Ji Kol - Tumblr Posts
La cosa è destinata all'uso e solo l'usura la fa giungere a maturità.
Things are meant to be used, and solely through use do they become mature.
Jiří Kolář
Jiří Kolář, Objective poem, 1964
Jiří Kolář, Black Sugar, 1963
Jiří Kolář: ‘Vyvěs vyznač prodej’ in Návod k upotřebení (1969)
Hang a sign on your window: NOT WANTED: A STAMP COLLECTION NOT FOR SWAP: A FLAT PIANO LESSONS: NOT OFFERED DOG NOT FOUND
Write on your door: BE BACK IN A HUNDRED YEARS NON-STAFF ONLY DISTURB LITTERING NOT PROHIBITED PLEASE SPIT ON THE FLOOR ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION
Place an advert: FOR SALE: A BABY CARRIAGE FOR OCTUPLETS LOOKING FOR AN UNINTELLIGENT MAN SMOKER, DRUNK, GAMBLER UGLY, PERVERTED, CONVICT WILL DEPOPULATE NEW YORK ON THE SPOT FOR SWAP: A MATCH BOX FOR A PYRAMID WILL TEACH TO WALK ON THE CEILING FOR FREE
Jiří Kolář: rukopis Prométheových jater (za který byl několik měsíců vězněn) | manuscript of Liver of Prometheus (for which he spent several months in prison) Světy Jindřicha Chalupeckého | The Worlds of Jinřich Chalupecký: exhibition in Prague City Gallery (16. 3. 2022 – 19. 6. 2022)
“What is done by today’s journalists, editors in publishing houses and political officials in editorial offices and ministries, the destruction of books, constant purges not only in second-hand bookshops, public libraries, but also societies and institutes, can only be called ‘the gassing of spirit’, and from here it is only a step, if it is not being done already, only a step to mass murder, to mass murder itself.”
Zpropadeně Meluzíno Ty ještě nemáš večeři a já mám schůzku s kukuřičným polem Dalo mi klíček od komůrky Uvař rychle nějakou hvězdu Poklidím lípám
Damn you, Melusine Dinner’s not ready yet and I have a meeting with the corn field It gave me a key to its chamber Quickly, cook up a star I will clean up after the linden trees
From Jiří Kolář’s debut Křestný list.
Jindřich Chalupecký wrote about it:
But what immediately surprised me was the peculiar character of Kolář’s idiom. It was neither literary, nor colloquial. It used the ordinary speech of ordinary people, which is not fixed and defined by literary norms, but while this language is usually used in literature to create contrast, in Kolář’s debut, it was the starting point of the poem. The vernacular interested Kolář because it eludes the function of a mere instrument of conveying information: it is also the subject of constant linguistic play, which by disrupting the outer form of language revives its structures and keeps it plastic to bring it back to reality and life.
The translation of the poem really is merely illustrative. There is no way to translate the beautiful zpropadeně and to keep the reminiscence of folk songs in dalo mi klíček od komůrky, and the familiarity and domesticity of ty ještě nemáš večeři... Great poetry really is untranslateable.