Poetry
Žofia
Not translated into English
Valentín Beniak · 1941
Synopsis
A long poem of one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven lines, in three cycles: Halucinácia, in six rhymed suites, Slzy, in unrhymed verse, and Pax, made up of twelve sonnets. It is built around the poet, the man and Žofia, a figure of woman, of poetry and of wisdom, and advances like a river, by variations on a few motifs, between dream and reality, in a hallucinated flow that never slackens. Faced with a world that war is tearing apart, it voices nostalgia for a lost harmony and freedom and faith in peace, in a simple language close to popular speech.
Context
The author's eighth composition, the poem appeared in Martin in 1941 and marks a break in his work. With Popolec and Igric, it forms a trilogy of long poems that gives a visionary image of men seeking support in a world struck by catastrophe. Close to Nezval's poetism and to Slovak nadrealism, on a symbolist basis, it seeks to renew regular verse. Critics have read it through the baroque and mysticism, with Stanislav Mečiar and Jozef Kútnik-Šmálov, who compares it to a dome by turns grandiose and terrible; it reappeared in 1967 with Popolec.
Who it is for
A long, demanding poem, in varied metres and often open in meaning, to be read in a single movement.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as a new voice in Slovak poetry, one that refuses to reduce art to a political formula.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.