Bronislava Volkova
Bronislava Volková is a bilingual poet, translator, collagist, Professor Emerita of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Jewish Studies, Comparative Literature and former Director of the Czech Program at Indiana University, Bloomington. She went into exile from Czechoslovakia in 1974, taught at the Universities of Cologne and Marburg in West Germany, and subsequently at Harvard and University of Virginia in Charlottesville. Since 1982, she has been residing in Bloomington. She has published ten books of existential and metaphysical poetry in Czech and several bilingual (Czech-English) editions with her own collages in Explorer Editions and in Edwin Mellen Press, as well as a book of selected poems The Courage of the Rainbow in Sheep Meadow Press, New York, 1993. She is also the author of two books on linguistic and literary semiotics (Emotive Signs in Language, John Benjamis, Amsterdam, 1987 and A Feministst’s Semiotic Odyssey through Czech Literature, Edwin Mellen Press, 1997) and a large anthology of Czech poetry translations Up The Devil’s Back: A Bilingual Anthology of 20th Century Czech Poetry (with Clarice Cloutier), 2008. In 2011, her collected poems were published in Czech Republic under the title Vzpomínky moře (The Sea Recalls) together with a sample of her visual work and a CD of her reading. Her poetry has been widely reviewed and translated into ten languages. Her scholarly interests include a wide variety of topics, such as Czech poetry, Czech popular culture, issues of exile, gender, race, nationalism, prejudice and emotive signs. Since 2000, she is active as a collagist and a director of multimedia performances of poetry. In 2009, she has received an “award for significant contribution to culture and scholarship” from the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences in Prague and in 2012, she has received an award for lifetime poetic work and a long term work for the cultural exchange among the Slavs by the Syndicate of Bulgarian Teachers in Varna. In 2013, a book of her selected poems has been published in Bulgaria under the title Az sam tvojata sadba and in 2014 a Ukrainian edition appeared under the title Neprinaležnist’. Currently, a Russian and Slovak edition are being prepared for publication. More information is available at www.bronislavavolkova.com
Neprýštím ze země
jako voda
a nestmívám se
jako opona.
Mám duši ostříhanou
dohola.
Mám sluncem probdělé dny
a na očích mám šátek,
na ústech chvění.
Za setmění
soukám své motáky
do uší pěny.
Motáky do uší pěny (1984)
I do not spring from the earth
as water
and I do not darken
as a curtain.
I have a soul shaved
bald.
I have days kept awake by the sun
and on my eyes I have a scarf,
a trembling on my mouth.
At dusk
I smuggle my prison notes
into the ears of seafoam.
Prison Notes Smuggled into the ears of Seafoam (1984)
No broto de la tierra
como el agua
y no oscuresco
como el telón
Tengo el alma pelada
al rape.
Tengo los días trasnochados por el sol
un temblor en los labios.
Al atardecer
empujo mis notas de prisión
a los oídos de la espuma marina.
Notas de prisión a los oídos de la espuma (1984)
Právě ti mrtví byli tak blízko.
Jak mohu vydržet nebe?
S očima prázdnýma jako talíře,
po večeři s očima
na stole, na gramofonu,
co se točí dál i když už oněměl
(utichává mi každou noc).
Slyšíš? Jsou to kameny,
co mluví k sobě tichým hlasem
blaženého šeptání lesů.
Pití mléka je tak vzdáleno
našim uším.
Proč asi...
Vzduch bez podpatků (1987)
It was the dead who were so close.
How can I survive the sky
with eyes as empty as the plates
after dinner with eyes
on the table turning
the turn-table gone mute
(it happens every night)!
Can you hear? It is the stones
speaking to each other in the low voice
the peaceful murmur of the forests.
Drinking milk is so distant
from our ears
We wonder...
Air without Heels 1987
Poem written originally in English (published in The Courage of the Rainbow (Selected Poems) 1993
Precisamente estos muertos han estado tan cerca.
¿Cómo puedo soportar el cielo?
Con lo ojos vacíos como los platos
después de una cena, con los ojos
sobre la mesa, sobre el tocadisco
que sigue girando aún cuando ya enmudeció
(se silencia para mí así cada noche).
¿Oyes? Son las piedras,
que hablan en voz baja una con la otra
con un susurro feliz del bosque.
Beber la leche es tan alejado
a nuestros oídos.
Por que así …
El aire sin tacones (1987)
To je můj domov
má hora
můj lístek
křehký
skok.
To je má úžasná hra
můj karban
můj krátký
oddech můj zloděj
srdce
má dávno ztracená láska
má samota ve svobodě
můj strom života
má kolébka, má skvrna, můj hrad.
To je má hanba
mé zoufalství
můj vzlyk.
To je můj poslední
nahý křik...
Proměny (2000)
This is my home
my mountain
my ticket
fragile
leap.
This is my stunning game
my gamble
my brief
respit my thief
of heart
my love long lost
my solitude in freedom
my tree of life
my cradle, castle, stain.
This is my shame
my despair
my dream.
This is my last
lucid scream.
Transformations (2000)
Esto es mi hogar
mi montaňa
mi billete
frágil
salto.
Esto es mi juego maravilloso
mi juego de nanes
mi corto
descanso, mi ladrón
de corazón, mi amor perdido hace tiempo
mi soledad en la libertad
mi árbol de la vida
mi cuna, mi mancha, mi castillo.
Esto es mi vergüenza
mi desesperación
mi sollozo.
Esto es mi último
grito desnudo …
Transformaciones (2000)
English 
Spanish
