Petr Borkovec was born in Lou\u00f2ovice, central Bohemia, in 1970. Since 1992 the poet and arts editor has worked for the arts magazine \u00bbSouvislosti\u00ab (t: Connections) and since 2000 with the literature journal \u00bbLiter\u00e1rn\u00ed noviny\u00ab. As a translator, his interests have been predominantly in Russian poetry (for example, Vladimir Nabokov, Vladislav Chodasevic, Jevgenij Rejn, and Jurij Odarcenko) but together with philologists he has also translated Ancient drama and Korean poetry. Critics testify that he masters the traditional techniques of poetry writing to a standard no other Czech writer of his generation can equal, and that he was able very early on to develop his own distinctive language. Since 1990 Borkovec has published six volumes of poems, among which are \u00bbProst\u00edr\u00e1n\u00ed do tich\u00e9ho\u00ab and \u00bbMezi oknem, stolem a postel\u00ed\u00ab. For his collection entitled \u00bbOchoz\u00ab he was awarded the \u00bb Ji\u00f8\u00ed Orten Poetry Prize\u00ab in 1995. A selection from the original volumes have been collected in four Czech-German books, e.g. \u00bbFeldarbeit\u00ab (2001; \u00bbPoln\u00ed pr\u00e1ce\u00ab, 1998), and \u00bbNadelbuch\u00ab (2004; \u00bbNeedle-Book\u00ab, 2003). Borkovec\u2019s poems document the period of upheaval in Czecholovakia, in Prague and its surrounding towns. Quietly and concisely with precise observation and apparently by simple means, he sharpens the reader\u2019s eye for moments and situations in everyday life: a provincial railway station in some provincial area, or a house in some desolate villa suburb reveal their strangeness. The writer says of this town in which he still lives with his wife and three children: \u00bbSunday evening, from the car, when we approach the southern town, this terrible estate where the number of filling stations is increasing \u2013 this is my town. And where I now live, in \u00c8erno\u0161ice, I experience that continually: from there you can see the town, and it looks like Jerusalem when the lights begin to flicker on different levels. That is my Prague.\u00ab The view from afar determines the quietness and precise nature of the description, which distinguishes his language. \u00bbHis elaborately rhyming poems \u2013 often sonnets \u2013 resemble still lives, precarious momentary shots in which inside and outside come into contact\u00ab, wrote Ilma Rakusa about the poet. \u00bbIn this way the world of tangible objects develops a strange, sometimes metaphysical and moribund magic. Melamine and concrete, balconies, curtains and fences come together there, the aspens seem \u203aas if of alpaca\u2039, the polystyrene crib desolate, the typewriter \u2013 \u203aan altar for ashes\u2039.\u00ab \u00bbVakats\u00ab is what Borkovec calls a cycle of poems, as if he wanted to declare what was written as invalid; but the words assert themselves through their concentrated terseness. A collection of short prose pieces and poems that Borkovec wrote as a guest of the German Academic Exchange Service in Berlin in 2004\/05, was published in Germany under the title “Amselfassade” (2006; t: Blackbird Facade).<\/p>\n
\u00a9 international literature festival berlin<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"template":"","jct-role":[1080],"jct-origin":[552],"jct-ilb-years":[596,598],"class_list":["post-41034","authors","type-authors","status-publish","hentry","jct-role-author","jct-origin-czech-republic","jct-ilb-years-2002-en","jct-ilb-years-2004-en"],"yoast_head":"\n