From the Interior: Poems 1995–2005 - Softcover

Borkovec, Petr

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1854114727 ISBN 13: 9781854114723

Publisher: Seren, 2008

Synopsis

Drawing from the entirety of an internationally-renowned young poet's acclaimed career, this introductory sampler presents the best of Petr Borkovec translated into English for the first time. The selected poems focus primarily on aspects of the natural world and human relationships, as viewed through the objects with which people surround themselves. Collectively, the poems document a period of upheaval in Czechoslovakia with a quiet, concise precision and distinctive language, displaying an uncanny observational skill that awakens an audience to the glorious details of everyday moments and situations.

About this title

About the Author

Petr Borkovec is a writer and translator who works for the Czech literary journal Literární Noviny and the arts magazine Souvislosti. He has translated Russian poetry, classical Greek drama, and Korean poetry. Justin Quinn is an editor of the Dublin literary magazine Metre and the former Heimbold Professor of Irish studies at Villanova University. He is the author of Waves & Trees.

Review

"His elaborately rhyming poems—often sonnets—resemble still lives, precarious momentary shots in which inside and outside come into contact. In this way the world of tangible objects develops a strange, sometimes metaphysical and moribund magic."  —Ilma Rakusa, author, Steppe

"As this collection progresses . . . Borkovec's poems tend to vary more in their form, with longer pieces becoming more frequent, and his utterance taking on more dependent clauses. There is a feeling of exploration in this, given that the poet does not become more lax in his line, nor less focused on the poignant minutiae. Instead, the poems are aided by the power of their structural variations, and within them we hear the thematic resonances of this expansion."  —

Edinburgh Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Seren
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1854114727
• ISBN 13: 9781854114723
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 96