The 31st edition of the international literature festival, Prague's "World of Books," took place during the spring frosts, a time when it seemed as if even Pankrác, Servatius, and Boniface were impacting the state of Czech poetry, which had long been struggling in obscurity, with little interest from publishers or even readers. Therefore, the promotional flyer, highlighting a new Prague publishing house, Olympos, and its unique title of poetry by the renowned poet Karel Sýs, "Guaranteed, Irrevocably, the Second-to-Last Ride," was a welcome breath of fresh air.

At the heart of this remarkable collection lies its publisher, František Mareš. He is joined by the reviewer of the manuscript, Milan Blahynka, a leading expert on Czech literature of our time, and a long-time colleague of the poet, writer, and journalist Sýs, who entrusted this work to him for evaluation, unaware that it would soon become a literary legacy. Completing the team is Eva Frantinová, Sýs's most knowledgeable admirer, his poetic student, and literary companion.

A snapshot of Karel Sýs during a meeting of the Union of Czech Writers.

They laughed and cried together, but also created. Eva, therefore, knows better than anyone, from even incomplete sentences, what the poet intended to convey. This is why she skillfully fulfilled her role as editor of the partially unfinished manuscript. Currently, Sýs's last book is being prepared for printing, with a cover traditionally painted by his longtime illustrator, painter, and friend, Vojtěch Kolařík. Before you join the queue to purchase the collection at one of the good bookstores, dear readers, pay attention to both František Mareš's introduction and Milan Blahynka's foreword.

On July 26th of this year, the significant Czech poet Karel Sýs would have turned 80 years old.

"Guaranteed, Irrevocably, the Second-to-Last Ride" is his last work, which did not undergo a second round of authorial revisions, and therefore bears the marks of his search for how to accurately, as he was accustomed to in his poems, name the world around us. Because the time, people, and their actions that Karel Sýs captured in poetry are not just a description of what is seen and heard, but a life revealed through words, from the pole of truth to all-permissible half-truths, and even to the pole of official lies. The reader enters Karel Sýs's poetry as if entering a flowing river of words, and this river, like a river with rapids, shallows, and calm in its meanders, carries the reader's own destiny towards the recognition of the greatness or smallness of human existence.
Popular wisdom says that lightning strikes tall trees.

Indeed, lightning strikes trees, but in the case of people, it is human foolishness and pettiness that strike at human greatness, if such a person is born. We hold in our hands over two hundred pages of the poet's words. Written in black ink on white paper. Lyrics, epic poems, sometimes just sentences capturing memories of ordinary places, of many seemingly ordinary things, so that, just as it happens with children looking through a telescope, it suddenly becomes extraordinary. Yes, the poet's last work is essentially about a great and extraordinary life, a world, but above all, a person who journeys through that world.

Eva Frantinová has taken on the task of preserving the literary legacy of Karel Sýs. We recently had the opportunity to read her memoir about Karel Sýs from the meetings of the Union of Czech Writers.

And the world, like a fairground with a carousel, cotton candy stuck to your lips and fingertips, a merry-go-round and a harlequin, plays the recurring comedy of life. And as in every comedy, there is emptiness left at the end, and sawdust and sand where the tent stood, briefly filled with applause and laughter. Life. It can be lived, drunk, dreamed of, loved, or hated, but Karel Sýs, despite all the adversities of people and times, despite all the troubles caused to him by those who were small, foolish, and uneducated, managed to tell a story about life in his poetry, because he believed in its ultimate truth. He knew it, so he defended it, and that's why he could write at the end of his last poem:

“...it's worth dying, only when I see you all again.”

František Mareš

A poetic testament, the essence of how Karel Sýs lived

At the turn of the year, during the last winter of the poet's life, he took his last breath in the summer. Suddenly, I was frozen. Karel Sýs sent me electronically the manuscript of his latest, extensive poetic work. Not as he often did, to give me time to read it twice before the book was published and I would write a review, but for the first time, and the last time, he was unsure and didn't know how to choose between pairs of expressions, phrases, and word order.

This couldn't be him, always choosing his words carefully, like golden coins. I didn't know that he was battling a terminal illness. Before I could do anything, I started reading, carried away by the torrent of short and incredibly long verses, forgetting about food and what was happening around me, and I don't know how, I was on the last page, 171, where "spring lost its charm / the benevolent sorcerer turned into a thief / the wind is trembling, a cold wind / but it doesn't yet know whether it will blow me in Prague, Písek, or Kostelec nad Orlicí / It's worth dying / only when I see you all again..."

What else could I tell Karel, writes Professor Blahynka, other than to honestly assure him that his poem is excellent and that only he can rewrite the verses where he is searching for the right word, phrase, or word order. I assumed that he would soon send me the "Definitely Irrevocable" penultimate version, already on its way to the printers; I would have bet on it, I knew him that well; but when a mortal feels like he's on a horse, they laugh at him in heaven. Cynicism reigns in heaven. The poet may not have had the strength to work on the piece anymore; until his last days, he meticulously edited LUK, so that we, his colleagues, knew nothing. Coincidentally, and almost maliciously, it remains a mystery where his computer ended up and what was on his desk in the editorial office. Only perhaps in heaven do they know whether Sýs managed to finish the work.

Even before the poem is finalized, a crucial question arises for any potential editors: should they attempt to revise and prepare it for publication, adhering to the poet's intentions? Eva Frantinová, the most qualified collaborator for this endeavor, possesses the courage to do so. However, there is also the possibility of publishing the work in its "unfinished" state. As Eva Frantinová knows, it is incredibly difficult to determine whether what appears to be a typo, a redundant repetition, or something inappropriate is actually a deliberate creative choice; and whether the process of searching for the precise expression can be appreciated as a glimpse into the working methods of the responsible creator, who seeks and ultimately finds, as the poet himself states somewhere in the middle of the poem, how to create "unutterable verses" from ordinary words.

However, even in the version presented by Eva Frantinová, "Guaranteed, Irrevocable, the Second-to-Last Ride" is undoubtedly and fortunately an irreversible poetic testament, a will, in which everything the poet lived for, what he dedicated himself to, what he loved and hated, what he achieved, and how he navigated our world, is captured without concealment, in a Nezvál-esque glass showcase. It is no coincidence that, towards the end of the work, he confesses: "Sometimes, occasionally, I allow myself to drive home past Nezvál / I always, occasionally, wave to him." I remember Nezvál not occasionally, but always.

Milan Bahynka

Cover of the book being presented, which will be published in late May and early June.

A Mayakovsky Reincarnation

It is unnecessary to introduce the poet and his work to knowledgeable readers. Rather, the following lines are intended for the younger generations, born during the millennial era, who may not have accessed his biography on Wikipedia, which they usually hold almost constantly. So, this Czech poet, writer, translator, and left-wing journalist (born in 1946, died in 2024) is one of the most important literary figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was an extraordinarily prolific author, producing hundreds of publications, including poetry collections and prose, primarily in the realm of non-fiction, and was a lover and connoisseur of visual arts and music (he even wanted to study at a conservatory in his youth). He was an editor of the legendary publications Tvorba, Kmen, Literární měsíčník, and later Haló noviny, and the left-wing weekly Naše pravda, where he headed the literary supplement LUK (literature and art) until his death. He was also the founder and long-time chairman of the Union of Czech Writers.

A champion of truth and a better future, he did not change his views or behavior even after the regime change in 1989. He was awarded the title of "Meritorious Artist" by President Zeman. In the work of Karel Sýs, poetry is dominant, but in the last twenty years of his life, he also devoted himself to Czech history, satire of the post-revolutionary political development, and the study of folklore. Some of his works were published under pseudonyms, such as Václav Špán, Věra Sýsová, or Kosmas.

Ivan Černý