Vyhľadávanie
Slovak Spring
Belfast Historical and Educational Society, Athol Books, Belfast 2004.
Translated and introduction by John Minahane
During his life Ladislav Novomeský was not lucky enough to have a taste of the fame he would have deserved. Although selections of his poetry and essays were appearing in 1960s and 1970s in “befriended“ languages, i.e. languages of then communist countries, in addition to one French edition (1969), these, however, lacked necessary critical distance and effort to place the poet in an appropriate global setting. It is only this edition by Irish translator and essayist John Minahane entitled Slovak Spring that seems to bring a more complex perspective on Novomeský as a great poet of twentieth century.
John Minahane, who has been living in Slovakia, approached the life and work of Novomeský without prejudice. He gradually became familiar with the currently available studies on the author, including Erenburg’s preface in the Russian edition or C. Magris’s passages in Dunaj, in addition to archive material to which he added precious information gained in dozens of interviews with Slovak intellectuals. His response is critical, in particular, to “hagiographic“ studies of S. Šmatlák, who interpreted Novomeský as “communist Saint“, the opinions of V. Mináč and M. Válek, in addition to paying close attention to biographies. As he himself writes in an extensive study, “the novelist biography by Štefan Drug, Good day, human being ... is a mine of information and a treasure trove of smuggled insight. Without it, I could not have attempted this essay.“
Why did John Minahane, an author of books on Irish philosopher poets or Irish intellectual history, choose Novomeský as subject of his scholarship? The following words at the end of his 80-page study seem to provide an answer: “Because Novomeský is a fine poet. He has something to say about being human. Most of all, he has something to say about being human in the twentieth century. At the heart of that century (since everyone was becoming unhappy) lay a quest. Novomeský espoused it and uttered it.
The Slovak poet lived through a stage in the great experiment which we are all swept up in, and which has now very definitely spread from Europe and America to Asia: mankind flooding in from the countryside to monstrous cities, seeking to live the life of progress. He sought a human way of pursuing the progressive life. He dreamt of and worked towards a progressive civilization which would not be misanthropic – in contrast to capitalism and dictatorial socialism. Was the quest merely naive? And if the quest is now over, does that mean that we are naive no longer?
But was Ehrenburg right when he said: ,Novomeský´s poems (and) the years when he lived ... cannot be thought of apart´? I admit that it was this which first drew me to the Slovak poet. Less than two generations after him I began my own stumblings through the twentieth century. I was fascinated by the road he had travelled.“
In the wealth of his material, the translator has included three poems each from Nedeľa and Romboid, while selecting a more substantial portion from Otvorené okná and Svätý za dedinou. Central attention is paid to the volume Stamodtiaľ a iné (while understanding iné to be iné veci: other things – while iné básne – other poems would seem more appropriate), in correspondence to his view of the poet, who had his own share of pain and suffering only to find that he was right in speaking the unvarnished truth. Minahane did not fail to cover other volumes such as Pašovanou ceruzou and Dom, v ktorom žijem, or the poem Vila Tereza – offering several portions to reader, concluding with yet two more Novomeský’s essays.
The book comes complete with a wealth of notes and references, register of names and poems, including four Novomeský’s poems in Slovak original.
I find two things to be most precious about this book: an essay on Novomeský, as yet unparalleled in its poetic and political complexity and critique), and the faithfulness and beauty of the translation. This is no small matter: an English-speaking reader has now an appropriate and exhaustive insight into one of our most distinguished poets. John Minahane is thus able to defy two charges at once (in fact, addressing the first charge in his study): 1) Slovak writers are uninterested in, unwishful of or indifferent to world fame; 2) rhymed verse are not susceptible to translation from Slovak to English, while remaining faithful and beautiful at once, including rhymes, meaning and their message.
I thing John Minahane has been successful in doing this. And what’s more, he managed to show that Slovak poetry did and does have great poets. Hopefully, he will be able and willing to stay in Slovakia for some time, and find other bards of rhyme, for instance Smrek or Rúfus.
Translated by Ľuben Urbánek
