Did You Know that Oscar Wilde Wrote a Poem About Bulgaria?

Oscar Wilde is undoubtedly one of the greatest writers and poets ever to have lived. Most people associate his name with Dorian Gray's Portrait, but there are also many of his works that have not been as popular as they deserve.

In Bulgaria, for example, it is not widely known that Wilde dedicates a sonnet to our country after reading about the bloodshed in the suppression of the April uprising. His work was yet another way to attract the attention of the public in the West to the horrors that are going on in our country during this period. 

We publish the original poem:

 

On The Massacre Of The Christians In Bulgaria

CHRIST, dost thou live indeed? or are thy bones

 Still straightened in their rock-hewn sepulcher?

 And was thy Rising only dreamed by Her

 Whose love of thee for all her sin atones?

 For here the air is horrid with men's groans,

 The priests who call upon thy name are slain,

 Dost thou not hear the bitter wail of pain

 From those whose children lie upon the stones?

 Come down, O Son of God! incestuous gloom

 Curtains the land, and through the starless night

 Over thy Cross the Crescent moon I see!

 If thou in very truth didst burst the tomb

Come down, O Son of Man! and show thy might,

Lest Mahomet be crowned instead of Thee!