Miroslav Holub was the Czech Republic's most important poet, and also
one of her leading immunologists. His fantastical and witty poems give
a scientist's bemused view of human folly and other life on the
planet. Mixing myth, history and folktale with science and philosophy,
his plainly written, sceptical poems are surreal mini-dramas often
pivoting on paradoxes. Poems Before & After covers thirty years of his
poetry. Before are his poems from the fifties and sixties, poems
written before the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia: first published
in English in his Penguin Selected Poems (1967) and in Bloodaxe's The
Fly (1987), with some additional poems. After are translations of his
later poetry, all written after 1968, including not only those from
his two Bloodaxe editions, On the Contrary (1984) and Supposed to Fly
(1996), but also the entire texts of two late collections published by
Faber, Vanishing Lung Syndrome (1990) and The Rampage (1997). With
additional translations by David Young, Dana Hábová, Rebekah Bloyd
and Miroslav Holub. 'A laying bare of things, not so much the skull
beneath the skin, more the brain beneath the skull; the shape of
relationships, politics, history; the rhythms of affections and
disaffection; the ebb and flow of faith, hope, violence, art' –
Seamus Heaney 'Miroslav Holub is one of the half dozen most important
poets writing anywhere' – Ted Hughes 'One of the sanest voices of
our time' – A. Alvarez 'He is a magnificent, astringent genius and
this volume sings with an oblique and cutting candour, a tubular
coolness we must praise again and again' – Tom Paulin
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781780370613
Publisert
2016
Utgiver
Vendor
Bloodaxe Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter