Grigor Parlichev

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Grigor Parlichev

Grigor Stavrev Parlichev (Bulgarian: Григор Ставрев Пърличев, Macedonian: Григор Ставрев Прличев, January 18, 1830 in Ohrid, present-day Republic of Macedonia - January 25, 1893 in Ohrid), was a Bulgarian writer and translator. (He is considered to be ethnic Macedonian in Republic of Macedonia).

Parlichev studied in a Greek school in Macedonia. In the 1850s he worked as a teacher in Greek in the towns of Tirana, Prilep and Ohrid. In 1858 Parlichev started studying medicine in Athens but transferred to the Faculty of Linguistics in 1860. The same year Parclichev took part in the annual poetic competition in Athens winning first prize for his poem 'The Sirdar'. Acclaimed as "second Homer", he was offered scholarships to the universities at Oxford and Berlin but declined both.

In 1862 Parlichev joined the struggle for independent Bulgarian church and schools, though he continued to teach Greek. After spending some time in Constantinople in 1868 acquainting himself with old Bulgarian literature, he returned to Ohrid where he advocated the substitution of Greek with Bulgarian in the town's schools and churches. The same year Parlichev was arrested and spent several months in an Ottoman jail after a complaint was sent by the Greek bishop of Ohrid.

From 1869 Parlichev taught Bulgarian in several towns across Macedonia and Bulgaria, including Struga, Gabrovo, Bitola (Monastir), Ohrid and Thessaloniki. He taught at the Bulgarian Men's High School of Thessaloniki. In 1870 Parlichev translated his award-winning poem, 'The Sirdar', into Bulgarian in an attempt to popularize his earlier works, which were written in Greek, among the Bulgarian audience. He also wrote another poem "Skenderbeg", and his autobiography.

From this time until his death Parlichev continued writing only in Bulgarian, publishing a number of poems and newspaper articles and an autobiography (1884). Parlichev was the first Bulgarian translator of Homer's 'Iliad', though critics were highly critical of his style and vocabulary.