Product Description

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How Quickly Forgotten
Two years before his death, Jaroslav Seifert (1901-1986), the most important Czech poet of the 20th century, won the Nobel Prize in Literature. Who remembers this? Who remembers him? Seifert occupies roughly the same place in Czech letters and politics that Milosz represents for the Poles but the latter made frequent trips to the United States, learned to write in English and was lucky in the translators who worked to unlock his words from an almost equally difficult language to learn and pronounce.
Seifert's long career begins in the 1920s when he wrote "proletarian" poetry. Soon he became a member of the "Poetism" movement and his work became more experimental, metaphoric, loosely connected. From his first book, "City of Tears" (1921), Seifert's poetry was centered on Prague, his love of beauty in women and art, his love for his nation. His song-like virtuousity in later poems, depending as much as it does on the peculiarities of the Czech language, is difficult to discern in these translations but his imagery and deep emotion are always impressive. During the Second World War, his poems represented a subtle form of resistance and he became the national poet. Like Milosz, the disappearance of the Jews from national life was never far from his consciousness. In the 1960s Seifert turned to free verse and became a major figure in the Prague Spring and the resistance to Soviet hegemony. Sickness and advancing age turned his poetry toward the subject of aging, a process he faced with wisdom and paradoxical vigor.
This volume collects work from every phase of Seifert's career and excerpts from his prose reminiscences and memoir, "All The Beauties of the World" (1981). The title poem from "The Plague Column" (1978) is a perfect summary of his genius, simple in its diction, direct and modest in tone, based on an architectural monument in his beloved Prague, carrying an ominous lesson for our times; speaking ostensibly about the Bubonic Plague: "the taverns have fallen silent/the grave-diggers in the end/buried each other." We have much to learn about Czech poetry in the last century, not to mention such figures as Jan Neruda from the 19th, a hero to Seifert and the gentleman after whom a certain poet from Chile took his nom de plume. This book provides an excellent introduction to the greatness of the other Milosz. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

One of the best czech books of poetry
I have this book in czech and I am sure it is one of the best czech books of poetry. It is so emotional, lovely ... you must read it. Seifert is the biggest czech poet of 20th century. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Bad, Bad, Bad translation of a great poet
An example of what happens when someone decides to be a translator without learning the language.There are mistranslations here on every page, of which some are hilarious for those who (unlike Messrs. Jagasich and Ogrady)understand both languages. Be warned--it's awful. ... Read more