Zeno Kaprál

Zeno Kaprál

Poet and essayist, recipient of the Czech Literature Foundation prize. He was born in Brno on 19 October 1941.


Title Publisher Year Selected published translations Awards
Inside and Outside (uvnitř vně) Druhé město 2014
Nursery Rhymes for Three Girls and One Boy (Říkadla pro tři holčičky a jednoho kluka) Větrné mlýny 2014
Strmilov’s Pages (Strmilovské listy) Větrné mlýny 2007
Dry Advents Mass (Suché roráty) Klokočí a Knihovna Jana Drdy 2004
The Paddle of Stability (Pádlo stálosti) Vetus via 2003
Green of the Azure Sky (Zeleň blankytu) Vetus via 2003
Drunkenly Sober (Namol střízliv) Vetus via 2002
Comments and Maxims (Glosy a maximy) Votobia 2001
Sounds of Discipline (Ozvy kázní) Votobia 2000
My Insurance or In the Arcadian Landscape (Moje pojišťovna aneb V krajině arkádské) Větrné mlýny 1998
Wild Firing Positions (Plané palposty) Host 1997
The Pink Journey (Růžová cesta) Petrov 1995
Reiner´s Comittee (Reinerův výbor) Petrov 1992
Fences (Ploty) Mladá fronta 1962
uvnitř vně
Inside and Outside
uvnitř vně
Říkadla pro tři holčičky a jednoho kluka
Nursery Rhymes for Three Girls and One Boy
Říkadla pro tři holčičky a jednoho kluka
Strmilovské listy
Strmilov’s Pages
Strmilovské listy
Suché roráty
Dry Advents Mass
Suché roráty
Pádlo stálosti
The Paddle of Stability
Pádlo stálosti
Zeleň blankytu
Green of the Azure Sky
Zeleň blankytu
Namol střízliv
Drunkenly Sober
Namol střízliv
Glosy a maximy
Comments and Maxims
Glosy a maximy
Ozvy kázní
Sounds of Discipline
Ozvy kázní
Moje pojišťovna aneb V krajině arkádské
My Insurance or In the Arcadian Landscape
Moje pojišťovna aneb V krajině arkádské
Plané palposty
Wild Firing Positions
Plané palposty
Růžová cesta
The Pink Journey
Růžová cesta
Reinerův výbor
Reiner´s Comittee
Reinerův výbor
Ploty
Fences
Ploty
Praise
In a timeless manner this poet has become part of today, he keeps a sharp edge in his antiquarian verses, he utilizes a magical distance and perspective which his archaic style offers. At the same time he manages to maintain his enthusiasm and sincerity. Herein lies part of his magic: even when his writing is controlled there is still the soul of an eccentric.
—Jan Štolba
Lidové noviny

After military service (1962–1964) he worked as a tutor in a reform school, he was a contributor to Plzeň Radio, a surveyor and a fireman. In 1966 he became an insurance agent for Česká pojišťovna (Czech Insurance), where he worked for more than twenty years. He worked with Czech Television creating portraits of poets. He has been writing verse since the end of the 1950s. In the 1960s he was a major figure in the Brno underground and many of his works were published in samizdat form. He lives alternately in Brno and Strmilov.

He made his literary debut with the collection Ploty (Fences, Mladá fronta, 1962). The collection Zachránci ptáků (Bird Saviours) was ready for publication by Československý spisovatel in 1968, but an interdict by the Communist Party prevented it from coming out. The poet published the second collection in 1992 (after samizdat editions in the 1980s) – exactly thirty years later. It is called Reinerův výbor (Reiner’s Committee, Petrov, 1992) and it won the Czech Literary Foundation prize. It is named after the editor of the poetry collection, Martin Reiner, who selected and put together poems from eight manuscripts and samizdat collections of Kaprál’s works. “The content is surprisingly dense, conveyed with original imagery, a remarkable vocabulary, which in places touches on decadent poetry, although in terms of meaning the message of this verse is rooted in questions concerning contemporary man. There is much here which is left unsaid, induced, provocative, the poet does not set store by being unambiguous, he is searching and in doing so inspires the reader,” wrote Miroslav Tmé in a review of the book at the time. The same year also saw the publication of the collection Staré texty, nové texty (Old Texts, New Texts, Votobia, 1992) with a foreword by the poet Jiří Kuběna.

This was followed by Růžová cesta (The Pink Journey, Petrov, 1995) and Plané palposty (Wild Firing Positions, Host, 1998). “Not even in their proximity to myths do Kaprál’s texts stop forming his parallel world. Paradoxically, it is not a world of questions, but the search for answers to questions which haven’t even yet been put forward (and on this level, the text accuses us of the inability, or even the fear, to ask questions face to face with the answers),” wrote academic Tomáš Kubíček about the book.

In the collection Moje pojišťovna aneb v krajině arkádské (My Insurance or In the Arcadian Landscape, Větrné mlýny, 1998) Kaprál presents himself as a humorous commentator on the world of insurance and the clerks who make a living by it.

Then in quick succession Kaprál published the collections Ozvy kázání (Sounds of Discipline, Votobia, 2000), Glosy a maximy (Comments and Maxims, Votobia, 2001), Namol střízliv (Drunkenly Sober, Vetus via, 2002), Pádlo stálosti (The Paddle of Stability, Vetus via, 2003), Zeleň blankytu (Green of the Azure Sky, Vetus via, 2003) and Suché roráty (Dry Advents Mass, Klokočí, 2004). “In Suché roráty the author expands his asceticism, his tendency towards silence and towards an austere lyricism, to vault over the inhabitable inner-outer space of poetic existence, which would maintain the heat of an artistic fireplace, just as with the remains of the balance between the inconsistency and divergence of external phenomena and between concentrating on their metaphorical and metaphysical character and nature, embodied in the flow of a poem.” Four years later Hrubá mezihra (A Rough Interlude, Pavel Mervart, 2008) was published.

Zeno Kaprál produced no more poetry until 2014, when he published two collections – Říkadla pro tři holčičky a jednoho kluka (Nursery Rhymes for Three Girls and One Boy, Druhé město, 2014) and Uvnitř vně (Inside and Outside, Druhé město, 2014). Writer Arnošt Goldflam wrote of the book that, “He looks into the face of everyone and everything, including death. His language is rich, his images almost mannerist, laconically communicated, but sometimes he unexpectedly grips your heart. We don’t have many poets like Kaprál: he is unique in his breadth that ranges from profound spirituality to apparent banality. He now stands amongst the greats in poetry: we return to him, repeatedly affected by the strength of his words.”