Renowned Bulgarian poet and translator Kiril Kadiiski has died at the age of 78, the Colibri publishing house announced on Facebook. His passing on August 31 marked the loss of a prominent literary figure whose work spanned poetry, essays, and translation.

“Devastating news reached us on the final day of August. Our friend Kiril Kadiiski has passed - a poet and translator of immense talent; a visionary essayist, publicist, teacher, and public figure with a sharp conscience and fiery voice,” the publishing house wrote.

Born on June 16, 1947, in Yabalkovo village, Kyustendil region, Kadiiski authored numerous collections of poetry and essays, including Poetry (1995), Essays in Three Volumes (1997), Supper at Emmaus (2000), Yorick’s Skull and Other Poems (2004), Essays in Five Volumes (2007), Poetry/Prose (2013, 2015), and Poetry (2014, 2019). In 2018, his lectures on poetry theory and translation were published in On Poetry by Sofia University’s University Publishing House “St. Kliment Ohridski.” Recent years also saw the release of his collected sonnets and Starry Hardship. The New Guernica, alongside a three-volume Anthology of French Poetry (9th–21st centuries).

Kadiiski was also a highly regarded translator, bringing the works of French poets such as François Villon, Pierre de Ronsard, Victor Hugo, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé, Guillaume Apollinaire, and Emile Verhaeren into Bulgarian. His translations also included Russian literary giants like Mikhail Lermontov, Fyodor Tyutchev, Alexander Blok, Vladimir Mayakovsky, Boris Pasternak, Ivan Bunin, and others.

His works found audiences far beyond Bulgaria, published in France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Serbia, Romania, and North Macedonia. Kadiiski received numerous awards for his literary contributions, including the Ivan Franko Prize (Ukraine), Grand European Prize (Romania), Sychevski Visions (Serbia), Max Jacob Prize (France) for his lifetime achievement, Arthur Lundqvist (Sweden-Bulgaria), and Italy’s national translation award in 2011. Notably, he was recognized for his three-volume edition of Molière (2013) and his Anthology of Russian Poetry XII–XXI centuries (2014) by the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

A special issue of Revue Lettres dedicated to Kadiiski included hundreds of pages of studies and essays by international scholars and poets, including Pierre Brunel of the French Academy, Vlada Urošević from North Macedonia, Pierre Auster, Alain Lance, Anne Diamond, and Louvre curator Jean-Dominique Rey.

Kadiiski was a knight of the French Order of Arts and Letters, a corresponding member of the French Academy of Poetry “Mallarmé,” a member of the International Academy “Montmartre in Europe,” and an honorary citizen of the “Montmartre Republic.”

The memorial service took place on September 2 at 11 a.m. at St. Sedmochislenitsi Church in Sofia. His death marks the loss of one of Bulgaria’s most influential voices in modern literature, whose legacy as a poet, translator, and literary scholar continues to inspire readers worldwide.