Argo: Launch of the Czech translation of two poetry collections by T. S. Eliot

T. S. Eliot needs little introduction - the general consensus is that he was the greatest English-language poet of the 20th century. His collections of poetry have been published successively by Argo in the AAB (Anglo-American Poets) series, and after Martin Hilsky (Four Quartets) and Peter Onufer (The Waste Land), Martin Pokorný took on the difficult task of translating Eliot this time, translating two of the poet's works: Hollow people (1925) a Ash Wednesday (1930). The two slim collections, published in Czech in one volume, together mark the most distinct watershed in Eliot's poetic output: the first poem is closely related in its fragmentary, tragicomic ritualism and varied voices to The Waste Land, the second, with its meditative religiosity and broader consonance, anticipates the late Four Quartets. But precisely because of this, they invite us to search for deeper connections between Eliot's poetics and his spiritual attitude. Hollow people are inspired, among other things, by Conrad's Heart of Darkness and are part of the modernist „journeys into the depths of night“; Ash Wednesday, which features verses taken from Dante and his contemporaries, belongs to the context of modernist efforts to „write paradise“.

The evening will be introduced by Petr Onufer, editor of the Argo publishing house; the book will be discussed by its translator Martin Pokorný.

The book will be available for purchase on site at a discounted price.

Free entry