THE ROMANTIC ENGLISHWOMAN

A lift is the perfect place  
to kiss  
someone  
you’ve craved for  
for a long time.

(Zlatna Kostova, Vindictive poetry)

Journalist, radio personality, a foremost translator from English, Zlatna Kostova has translated hundreds of films – feature films, documentaries, TV shows. She also translates prose, poetry and plays from and into Russian and English and writes poetry in Bulgarian and in English.

Her previous book of poems is called Sparrow in its shell. Poems of hers have been translated into English, French, Arabic, Armenian and have been released by different publishers around the world. For ten years or so she has been director of the international department at the Bulgarian news agency, the BTA. Her friends will tell you that she really does live up to her name (Zlatna is derived from the word zlato, gold) – she is kind, cheerful and always with a smile on her face. That is why the first thing one notices in her new collection of poems is the title – Vindictive poetry.

“That is always the first question everyone asks me,” says Zlatna. “And I can say that I always give a different answer because I keep finding more and more different reasons. First, as a title it appeals to me, I myself would pick up and read a book with that title. And it serves as a good counterpoint of my own character. It also has a connection with a novel by my husband Lyudmil Todorov called Summer in pieces. He is a film director and screenwriter, a man of truth, of no compromise. Let me say that our living together, the things I do – it is all an “act of vengeance” on what we call “the eternal truth”. The truth that is not necessarily good and does not always bring joy or inspiration. It is frequently painful. Many of the stories I tell sound as if they are something I myself have experienced but they are not. The idea of continuing a given situation in different ways has always appealed to me.”

The aim of any artistic endeavor is to reach out and grab audiences. Art has the ability of pointing out the way ahead, and albeit unexpectedly, pulling us out of an emotional freezing point.

“When one recognizes oneself in art, it has accomplished its mission of reaching out to people so they can find their own selves, find their happiness, their dreams. I am always glad to hear someone say: that is something you wrote especially for me.” But I am also glad when I recognize my own self in someone else’s work.”

Zlatna Kostova says she was really excited by the prospect of her book presentation in Sofia:

“It was really important to me because it was my first such meeting with the public. I had no idea what would happen, whether there would be people coming at all, but I was not worried. I knew that whoever came would be “my kind of person”. A true friend, whether we knew each other or not. My publishers Yordan Yordanov and Victor Lilov are very intelligent and really good friends. In Rousse and Bourgas we presented my husband’s novel Blackbird coming with a cherry. And everywhere people would come – friends but also people we didn’t know but immediately took to and had long conversations with. It is a wonderful feeling.”

As soon as the book was released, videos started appearing on Facebook of ladies reading verses from Vindictive poetry:

“That is a really good idea. My publishers are full of great ideas, but what the surprise will be on 8 September when the book will be presented at the Apollonia International Art Festival – that is something they are not disclosing. When they brought me the first copies they told me they would be sending them out to female friends of mine to read in front of the camera, so I can see how others experience my story and how it becomes someone else’s story. This book has been a special kind of lesson for me, it coincided with a very sad portion of my life, so unpleasant that I withdrew from everything. And when the therapy was completed, the book appeared, as a friend says “in Indian times” i.e. at the best time possible when I could really enjoy the emotion. People I am really fond of say I have grown wiser. Maybe life really has taught me a lesson or two.”

English version: Milena Daynova