Poetry
Básnik a žena
Not translated into English
Ján Smrek · 1934
Synopsis
A poem in five chapters in which the voices of a man and a woman alternate. It follows the couple through a year: a snowy park in January, spring, a Midsummer night on a lake, the falling of the leaves in autumn. The poet voices his admiration for woman, a being full of mysteries, with the gallantry of a troubadour for whom absence feeds passion; life appears there as a miracle or a dream, and love, at first sensual, becomes a path of humility and reciprocity.
Context
The first four chapters date from 1923, according to the note in the book, and the fifth from early 1934. The first appeared in 1923 in Slovenské pohľady under the title Épisode de janvier dans un parc enneigé, the next three in 1925 in the same review; the poet says in his memoirs that he wrote them in two or three weeks. For the book, published by L. Mazáč in the series the poet edits, he deeply rewrites chapters two to four and moves a Venetian night to a lake; according to Michal Habaj, love there shifts from a sensual aesthetics to an ethics, from a vitalism of the senses to a moral vitalism.
Who it is for
A poem of medium length, in singing verse, that reads in one sitting like a narrative for two voices.
Prizes and reception
One of its author's best-known books, reissued in 1957 with illustrations by Vincent Hložník.