Konstantin Pavlov(1933-2008)

Mr. Pavlov was born on April 2, 1933, in a small village near the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. Now this village is on the bottom of the reservoir. He studied jurisprudence in Sofia University. Konstantin Pavlov was a poet and screenwriter who became one of Bulgaria's most prominent intellectuals with his rare defiance of the country's Communist regime. Mr. Pavlov was among the few Bulgarian intellectuals who dared to assert their professional independence during the 1945-89 Communist regime. He gained popularity even though censors imposed a decade-long publishing ban against him in 1966, with Bulgarians clandestinely copying and reading his poems. His poems have been translated from Bulgarian into French, English, Spanish, German, Polish, and Russian (Anna Ahmatova said: "He is the greatest Bulgarian poet I ever read!"). He has been recognized with a number of national awards for poetry and literature. Some of his most popular volumes of poetry are "Sweet Agony" (1991), "The Murder of the Sleeping Man" (1992) and "A Long Time Ago ..." (1998). In 1980 Mr. Pavlov was granted the Grand Prix at the Karlovy Vary film festival for his screenplay of the film "Illusion." His wife, Maria, and his daughter, Donka, survive him.