High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Hristo Smirnenski (Bulgarian: Христо Смирненски), born as Hristo Izmirliev, (September 30, 1898 - June 18, 1923) was a Bulgarian poet and prose writer. His hometown was Kukush in Macedonia, Ottoman Empire, (today Kilkis, Greece), which had militant traditions and an enterprising population. Hristo spent a happy childhood in a friendly and understanding patriarchal home. He was a free, witty and playful child with a vivid imagination and keen sense of humour. He wrote songs, stories about birds and animals and rhyming jokes.