The Pygmalion publising house was founded by Emil Stoyanov in 1992. The publising house’s program emphasizes European aesthetic, political and philosophical literature. Since it’s foundation, the house has offered the Bulgarian public works by Goethe, Schnitzler and Musil for the very first time, as well as works by dozens of young authors from Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Over the last few years, the Pygmalion publising house has also been especially active in the field of drama. Part and parcel of the house’s activities are big events in the field of literature and culture, as well as inter-European exchange.
For many travellers on the Orient Express, the city of Plovdiv is just one stop on their exotic train journey, the last major station before Istanbul. But travellers who don’t have to get back into their romantic train carriage can leave the station and enter a world permeated by many different eras. Orphean spirit, and the Thracian, Roman, Byzantine, Latin, Ottoman and Bulgarian cultures are combined here with modern ideas, developments and deeds. Plovdiv is thousands of years old, a place where paths have always crossed and linked.
Vergil and Ovid set Orpheus’ suffering in the area between the Rhodope mountains, the Balkan mountains (lat. Haemus) and the river of Hebrus. In this semi-mythical, semi-geographical place of the passion of Orpheus, Philosophia, Hermes and Heracles hover above the city and converse among themselves:
HERACLES: Do you see those two magnificent mountains (the big one is Haemus, and the other Rhodope), and the fertile plain that spreads between them, running to the very foot of both? These three grand, rugged crests that stand out so proudly yonder form, as it were, a triple citadel to the city that lies beneath; you can see it now, look!
HERMES: Superb! A queen among cities; her splendours reach us even here. And what is the great river that flows so close beneath the walls?
HERACLES: The Hebrus, and the city was built by Philip.
This divine view of Plovdiv, overheard and noted down by Lucian, has not changed over the centuries. Even today, a plain leads through the area, awakening thoughts of far away and simultaneously bringing the horizon closer. The famous hills of Plovdiv, on which human construction has left its marks over many centuries, divide the city in two. Ruins flank the path of time here. And at the same time, the hills restrict the observers’ view, holding onto them and awakening their attention for unexpected perspectives, guiding them to the city through which a river flows. A river that bears within it the memory of the changing times like an eternity. A river in which today’s city is shattered as if in a kaleidoscope. A mirror that has absorbed the faces and stories of time with joy. The plain, the hills and the river are as recognisable as the pillars on which the people founded this city.
In places like this, travellers are spoilt for choice. In a short or a long moment of hesitation over which direction to take, considering, judging, excited, fearful, hopeful... but the clearest feeling is the moment of being. And for travellers on the trail of literature, a place like this presents a challenge to recognise and articulate the lost, forgotten, strange and unknown voices, a challenge to translate these lost, forgotten, strange and unknown characters, codes and messages.
For the travellers who alight from the Orient Express in Plovdiv, the route from the station to the city takes them along Ivan-Vasov-Street. For those on the trail of literature, the route takes them to their accommodation in Plovdiv in the Literature House of the Pygmalion Press. Founded by Emil Stoyanov in 1992, the press has published philosophical, political and literary works including numerous translations of western European literature. And that is house number 42 in Ivan-Vasov-Street.
Mladen Vlashki
HALMA grant holder Urs Faes wrote about his stay at the House of the Pygmalion Foundation. His essay is available in the European Library of the HALMA network.