Northwestern University Press, 1997 Cloth: 978-0-8101-1383-1 | Paper: 978-0-8101-1384-8 Library of Congress Classification PG5038.S45A23 1997 Dewey Decimal Classification 891.86152
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC
ABOUT THIS BOOK
Nobel Prize winner Jaroslav Seifert's poetry is strongly situated within the Czech literary tradition of Poetism, which evolved into a playful, light-hearted refuge from world history while maintaining an edge of social consciousness. Called "a living symbol of the continuity in modern Czech literature" by Václav Havel, Seifert remains a towering figure in European poetry more than a decade after his death.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Seifert published his first book of poetry, City of Tears, in 1921 and in the next several decades went through several phases of development. He wrote in an unaffected, down-to-earth style about the everyday concerns and emotions of common people. His early works reflected his interest in the Russian Revolution, dadaism, and surrealism. Later, he rejected Soviet communism and wrote poetry that protested the conquest of his homeland. Married in 1928, Seifert had two children. Throughout the latter part of his life, he lived quietly in a Prague suburb until his death from a heart ailment in 1986.
REVIEWS
"Loewy has opened the door to an important phase of Seifert's career [for] readers of English." --Harvard Review
"We felt relief, when he was with us. What justification of existence can a small doomed nation give? The justification was here: the poet, square-shouldered . . . the tangible proof of the genius of the nation, the only glory of the powerless."
—Milan Kundera
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Translator's Notes and Acknowledgments
Introduction
City in Tears
Foreword
Introductory Poem
Monologue of the Handless Soldier
December 1920
Prayer on the Sidewalk
Language of the Crowd
Children from the Suburb
At the War Cemetery
Revolution
Good Tidings
The End of War
A Chanted Prayer
Evening on the Porch
City of Sin
The Screen at the Cinema
In the Garden Gethsemane
City in Tears
The Creation of the World
In a Small Suburban Street
A Poem Full of Courage and Faith
Poor
The Humblest of Poems
Sheer Love
Electric Lyre
Poem of Spring
Amorous Stanzas
Paris
Hour of Peace
Lullaby
New Year's Poem
A Song about Girls
Glorious Day
Verses in Remembrance of the Revolution
Verses about Love, Murder, and the Gallows
A Sailor
A Black Man
The Little Ring
All the Beauties of the World
Afterword
On the Waves of TSF
Guillaume Apollinaire
Fiery fruit
Honeymoon
Honeymoon
departure of a ship
Marseille
harbor
sea
Marble town
Hôtel "Côte d'Azur"
Park
My Italy
Nightlights
Verses about two who drowned
Frozen Pineapples and Other Lyrical Anecdotes
Evening at the café
Eccentric
All perfumes
mirror square
Miss Gada-Nigi
Circus
King Herod
Ice cream poetry
Wisdom
Lightbulb
beauty
Rebus
Discoveries
Street
Eyes
Fan
Abacus
Poet
New York
Napoleon
Consolation
Love
Philosophy
Words on magnet
!!Hello!!
The thief and the clock
with a coquettish lady
Concert café
Lawn-tennis
Cigarette smoke
Fever
Fate
Rue de la Paix
Graveyard in Genoa
Silken handkerchief
To be a fisherman
The Nightengale Sings Poorly
I
Moon on Wings
The Hourglass
Verses
A Song about Death
Ancient Wisdom
14th of July
Girlfriends
Paravent
Yellow, Blue, Red
Panorama
Giant Mountains
II
Bread and Roses
Ballad
Old Battlefield
A Ballad from the Campagne
The Parting Kiss
An Apple Tree with Cobweb Strings
Three Bitter Seeds
III
Moscow
A Song about Moscow
At Our Lady of Iberia
Lenin's City
Lenin
Afterword
Northwestern University Press, 1997 Cloth: 978-0-8101-1383-1 Paper: 978-0-8101-1384-8
Nobel Prize winner Jaroslav Seifert's poetry is strongly situated within the Czech literary tradition of Poetism, which evolved into a playful, light-hearted refuge from world history while maintaining an edge of social consciousness. Called "a living symbol of the continuity in modern Czech literature" by Václav Havel, Seifert remains a towering figure in European poetry more than a decade after his death.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Seifert published his first book of poetry, City of Tears, in 1921 and in the next several decades went through several phases of development. He wrote in an unaffected, down-to-earth style about the everyday concerns and emotions of common people. His early works reflected his interest in the Russian Revolution, dadaism, and surrealism. Later, he rejected Soviet communism and wrote poetry that protested the conquest of his homeland. Married in 1928, Seifert had two children. Throughout the latter part of his life, he lived quietly in a Prague suburb until his death from a heart ailment in 1986.
REVIEWS
"Loewy has opened the door to an important phase of Seifert's career [for] readers of English." --Harvard Review
"We felt relief, when he was with us. What justification of existence can a small doomed nation give? The justification was here: the poet, square-shouldered . . . the tangible proof of the genius of the nation, the only glory of the powerless."
—Milan Kundera
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Translator's Notes and Acknowledgments
Introduction
City in Tears
Foreword
Introductory Poem
Monologue of the Handless Soldier
December 1920
Prayer on the Sidewalk
Language of the Crowd
Children from the Suburb
At the War Cemetery
Revolution
Good Tidings
The End of War
A Chanted Prayer
Evening on the Porch
City of Sin
The Screen at the Cinema
In the Garden Gethsemane
City in Tears
The Creation of the World
In a Small Suburban Street
A Poem Full of Courage and Faith
Poor
The Humblest of Poems
Sheer Love
Electric Lyre
Poem of Spring
Amorous Stanzas
Paris
Hour of Peace
Lullaby
New Year's Poem
A Song about Girls
Glorious Day
Verses in Remembrance of the Revolution
Verses about Love, Murder, and the Gallows
A Sailor
A Black Man
The Little Ring
All the Beauties of the World
Afterword
On the Waves of TSF
Guillaume Apollinaire
Fiery fruit
Honeymoon
Honeymoon
departure of a ship
Marseille
harbor
sea
Marble town
Hôtel "Côte d'Azur"
Park
My Italy
Nightlights
Verses about two who drowned
Frozen Pineapples and Other Lyrical Anecdotes
Evening at the café
Eccentric
All perfumes
mirror square
Miss Gada-Nigi
Circus
King Herod
Ice cream poetry
Wisdom
Lightbulb
beauty
Rebus
Discoveries
Street
Eyes
Fan
Abacus
Poet
New York
Napoleon
Consolation
Love
Philosophy
Words on magnet
!!Hello!!
The thief and the clock
with a coquettish lady
Concert café
Lawn-tennis
Cigarette smoke
Fever
Fate
Rue de la Paix
Graveyard in Genoa
Silken handkerchief
To be a fisherman
The Nightengale Sings Poorly
I
Moon on Wings
The Hourglass
Verses
A Song about Death
Ancient Wisdom
14th of July
Girlfriends
Paravent
Yellow, Blue, Red
Panorama
Giant Mountains
II
Bread and Roses
Ballad
Old Battlefield
A Ballad from the Campagne
The Parting Kiss
An Apple Tree with Cobweb Strings
Three Bitter Seeds
III
Moscow
A Song about Moscow
At Our Lady of Iberia
Lenin's City
Lenin
Afterword
Notes
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC