Ewald Osers Libri

Kolya, here beautifully translated by Ewald Osers, is the novelization of the Czech film of the same name, which won both the 1997 Oscar and Golden Globe awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Set in Prague in 1988—just before the Velvet Revolution—it tells the story of Louka, a virtuoso performer with the Czech Philharmonic, who has been banned from playing by the state. Now he finds himself playing at cemeteries for a living. Adding to his problems, an illegal arranged marriage has left the hardened bachelor with a little Russian boy to care for. From these elements, Zdenek Sverak—who also played Louka in the film—has woven an enduring tale of the transforming powers of music, language, and love.

Allowed to enter England in 1938, Ewald Osers was not to see his home town, Prague, for another twenty-seven years. In the intervening years Ewald Osers would become one of the best known translators of European literature in the twentieth century. This memoir presents an account of the many works he has translated.

Works selected from twenty-five poets from the Balkan regions, based on volumes published during the past twenty years. ""Many of the poems evoke peasant art from Yugoslovia, of which much of Macedonia was a part for much of this century. Brilliant and ornate, with vivid dreamlike images, the work of Slavko Janevski is painterly in the extreme...Mateja Matevski's hard-edged poems offer a glory of crammed imagery...Osers' selections make us hunger for more"" - Booklist. ""A valuable contribution to our appreciation of Macedonian poetry as one of the most vibrant in world literatures"" - Slavic Review.

This detailed biography of a key figure in nineteenth-century philosophy examines both the life and work of Arthur Schopenhauer. Rudiger Safranski situates Schopenhauer within the context of his philosophical predecessors and contemporaries, such as Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel, while exploring the sources of his profound alienation from their "secularized religion of reason." The narrative delves into Schopenhauer's personal life, depicting struggles against a domineering father and the challenges of reconciling with his mother's literary success, as well as the loneliness he faced when his major work, The World as Will and Representation, was initially overlooked. Safranski also highlights the vibrant culture of Goethe's Weimar and Hegel's Berlin, enriching the portrayal of the era's intellectual landscape. Schopenhauer's philosophy, characterized by "weeping and gnashing of teeth," found few followers during the Romantic idealism of his time. However, after the disillusionments of 1848, his ideas gained traction among philosophers and writers, influencing figures from Nietzsche to Samuel Beckett. This biography, the first of Schopenhauer in English this century, vividly brings to life an intriguing philosopher and the intellectual battles of his time, whose impact continues to resonate today.

Un geniale apologo pieno di spirito e amara ironia significativamente scritto nel 1936: in una baia dei mari del Sud viene scoperta una strana e mite "salamandra" antropomorfa. I primi esemplari vengono usati nella pesca delle perle o portati in giro nei circhi. Poi si scopre che le salamandre imparano a parlare facilmente e si comincia a usarle come manodopera (alquanto schiavizzata) per complesse lavorazioni subacquee e iniziano agevoli tentativi di "civilizzarle": esilaranti per forza parodistica i passi nei quali si narra la loro evangelizzazione religiosa e politica... Rapidamente si arriva al loro uso militare da parte delle nazioni "civili". Altrettanto rapidamente nasce la coscienza di essere un popolo e le conoscenze acquisite vengono ritorte contro il genere umano: crolli sottomarini dovuti a esplosioni provocate dalle geniali salamandre artificiere (che ormai si autogovernano e obbediscono a una sorta di Re che trasmette i suoi diktat e le sue condizioni agli uomini con trasmissioni radio) aprono voragini sempre più ampie lungo le coste: New Orleans è tra le prime città a essere devastate dall'avanzata dei flutti. Ma anche tra il popolo delle salamandre nascono divisioni, si generano fazioni e inizia una guerra intestina che porterà alla distruzione globale...

Old Masters (1985) is Thomas Bernhard's devilishly funny story about the friendship between two old men. For over thirty years Reger, a music critic, has sat on the same bench in front of a Tintoretto painting in a Viennese museum, thinking and railing against contemporary society, his fellow men, artists, the weather, even the state of public lavatories. His friend Atzbacher has been summoned to meet him, and through his eyes we learn more about Reger - the tragic death of his wife, his thoughts of suicide and, eventually, the true purpose of their appointment. At once pessimistic and exuberant, rancorous and hilarious, Old Masters is a richly satirical portrait of culture, genius, nationhood, class, the value of art and the pretensions of humanity.

It is September 1944; the war is going badly for the Germans, and they are in a hurry to complete their 'final solution'. Compromises are being made on all sides, conditions are unspeakable, rumours are rife, but nothing definite is known of the Nazis' intentions. On the outskirts of a concentration camp in northern Bohemia three people - two eighteen-year-old men and a desperately lost young woman, Leah - are thrown together, sharing their precarious existence in an attic room. While the world disintegrates around them their relationships are charged with passion, their days filled with erotic and spiritual attraction. Caught in the web of their relationships, their futures are uncertain and any choices they have left to make will be made in the face of almost certain death...

Bilingvní, česko-anglické vydání básně Vítězslava Nezvala.

Although Seifert lived through the many historic turns of his homeland, his was not a political poetry, except in its constant expression of love for his homeland, its beauties and its values. He was the great poet of Prague, of love, of the senses. His work was unpretentious, lyrical yet irreverent, earthy, charming. Seifert was known for the simplicity of his verse, yet his poems are full of surprises, never what at first they seem.

Hanka ha capelli ramati e occhi verdi. Il giorno in cui arriva a Auschwitz-Birkenau con i genitori e il fratello, a lei tocca in sorte la corsia di sinistra e sopravvive. Hanka è ebrea, ha 15 anni, ma finge di essere diciottenne e ariana. Ora si chiama Bambola ed è una delle prostitute più giovani del bordello Nr. 232 Ost sul fronte orientale. Sulla pancia porta tatuata la parola Feldhure, puttana da campo. Inizia così il lungo calvario di Hanka che combatte il freddo e la fame, la paura e la vergogna, sostenuta dal desiderio indomito di sopravvivere, costi quel che costi, e da una fiducia che non verrà mai meno. Lustig è uno dei più importanti esponenti della letteratura ceca, un protagonista del Novecento. Nei suoi occhi verdi è un romanzo straordinario - tradotto in numerose lingue - che porta il lettore nel mondo di Hanka, lo fa combattere con lei, partecipe di un profondo senso della speranza e della trascendenza.

Czech writer Vitezslav Nezval (1900-58) was one of the leading Surrealist poets of the 20th century. Prague with Fingers of Rain is his classic 1936 collection in which Prague’s many-sided life – its glamorous history, various weathers, different kinds of people – becomes symbolic of what is contradictory and paradoxical in life itself.

"The voice [in these stories] is clear and intelligent and brave. Mr. Klima has climbed the mast." New York Times

Page edges tanned. Shipped from the U.K. All orders received before 3pm sent that weekday.

The memoir of a writer sentenced to hard labor in Stalinist Czechoslovakia, this is a soaring story of hope and survival. Written during the first year of his sentence for offences against the Stalinist regime, it is a shocking but surprisingly humorous account of life under a harsh regime.

Svazek obsahuje verše současného amerického básníka, scénáristy a dramatika, které kromě intimních reflexí přinášejí i jeho postřehy z cest. Vůbec se zdá, že autorovo putování po nejrůznějších kontinentech se stává jedním z "hnacích motorů" jeho poetiky, která se svým pojetím hlásí spíše ke všednímu, až civilnímu tónu. Tato koncepce pak dává Raganovi možnost, aby se konkrétně vyjádřil k nejrůznějším historickým či společenským problémům určité země, kterou právě navštívil. V tomto básnickém souboru se do centra autorova zájmu dostaly dva sousední státy uprostřed Evropy - Čechy a Slovensko. Zatímco u druhého z nich se Ragan pokouší navázat především na tradici lidových balad, první z nich ho doslova "uhranul" nepřeberným množstvím kulturních památek, mýty i pověstmi, bohatou architekturou i dějinnými rozpory. Snad i proto Ragan tvrdí, že píše poezii, aby "pohnul myslí králů a popíchl svědomí společnosti".

Paměti britského překladatele českého původu Ewalda Oserse, který odborné a čtenářské veřejnosti v anglofonních zemích představil např. Jaroslava Seiferta, Jana Skácela, Vítězslava Nezvala, Egona Hostovského, Ivana Klímu nebo Karla Čapka. Přeložil 150 knih, z toho téměř čtyřicet sbírek poezie. Kniha je rozdělena do čtyř částí, zahrnujících dobu dětství a raného mládí v předválečné Praze, pobyt v Anglii během války, poválečný vývoj a barvitý popis Osersových profesionálních aktivit – zejména jeho práce ve válečném zpravodajství BBC. Půvab Pamětí spočívá v tom, že v nich Ewald Osers nehovoří detailně o překladatelských problémech, ale přesto výmluvně vypovídá o tom, co to je být vynikajícím překladatelem. Svazek uzavírá doslov Martina Hilského a úplná bibliografie publikovaných knižních překladů Ewalda Oserse.

33 básní v slovenčine a 18 básni v nemeckom alebo anglickom preklade spájajú témy židovský osud a holokaust. Ako v predslove píše popredná česká poetka Jana Štroblová, „Richter je básník, spontánně reagující i na sebenepatrnější podněty zvenčí. Schopností bezprostředních reakcí asnahou dodat obecnější platnosti i zážitkům nejsubjektivnějším pripomene tu a tam našeho již nežijícího Miroslava Holuba. U obou je všudepřítomná hořká, až nemilosrdná ironie a kritičnost k jakýmkoli iluzím, ať už osobním či společenským. Holub však měl aspoň jednu víru, a to víru ve všemocnost vědy. Takovou víru Richter nehlásá. Ke všeobsáhlé skepsi ho opravňuje i paměť krve, zadřená tříska židovské zkušenosti (...), jaká snad co do síly tragického prožitku nemá v současné poezii obdobu.“