我记得去年我跟我的同学物理下课以后一起走路。我们都喜欢物理，但是这节课太难了，我们都觉得老师给我们的作业也太难了。我们聊天的时候，我开了一个玩笑：“ 我看着他的脸，却在想我自己的脸出现在我们那儿的讣告墙上。” 我的朋友问：“什么墙??”我这才意识到——讣告墙是保加利亚的东西。中国没有讣告墙，意大利没有，法国没有。除了几个东欧洲的国家以外，别的国家都没有讣告墙。
一个人在保加利亚去世了以后，他的家人会雇一家代理商安排葬礼。这个代理商得准备那个人安置遗体, 得请一个牧师在葬礼上唱歌，得跟医院或者政府机构准备死亡文件，他们也会写讣告。
讣告有几个部分。第一个是死者逝者的照片，常用逝者的老照片，一般是他/她年轻时候的样子，因为家人想在讣告上留下逝者最好的样子。讣告也说从人死了以后已经过去多少时间了。如果这是一个新的讣告，在下面会说葬礼的时间地点。在保加利亚，一年中有几天是人们纪念逝者的日子，那几天逝者的家人会买差不多10 片讣告，之后他们会把讣告贴在房子最外面的大门上，也会贴在几个讣告的墙上，或者在公墓。
如果家人不想用专用的诗，代理商会用他们的诗。这是几首有名的诗：
(Bulgarian 保加利亚语版)
Животът ни е само миг в безкрая!
За някои дълъг – къс за други!
Не трябваше, но твоят миг завърши
И ти го извървя с чест до края!
Вечен мир на душата ти!
(English 英文版)
Our life is a glimpse of eternity.
For some, it’s long-short for others.
It shouldn’t have, but your glimpse has ended.
And you kept your honor to the very end.
Eternal peace be to your soul!
(Chinese 中文版)
我们的人生只是一瞬间。有些人的长，有些人的短。虽然不该如此，但是你的瞬间已逝，只留下身后的荣耀 愿你的灵魂总是有平安！
What Is the Bulgarian Obituary?
I remember how last year I was walking with my classmate to the table tennis gym. We were chatting, and I tried to make a joke – I told him that I would end up on an obituary wall before I start understanding my physics professor.
My friend was startled: “You will end up on WHAT?” In that moment, I realized that an obituary wall is a Bulgarian thing. China does not have obituary walls. Italy does not have obituary walls. France does not have obituary walls. Except for a few Eastern European countries, no other country has obituary walls. When a Bulgarian person dies, his family will hire an agency to prepare the funeral. This agency has to prepare the deceased person’s body, call a priest to sing at the funeral, and arrange the death file of the person with the hospital or the governmental agency responsible for that. The agency also prepares the obituary.
The obituary has several parts. The first one is the photo. Often the agency uses an old photo of the person, because the family looks for the best photo they can provide. The obituary also says the time when the person dies, and if it is a new one, its bottom may include the location and the time of the funeral. Since Bulgarians have several holidays where they honor the dead, on every holiday the relatives of the deceased will buy 10-15 copies of the obituary and glue them on different locations like the gate of their home, a few obituary walls, and at the cemetery.
Often, the obituary contains a small poem. If the family doesn’t want to put anything specific, the agency uses their own poem. A few popular ones have been shown above.
我叫贝天予，是保加利亚人，同时也是昆山杜克大学2023届的学生。我是学数据科学专业的。我很喜欢数学，也喜欢远方那些如想象般美好，又如现实一样真实的故事。
Hi! I am Teodora Petkova. I am a Bulgarian student majoring in data science from the class of 2023 at Duke Kunshan University. I love math and stories of distant lands, imaginary and real.
编辑/Editors | 潘小斐 何思樾 Aiya Kuchukova
排版/Layout | 何思樾
