs were made in Russian, Czech, and English. Dr. Elias Riggs
(1810-1901), an American linguist and missionary in Constantinople,
translated nine songs into English and sent them to the American
Oriental Society in Princeton, New Jersey. In a letter from
Constantinople in June 1862, Dr. Riggs said:
The following pieces are selected from a collection of Bulgarian
popular songs recently published, Bulgarski Narodni Pesni, collected
by Demitrius and Constantine Miladinov, Agram (Zagreb) 1861, pp. 542, 8
vo. I have rendered them in the measure of the original
and very literally. The reader will be struck with the resemblance of
these compositions to the song of Hiawatha .....
This collection consists of more than six hundred pieces, large and
small, all professedly taken from the mouths of illiterate common
people, and is one of the largest volumes yet printed in the Bulgarian
language. The measure of which the first two pieces are specimens is the
one most used. Other songs exhibit lines of various lengths, from five
to seventeen syllables. The themes too are various ...... The whole present
an interesting picture of the traditions and fancies prevailing among the
mass of the Bulgarian people.
Professor W.D. Whitney, secretary of the
American Oriental
Society,
made arrangements with
The American Presbyterian and Theological
Review to publish Dr. Riggs' letter and translations. So in Volume I,
No. I, of its new series, January 1863, pp. 65-69, it published the above
letter and three of his translations. Later, in Volume II, No. 6, of its
new series, April 1864, pp. 259-276, appeared six more songs and 24
proverbs.