Vladimir Holan

Born Sept. 16, 1905, in Prague. Czech poet.

Holan began publishing in the mid-1920’s. His first verses exhibited the influence of avant-garde poeticism. His collections that appeared in the early 1930’s reflected a tragic perception of reality. The collection entitled Stone, You Will Come . . . (1937) expresses a protest against poverty and sympathy for the Spanish antifascists. In the collections September 1938 (1938), The Song of the Three Kings (1939; published, 1946), and The Dream (1939), Holan expresses the horror of the fascist German occupation with odd and fantastic images. The epic element became strengthened in the verses and narrative poems written in the 1940’s. In the narrative poems and poetic cycles Gratitude to the Soviet Union (1945) and Red Army Men (1947) the relation of poetry to reality is more direct. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, Holan wrote the narrative poems From the World of Childhood and Susan in Her Bath and the poetic cycle Mozartiana. In the 1950’s and 1960’s the dominant genre used by Holan was philosophical lyric poetry. He has translated the works of R. M. Rilke, C. Vildrac, and M. Iu. Lermontov, as well as Spanish and Armenian poetry.