Rumen Radev: The language of Vazov and Mihailovski, of Aleko and Geo Milev, of Vaptsarov and Valeri Petrov will not perish – 2024-08-23 16:21:08

/ world today news/ Speech of the head of state Rumen Radev on the occasion of May 24, 2017 – Day of Bulgarian education and culture and of Slavic writing

Dear compatriots,

I skip the traditional protocol addresses, because today we are all just Bulgarians. In the hierarchy of spirit and culture, the leaders are not the politicians, but the knights of letters. And any awake child can be such a knight.

We all have one Motherland – Bulgaria. Fate takes many away from her. But there is always an invisible homeland that everyone takes with them wherever they go. This is the Bulgarian language. Language is our lucky outline at birth. I will allow myself to paraphrase the Apostle: the words are in us and we are in the words, they convert us and we convert them. In difficult years, language is the red thread to freedom. Language inspires us, language comforts us. When the spirit molts, the tongue suffers with us. Suffers from our spelling. His vocabulary is impoverished, his grammar is neglected, and uninvited foreigners settle in a derelict home.

But the language of Vazov and Mihailovski, of Aleko and Geo Milev, of Vaptsarov and Valeri Petrov will not perish. He will outlive the ignorance and experiments of “unwise fools” who do not know how to handle his words. Because there will always be millions of people, here and far from the Motherland, who will write and breathe with the rhythm of Bulgarian verse, play with words and dream in Bulgarian.

The world is changing. Today, Bulgaria is on five continents, because our compatriots have taken a part of this invisible homeland, the Bulgarian language, to all corners of the planet. This language is the thread by which they can always find their way home.

Words are our common capital. So let’s protect them, because they also protect us. And let’s look for them, because the right word is sometimes hidden like a lost key, but if you find it, it opens doors.

Happy holiday, dear children, students, teachers, educators, artists!

Happy holiday, dear Bulgarians!