“A PRIEST WITHOUT A TEMPLE, A TRAVELER FACING MANY ROADS, A PILGRIM WITHOUT RELIGION” (Vasil Pundev and Theodor Trayanov)

This article presents three texts by the talented, early departed critic Vasil Pundev, who closely followed the creative manifestations of Theodor Trayanov and his contemporary poets and prose writers and reflected on them on the pages of the Democratic Review and in his book Bulgarian Ly-rics of Today. Pundev’s critical view is deep and analytical, his tone is sharp, his conclusions are aguemented in detail, with almost mathematical precision, with the analysis of verse and composition also branching out into a psycho-archaeology of an imagined poet’s self. In his observations on Trayanov’s poetics, Vasil Pundev takes a specific approach, deriving his positive perception of the poet from critical comments that are mostly negative in their content.