Vyhľadávanie
Contemporary Slovak prose, even the newest publications, is starting to interest people outside of Slovakia more and more. It is so also in Poland. This year, the Polish publishing house Czarne, which quickly reacts to the release of valuable works among world literature, published a book by Václav Pankovčín titled Marakesz /Marakesh/. Pankovčín, a Slovak writer, who died at a young age (1968-1999) published seven books during his life.
Marakesh is the author’s third book (earlier works are a collection of children’s stories Mamut v chladničke /A Mammoth in the Refridgerator/ (1992) and Asi som neprišiel len tak /I suppose I did Not Appear from Thin Air/ (1992). It loosely connects to his first two books, but it also shows the author’s permanent focus on the Eastern Slovak country.
This is demonstrated in his later works: Tri ženy pod orechom /Three Women under the Walnut Tree/ (1996) and Bude to pekný pohreb /It Will Be a Nice Funeral/ (1997). The collection of short stories Marakesh, which can be perceived as a complete composition unit, consists of three parts: the first two are dedicated to different village characters, who quite often are very curious and bizarre; the third part is an extensive novel which depicts the life of a young villager, a village dummy, who loses even in the confrontation with the Big City.
In his texts, Václav Pankovčín creates a microcosm, which has a real as well as an imaginary environment. Through short episodes, constructed characters, who are often childlike, the reader is taken to a world where time and space are frozen. It is the world of the village Marakesh, located in the east of Slovakia but with its exotic name refers to the city in the African Morocco. It seems that the author, however, continually shatters this microcosm: on one hand there are the elements of a global civilization, on the other the elements that are magical. The author relativizes, and thus raises doubt about the traditional mentality, traditional values and cultural model, as well as the modern sociopolitical reality. Oscillation between the real and the imaginary worlds, the clash of these two environments, often brings about comic, even grotesque results.
The seemingly simple language of Pankovčín’s writing as well as the use of elements of dialect is a challenge for its translator. The Polish translator Jacek Bukowki was not always successful tackling this task. As we already know, the similarity of the two languages is treacherous and it is not always easy to capture the true stylistic nature.
Marakesh was released in Poland 12 years after its Slovak release but the Czarne publishing house is already preparing another book by Václav Pankovčín titled Bude to pekný pohreb /It Will Be a Nice Funeral/. This Slovak author will also be presented in the Literatura na świecie magazine. Currently, Literature na świecie is preparing a monographic issue dedicated to Slovak literature.
Translated by Inka Martinová
