Slovo úvodem - Ljudmila

Foreword
It would be hard to imagine a better environment for the greatest Slovenian literary presentation
abroad than is provided by the Prague book fair, which is better and more vivacious every year, as
literary and cultural ties between Slovenia and the Czech Republic have been close for centuries. The most prominent
Slovenian poet France Prešeren (1800-1849) in one of his poems depicted the beauty of a girl from Brno; the poet,
prose writer and father of the Slovenian literary science Fran Levstik (1831-1887) was attending the theological seminary
in Olomouc until he was forced to leave it because of the alleged immorality of his first collection of poetry. The play written
by the most important Slovenian novelist and playwright Ivan Cankar (1876-1918) Za narodov blagor, published in
the book in 1901, was first staged in Prague, and in 2005 it will be exactly 100 years since the performance. The most
frequently translated Slovenian novel, Alamut by Vladimir Bartol (1903-1967), published in 1938, was translated into
Czech soon after it came out; almost fifty years later, in the 1980’s, through the French and the Spanish translations, this
story of the religious fanaticism circled the globe. In the 1940’s, the literary historian Oton Berkopec (1906-1988), who
spent most of his life in Prague, compiled two anthologies of Slovenian poetry in Czech, which were the first two comprehensive
presentations of Slovenian literature in a foreign language.
Slovene-Czech literary ties have continued to this day. Czech is the language into which the greatest amount of Slovenian
literature is translated (apart from Croatian); during the last decade, on the average five books by Slovenian authors
have been published in Czech every year. Since Slovenia became an independent state in 1991, Slovenian literature has
gained recognition in the world: more than sixty modern Slovenian authors have been published in various languages.
Tomaž Šalamun, Drago Jančar and Aleš Debeljak each pride themselves with more than thirty translated books. Besides
Jančar, Czech reading audience will be able to meet other Slovenian living classics at the fair, among others Svetlana
Makarovič, a brilliant poet and performer of her poetry, Dane Zajc, who put an indelible mark on the poets of the
younger generation, and more than twenty other renowned poets and prose writers. They will participate in the readings
in Slovene, Czech and English, take part in round-table discussions in the company of their renowned Czech colleagues,
sign their books in Czech translation and answer the questions about their work.
Slovenian culture also successfully asserted itself in the world through philosophy (Slavoj Žižek), music (composer
Vinko Globokar, singer Marjana Lipovšek, ensembles Avseniki and Laibach, DJ Umek), visual art (Marjetica Potrč), theatre
(Slovensko mladinsko gledališče), modern dance (En-Knap, Betontanc), new media (Marko Peljhan), film (which in
Slovenia started with the still popular comedies of the Czech František Čap) and, last but not least, architecture: the central
architect of his time Jože Plečnik (1872-1957) designed his main creations in Ljubljana and Prague. This is why the
literary appearance in Prague will be supported by exhibitions, concerts, films, particularly those based on literary works,
performances of the street theatre, and the poets will also read their poetry in the club accompanied by a DJ.
It can sometimes be heard that Slovenia is a state born from the spirit of poetry. This spirit, which knows neither of
victory nor of defeat, in the words of the poet Srečko Kosovel (1904-1926), is visiting the Prague fair. Join in!
Organisers of the guest of honour programme
2