Premonition: Selected poems by Plamen Sivov, translated by Diana Stefanova

Plamen Sivov was born in Bulgaria in 1970. He is a recognised singer-songwriter, poet and journalist, holding a number of national poetry awards and recognitions. His poetry has been translated in English, Russian and Polish. This book presents 17 of his poems, translated by Diana Stefanova.

Sivov manages to convey the singularity of an individual experience, while giving it universal resonance and scope, so that it speaks to the Everyday Man, with poetry that has the savage, unforgiving beauty of Nature. Sivov is cataclysmic, demolishing and cathartic - in equal measure! If you are brave enough to withstand the impact of his writing, you will emerge from the experience slightly bloodied, perhaps, but measurably revitalized, enriched – and, dare we hope - more humane. 

The bard, whose words wound and transform the way faith does ('God's fingernail, scratching at the human soul,' as Anthony Hopkins once put it), has allowed us to search and examine our own inner darkness and light. And Sivov's poetic country, unfolding from pages filled with exquisite, striking imagery, ripe with purpose and meaning, bestows upon its visitor a rare gift: the choice to earn his or her permanent passport to the Soul's awakening. 

Diana Stefanova, translator