Authors

For many years Viktorie Rybáková was better known as a photographer than a poet. Her slim volumes of poetry were published either by regional or specialist publishers, or at her own expense. The wider public had to wait until Mladá fronta published her collection Bílá růže na střence noci (2004), which contained practically her whole body of work to date. The late publication of a series of six short volumes surprisingly did not prove detrimental. This is because the texts merge together into one stream with a litanical quality; a collection of diverse styles which is not anchored by a fixed poetic but by the author’s literary-ontological leanings. Her voice works its way into the gap between modern poetry (“emily! sylvie! sergeji! charlese!” – and past Karel Hynek!) and folk poetry (Karel Jaromír! etc.). It is not for nothing that her celebrated collection of folk poems is entitled Láska a smrt [Love and Death] as these are Rybáková’s main themes. The wave of words travels from the surge of feelings and passion to the embankment of death – demonstrating the futility of attempting to apply any kind of literary “science”. This is particularly the case with Rybáková, with her purely personal poetry, a poetry which is often carried by the rhythm of a voice or a breath, a poetry which despite general indifference has not yet given up on rigorous questions and great emotions (through the symbol of the storm, lightning, fire...) The author takes the best from folk traditions with a touch of the romantic echo of Russian heroic poetry and the mythical landscape of fairy tales (“na dně studny led / nebudu plakat v lese / vítr ti nedonese / v polibku v slze jed / v jeskyni pach a běl / bledulím visí hlavy / hosté se seběhli slaví / třistakrát krutost žel / ve studni tma a vír / kde je můj bohatýr?”). She is able to communicate an important message in an onomatopoeiac manner (“…kšá šakal tančím / s cizincem v břiše / velikými zuby / hryže k zapomnění / kšá šakal kšá!”) sometimes with an archaic pathos – sometimes by a subtle shift in word order – so that she is not constantly ironic like the poet Božena Správcová. Rybáková brings to female poetry an unaffected, sometimes almost masculinely coarse voice (“...rozežerou mě červi / Až prasknou kdosi / otevře hrob Bude tam / jen něžná pánevní kost / a myš / pro kterou jsem mohla být / prolézačka skrýš”), though she does not have to set out to prove how strong it is. It is a mature and, even with all its stylization, authentic voice.

Deutsch Viktorie RYBÁKOVÁ, Deutsch.doc

En français Viktorie RYBÁKOVÁ, En français.doc