The world clock showed the poet the diversity of the faces that move around it: places, historical experiences, events and people.

Poetry  |  English sample translation available

In her new poetry collection, Sylva Fischerová summarises her experience of life and poetry and connects them to the various corners of the globe, to the past and present of these places and the historical events that shaped their form, appearance and future. A personal topography intersects with the suprapersonal, with a history of civilization that is much older. These poetic slices of historical events, together with the spaces where they took place, create a remarkable framework for a collection of poems, but also for memories linked to family, emigration and war…

Sylva Fischerová (1963, Prague) is a Czech poet, writer and classical philologist. She was born in Prague, but she lived in Olomouc until the age of eighteen. Her debut publication The Tremor of Racehorses / Chvění závodních koní (Bloodaxe Books, 1990) was released in 1986. She is the author of twelve poetry collections, and also writes short stories, novels, children’s stories and academic papers. Her poems have been translated into many languages, three books having been published in the UK and the USA, with her works of prose being published in various languages including English, German, Dutch, Portuguese and Polish. Her work has also been incorporated into two albums by the singer Monika Načeva. In 2018 Fischerová became the first Poet Laureate of Prague, the city where she lives and lectures on ancient Greek literature, theology and philosophy at Charles University. Her most recent published works include a love story set in 1980s Prague entitled Elza and the Toadstool / Elza a muchomůrka (2022) and the poetry collection A Different Life. Wittgenstein / Jiný život. Wittgenstein (2023).