UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE

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UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE – FILOZOFICKÁ FAKULTA ÚSTAV ANGLOFONNÍCH LITERATUR A KULTUR

The Reception of Irish Literature and Drama in Czech Translation in the Years 1945 – 2014 DIPLOMOVÁ PRÁCE

vedoucí diplomové práce: zpracovala:

doc. Ondřej Pilný, PhD Alžběta Laurincová

Praha, leden 2015 studijní obor:

Anglofonní literatury a kultury – Irská studia

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Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto diplomovou práci vypracovala samostatně, že jsem řádně citovala všechny použité prameny a literaturu a že práce nebyla využita v rámci jiného vysokoškolského studia či k získání jiného nebo stejného titulu.

V Praze dne 3. ledna 2015

I declare that the following MA thesis is my own work for which I used only the sources and literature mentioned and that this thesis has not been used in the course of other university studies or in order to acquire the same or another type of diploma.

Prague, 3^rd January 2015

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Děkuji svému vedoucímu, doc. Ondřeji Pilnému, PhD, za jeho velkou trpělivost, podrobné kritické poznámky a neocenitelnou pomoc při psaní této diplomové práce. Ráda bych také poděkovala Daniele Theinové, PhD, za její konzultaci ohledně některých aspektů v diplomové práci. Souhlasím se zapůjčením diplomové práce ke studijním účelům.

I would like to thank my supervisor, doc. Ondřej Pilný, PhD, for his immense patience, extensive critical comments and invaluable help he provided during my writing of the diploma thesis. I would also like to thank Daniela Theinová, PhD, for her consultations upon certain aspects of the diploma thesis. I have no objections to the MA thesis being borrowed and used for study purposes.

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Abstract

The main aim of the thesis is to introduce the problematics of Czech translations from Irish literature published in the Czech Lands in the period between 1945 – 2014. The author of the thesis provides the list of the authors that were translated in the Czech Lands in that period, and comments upon the literary tradition related to it. Due to the extensive amount of works, the thesis is divided into several chapters, introducing four specific periods: 1945 – 1948 (the end of WWII – the beginning of the Soviet control), 1949 – 1968 (Soviet control – the occupation of the Troops of Warsaw Pact), 1969 - 1989 (the occupation – Velvet Revolution) and 1989 – 2014 (Velvet Revolution – "Velvet Divorce“ – the present day). In each chapter the historic introduction is provided mainly to foreshadow the context of the whole era. The discussion about the translations from Irish literature consists from general list of works by individual authors and comments upon their presence at the Czech literary market, the frequency of publishing, the reception of individual authors etc. The author also considers the socio-political occurences that might have influenced the final shape of the Irish-Czech literary canon, and, when possible, tries to demonstrate the extent of such influence.

Abstrakt

Hlavní téma této práce je představení problematiky českých překladů irské literatury, publikované v českých zemích v letech 1945 – 2014. Autorka této práce poskytuje seznam autorů, kteří byli v tomto období v Čechách překládaní, a zmiňuje se o literární tradici, která s publikováním zmiňovaných děl souvisí. Z důvodu velkého množství materiálů je práce rozdělena do několika kapitol a představuje čtyři specifická období: 1945 – 1948 (konec druhé světové války – počátky sovětské kontroly), 1949 – 1968 (počátky sovětské kontroly – okupace vojsky varšavské smlouvy), 1969 - 1989 (okupace vojsky varšavské smlouvy –

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Sametová revoluce) a 1989 – 2014 (Sametová revoluce – "Sametový rozchod“ - současnost).

V každé kapitole poskytuje autorka historický úvod, především z důvodu kontextu dané éry.

Diskuze na téma překladů irské literatury sestává především ze seznamu daných děl konkrétních autorů a komentáře, týkajícího se jejich přítomnosti na literárním trhu, frekvence vydávání, přijetí jednotlivých autorů a jejich děl atd. Autorka se také zamýšlí nad socio- politickým kontextem jednotlivých dob, který mohl ovlivnit konečný vzhled irsko-českého literárního kánonu, a komentuje míru tohoto vlivu.

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THE CONTENT

1. The Introduction and Irish Literature in the Czech Lands till WWII 1.1.1. The introduction 8 – 9

1.1.2. Irish Literature in the Czech Lands till WWII 10 – 19 2. 1945-1948: from the End of WWII to the Beginning of the Soviet Control over the

Czech Lands

2.1. Historic introduction 20 – 21 2.1.1. Dramatic works 21 – 29 2.1.2. Prosaic works 29 – 37 2.1.3. Poetry 37 – 45 3. 1949-1968: from the Beginning of the Soviet Control over the Czech Lands to the

Entrance of the Troops of Warsaw Pact

3.1.1. Historic introduction 46 – 48 3.1.2. Dramatic works 48 – 66 3.1.3. Prosaic works 67 – 80 3.1.4. Poetry 80 – 83 4. 1968-1989: from the Occupation of the Troops of Warsaw Pact to the Fall of the

Communist Regime

4.1.1. Historic introduction 84 – 86 4.1.2. Dramatic works 87 – 95 4.1.3. Prosaic works 95 – 104

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4.1.4. Poetry 104 – 108 5. 1989-2014: from the Fall of the Communist Regime till the Present Day

5.1. Historic introduction to the period between 1989 and 1993 and to the period

between 1993 and 2014 108 – 109 5.1.1. The period between 1989 – 1993 109 - 111 5.1.1.1. Dramatic works 190 – 110

5.1.1.2. Prosaic works 110 – 111

5.1.2. The period between 1993-2014 112 – 150 5.1.2.1. Changes in reception 112 – 116

5.1.2.2. Dramatic works 116 – 127 5.1.2.3. Prosaic works 128 – 141 5.1.2.3.1. Canonical authors 128 – 136 5.1.2.3.2. Popular fiction 136 - 141 5.1.2.4. Translations from the Irish language – prose and poetry 142 - 146 5.1.2.5. Poetry 146 – 160 5.1.2.5.1. Vzdálené tóny naděje 147 – 151 5.1.2.5.2. Apart from Vzdálené tóny naděje… 151 – 161 6. Conclusion 162 – 166 7. List of works 167 – 193

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CHAPTER 1: The Introduction and Irish Literature in the Czech Lands till WWII

1.1. The introduction

The aim of the diploma thesis “The Reception of Irish Literature and Drama in Czech Translation in the Years 1945 – 2014” is primarily to discuss the variable reception of Irish literature (prose, poetry and drama) in translation in the Czech Lands in the second half of 20^th century. The thesis will consequently try to demonstrate how much the reception was determined by the political situation in the Czech Lands (Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic).

The paper will be divided into six chapters. The first chapter will introduce the reception of Irish literature in the Czech Lands in general, from the very beginning till the end of the WWII. The first translations from Anglo-Irish literature will be mentioned and discussed, and the chronological overview will be provided.

In each subsequent chapter the political context will be set, in order to better understand the socio-political situation in the Czech Lands in the concrete period. The chapters will then discuss the most important works that were translated into Czech, from the genres of drama, prose and poetry. Alongside the canonical works (Wilde, Shaw, Beckett etc.), the books/plays that do not belong to Irish canon but gained interest of the Czech translators will be discussed (among these, the novels and short-story collections that belong to the category of popular fiction can be listed), and also such works that are a part of Irish canon but despite

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their prominence, they were not translated extensively in the Czech Lands, or did not receive general acceptance by the reading public.

The individual chapters will therefore provide the following information: first, the list of the most important translations that were published in the concrete historical period in the Czech Lands will be set. The authors will mostly be arranged according to their importance in the Irish literary canon, and, if needed, the brief biography of the individual authors (primarily these that are still rather unknown in the Czech Lands) will be added. Second, the reception of the translations in the Czech Lands will be considered, with the help of various secondary sources.

The conclusion of the thesis will provide a brief overview, summarizing the six chapters, in which the reception of Irish literature in the individual periods will be reiterated. The database of translations from Irish literature, provided by Daniel Samek, and all other databases used during the process of writing, are listed at the end of the thesis as a part of bibliography.

The era of the second half of the 20^th century that is going to be discussed here will be divided into five following periods:

1) 1945 – 1948 (from the end of the WWI. to the beginning of the Soviet control over the Czech Lands)

2) 1949 – 1968 (from the beginning of the Soviet control to the occupation of the Troops of Warsaw Pact)

3) 1969 – 1989 (from the occupation to Velvet Revolution)

4) 1989 – 1993 (from Velvet Revolution to “Velvet Divorce” – the disintegration of Czechoslovakia)

5) 1993 – 2014 (from “Velvet Divorce” to the present day)

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1.2. Irish Literature in the Czech Lands till WWII

From a historic point of view, Irish writing was first introduced during the Czech national revival in the period between 1780s and 1850s. The Czech revivalists’ aim at that time was to

“restore the full range of its [the Czech language] functions in society,¹ including translating and publishing. At that time, Irish people that were living in the Czech Lands “prepared the ground for a sympathetic attitude towards the Irish,”² which helped with the acceptance of Irish literature, mostly poetry.³

The first translations from Anglo-Irish poetry appeared at the end of 18^th century (first it was the translation of the ode by Alexander Pope, published in 1785, later it was followed by Josef Jungmann’s translation of Oliver Goldsmith’s ballad “The Hermit” from the novel The Vicar from Wakefield; the ballad was translated in 1797 and published in 1841). Apart from poetry and ballads, the Ossianic lore created by James McPherson gained interest at the beginning of 19^th century. Mánek claims that “its reception was very intensive and of great importance for Czech pre-Romantic writing.”⁴ The first translations were made by one of the Czech leading revivalists, František Palacký, who also “provided information about Celtic society, its values

1 Bohuslav Mánek, "The Czech Reception of Irish Poetry and Prose,“ Ondřej Pilný and Gerald Power eds., Reimagining Ireland – Ireland and the Czech Lands: Contacts and Comparisons in History and Culture (Switzerland / Bern: International Academic Publishers, 2014) 154.

2 Mánek, CRIPP 154.

3 Mánek, CRIPP 153-154.

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and mythology, and the early history of Scotland and Ireland.”⁵ The second half of the century differed with regard to the reception of the Ossianic lore: the focus was put more on the scholarly discourse.⁶

The first Irish poet that became generally known in Czech literary circles in the second half of 19^th century was definitely Thomas Moore. Around the year 1840 five of his poems were published in literary magazines under the translation by František Jaroslav Rieger and Karel Sabina. Around the year 1854 Edmund Břetislav Kaizl published 28 poems translated by various authors. The reason of Moore’s popularity is explained by Mánek in the following way:

It is clear that early translators primarily appreciated those texts which corresponded with trends in the contemporaneous Czech literature, which was dominated by patriotic and sentimental verse recalling the beauty of the homeland and its former glory, regretting lost strength and independence, and deploring the contemporary down-trodden state of the country. […] A general elegiac tone was often combined with profound personal grief.⁷

Overall, especially Moore’s “patriotic songs about the history, woes and hopes of the Irish nation”⁸ were praised the most.⁹

With regard to prosaic works, in 1842 Oliver Goldsmith’s novel The Vicar of Wakefield was translated and published as Kazatel wakefieldský (other translations followed in 1884, 1904 and 1954). It was followed by the translation of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels,

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published in 1852. However, these two authors have never been considered Irish, mainly because of the lack of “Irishness” within their works.¹⁰

The novels by Maria Edgeworth, one of the leading figures of the 19^th century Ireland, were, surprisingly, translated much later; The Absentee (Panství na ostrově) in 1978 and Castle Rackrent (Zámek Rackrent) in 1981, though her works were generally known in literary circles, mostly because of the informative nature of her writing (the “educational, didactic and realistic aspects”¹¹ of her works were praised by many).¹²

Finally, while talking about the period when first translations of Anglo-Irish literature appeared in print, it is necessary to mention the original Czech poem “Král Lávra” by Karel Havlíček Borovský, who was inspired by Irish folklore, its motifs and humour (as an example, it is possible to find a sound similarity between the name of the young hairdresser Kukulín and the Irish folklore figure and the main character of the Irish mythological circle Táin Bó Cuailgne, Cú Chulainn). Mánek claims that Havlíček Borovský “very effectively managed to combine the Irish and Czech elements in a poem imbued with freedom-loving and subversive spirit as well as black humour.”¹³

In the second half of 19^th century and the beginning of 20^th century, “Czech readers were […] acquainted with a wider range of works, from poetry, canonical prose and philosophical writings to popular fiction. For example, Laurence Sterne’s A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy was published in 1903, and various magazines printed Maria Edgeworth’s tales.¹⁴

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One of the strongest currents that appeared in the Czech Lands was definitely the translating of myths, legends and fairy tales. The earliest were published in various magazines at the end of 19^th century (Poutník, Lumír, Obrazy života), later they were printed in a book form as well. Irish mythology greatly inspired the Czech writer Julius Zeyer, who used various tropes in his own works.¹⁵

At the beginning of 20^th century contemporary writers from Ireland were introduced to the reading public, such as Oscar Wilde, George Moore, George Bernard Shaw, William Butler Yeats and John Millington Synge (the last two authors were closely associated with the so-called Irish Literary Revival, resembling the Czech revival in many aspects; that might have partly influenced the Czech translators’ choice because of their own affinity to the aforementioned Czech revival). The Czech literature therefore managed to “catch up and keep pace again with contemporary trends in European literature.”¹⁶ The example of Oscar Wilde may be sufficient enough to indicate the trend.

As Zdeněk Beran claims, “for more than one century Oscar Wilde has been one of the most popular figures among Czech readers and theatre-goers.”¹⁷ He also mentions that the reasons for Wilde’s popularity varied, as well as the focus of the critics. It useful to say that Wilde’s imprisonment raised significant awareness and the interest in his work increased at that time.

It was especially the magazine Moderní revue that took part in the process of “liberating”

Wilde: they kept publishing various Wilde’s texts to show their support, most of them in

17 Zdeněk Beran, "Oscar Wilde and the Czech Decadence,“ Stefano Evangelista ed., The Reception of Oscar Wilde in Europe (UK: A&C Black, 2010) 256.

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translation by Arnošt Procházka, “the central theorist and defender of Decadence,”¹⁸ who was well-known for his search for

poets and artists who were provocative, doubting established values, programmatically opposing themselves to their surroundings and to fashion, poets and artists who were misunderstood, condemned and suppressed.¹⁹

After Wilde’s death in 1900, his “iconic status among the [Czech] Decadents who gathered around Moderní revue [became] indisputable;”²⁰ furthermore, Bohuslav Mánek claims that

“his writings were strongly associated with Czech decadence of fin de siècle aestheticism.”²¹ In the last sixty years two Wilde’s conversational comedies have been continually performed in the Czech Lands: Ideal Husband and The Importance of Being Earnest.²² By 1920 Wilde was firmly established in the Czech Lands, mostly due to the efforts of the early translators and defenders of his “lifestyle” (for example, the poet Jiří Karásek ze Lvovic, the owner of Moderní revue, published an issue in which he “offered what was the first public vindication of homoeroticism in Czech history”²³), which explains the immense number of translations made in this period. Other reason may be that “the early scandalous reputation of Oscar Wilde as an outrageously gay dandy has understandably been somewhat blunted in the course of the

18 Luboš Merhaut, "A Summit and Abyss in One,“ Otto M. Urban ed., Decadence: In Morbid Colours; Art and the Idea of Decadence in the Bohemian Lands 1880 - 1914 (Prague: Arbor Vitae, 2006) 53.

19 Merhaut 53.

20 Beran, OWCD 260.

22 Beran, OWCD 256 – 270.

23 Ondřej Pilný, "Irish Drama in the Czech Lands,“ Reimagining Ireland – Ireland and the Czech Lands: Contacts and Comparisons in History and Culture, Ondřej Pilný and Gerald Power eds. (Switzerland / Bern: International Academic Publishers, 2014) 202.

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century,”²⁴ and the critics started focusing on his plays instead of his personality. Therefore he could reach even wider audience. His most famous conversational comedy, The Importance of Being Earnest,²⁵ belongs to the evergreens of the genre, and it is also the most frequently staged play of all times, “with around a dozen professional productions in each subsequent decade.”²⁶

Around the year 1918 Czechoslovakia “enjoyed a period of rapid social, political and cultural development,”²⁷ which might explain why so many new translations appeared at the literary market. New philosophical trends, such as expressionism and surrealism, were established, which enabled the translators to give prominence to such authors as James Joyce, despite the occasional struggles regarding the content of all controversial works that closely followed²⁸ (in other words, “Joyce elicited some embarrassment or negative response from far from benighted critics whose views were simply too deeply rooted in the values of the 19^th century”²⁹). In 1920 “the fame that he and his work had acquired came to the attention of Czech and Slovak literati […],”³⁰ which was mostly due to the activities of Czech avant- gardists,³¹ and most of all, Adolf Hoffmeister, who maintained regular contact with the artist and even enabled the first translations of Joyce’s work to be published in the Czech Lands.³²

24 Pilný, IDCL 202.

25 Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest (UK: Leonard Smithers and Company, 1899).

29 Josef Grmela, "The Czech Reception of Irish Literature: the 1930s,“ Charles University, Prague, 11^th December 2015, 3 http://www.phil.muni.cz/angl/thepes/thepes_02_05.pdf.

30 Bohuslav Mánek, "The Czech and Slovak Reception of James Joyce,“ Geert Lermout and Wim Van Mierlo eds., The Reception of James Joyce in Europe (UK: A&C Black, 2009) 187.

31 Mánek, CSRJJ 189.

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Finally, between 1910 and 1940 the translating activities increased even more, though mainly the canonical authors were translated; in the genre of drama it was John Millington Synge, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw (who “both remained staples on the Czech theatre repertoire well into the second half of the 20^th century”³³), in the genre of poetry it was especially George Moore and William Butler Yeats, and in the genre of prose it was Liam O’Flaherty, Jonathan Swift, Laurence Sterne, or James Joyce.³⁴

The 1920s the main figures of Irish Literary Revival, Synge and Yeats, found their supporters among “the more conservative, patriotic and generally older section of the Czech population.”³⁵ On the other hand,

the Czech stages and publishing houses were literally teeming with the works of Wilde, and especially Shaw, with their iconoclastic, and in Shaw’s case openly socialist tendencies, engaging mostly the younger generation with its own prevalently irreverent attitude to the 19^th century pieties.³⁶

It culminated in 1930, when the latter tendency prevailed.

In 1928 Hoffmeister

33 Grmela 1.

34 Ondřej Pilný and Gerald Power, "Ireland and the Czech Lands: The Introduction“ Reimagining Ireland – Ireland and the Czech Lands: Contacts and Comparisons in History and Culture, Ondřej Pilný and Gerald Power eds. (Switzerland / Bern: International Academic Publishers, 2014) 10.

35 Grmela 1.

36 Grmela 1.

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negotiated with Joyce about the publication of the first Czech translations of U [Ulysses] and P [A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man)] for the Prague publisher Václav Petr,³⁷

though these were published only in 1930. In 1933 Dubliners were first translated by Josef Hrůša and published by Josef Richard Vilímek. In 1932 Hoffmeister, along with Maria Weathertallová and Vladimír Procházka, translated a fragment from Work in Progress (later Finnegans Wake), Anna Livia Plurabella.³⁸ All aforementioned works were commented upon by various academics, such as František Xaver Šalda or Marie Štěchová, who actually professed opposing attitudes to Joyce’s works.³⁹

Grmela examines the positive aspects of the late introduction of Joyce; he claims that first, “it appealed to a more receptive younger reading public free of pre-war cultural prejudices,”⁴⁰ and second, that “its reception was now in the hands of a much more cultivated generation of literary critics than it would have been had these works been translated more promptly.”⁴¹ He also mentions that the contemporary critics were “widely acquainted with the contemporaneous science-oriented tendencies in literary scholarship of which Prague Structuralism was one of the focal points.”⁴²

Grmela continues that “the inherited pre-war distrust of modernism, still potent in the Czech official cultural policies of the 1920s, had been virtually replaced by the official acceptance of

40 Grmela 2.

41 Grmela 2.

42 Grmela 2.

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modernist art,”⁴³ which may explain Joyce’s popularity, and also the fact that the Irish ambassadors of the traditional writing, Yeats and Synge, “completely disappeared from the list of new publications for more than a decade, or even for three decades respectively.”⁴⁴ However, since 1933 till 1959, not even Joyce was published. Grmela muses upon the possible reasons and summarizes it in a way that there actually exists no prevailing theory which would explain sudden withdrawal of Joyce’s translations:

Was it that the early enthusiasm wore off so quickly as enthusiasm often does, or was it that it was rather based on wrong reasons, such as the oft-cited sexual scandalousness of Ulysses which inevitably had to lose its impact after the novel was followed by Czech translations of the far less provocative A Portrait of the Artist As A Young Man, or Dubliners? Perhaps there is no longer any traceable explanation for this abrupt silence, as there is apparently no convincing explanation for many other abrupt silences in Czech cultural history.⁴⁵

Or, it might be the so called “extra-literary influences,”⁴⁶ he mentions, by which the political and ideological tendencies are meant. It is notable to say that in 1934, when the Czech writers returned from the Congress of Soviet Writers in Moscow, they published a report about their experience, and from the tone of the report it was visible that most of them adopted

uncanny tendency of pre-W-W-II Left-wing Czech intelligentsia to toe the official Soviet line of the day on just about any topic long before it became compulsory,

43 Grmela 2.

44 Grmela 2.

45 Grmela 3.

46 Grmela 4.

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culminating in a few years’ time in the voluntary self-disbandment of the Czech surrealist avant-garde.⁴⁷

Apart from Yeats, Synge and Joyce, there is an evidence that Wilde’s and Shaw’s works, as well as the works by Liam O’Flaherty, appeared in print at that time, because of the surviving reviews by the Czech linguist and critic René Wellek; in 1935 he reviewed Saint Joan (Shaw), he wrote an extensive note about Wilde’s life and work and he also discussed O’Flaherty’s novel The House of Gold.⁴⁸

47 Grmela 4.

48 Grmela 3 – 4.

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CHAPTER 2: 1945-1948: from the End of WWII to the Beginning of the Soviet Control over the Czech Lands

2.1. Historic introduction

Czechoslovakia was liberated from the Nazi powers in 1945, after the end of the WWII.

However, the power of the Communist Party grew, and finally the so-called National Front, the union of mostly non-communist organizations, supervised by the Communist Party, was established. Their aim was primarily to improve the socio-economic conditions in the Czech Lands. Second Land reform appeared in June 1945, soon followed by the industrialization of chief banks and various national enterprises. However, the recovery took quite a long time.

Even more, the influence of the Communist Party kept rising after the rejection of Marshall Plan; in 1946 they won approximately 40% of the votes during the elections. Most of the non- communist ministers resigned till 1948 and very soon a new political system, governed by the Communists only, was established.¹

Moreover, “as the fortunes of war started to favour the Soviet Union, Benes [Edvard Beneš, first elected the Czechoslovak president in 1935², resigned from the post on 5^th October 1930,

1 Ivan Bičík et. al., "Land Use Changes in Czechia 1845-2010,“ Land Use Changes in the Czech Republic 1845 – 2010: Socio-Economic Driving Forces (Praha: Springer 2015) 125-126.

2 "Edvard Beneš,“ Pražský hrad, Pražský hrad 2015, 12^th December 2015 https://www.hrad.cz/cs/prezident- cr/prezidenti-v-minulosti/edvard-benes.

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re-elected on the 11^th May 1946] began to scheme his political future on Russian assistance,”³ according to the sources. He actually made two treaties with Moscow in order to establish the cooperation between the Czechoslovakia and Russia, one in 1943 and the second in 1944. His aim was mainly to expel the German and Hungarian population that was living in Czechoslovakia. The new presidential decrees he processed enabled him to do so: he

“proclaimed the program of the newly appointed Czechoslovak government on April 5, 1945 […] which included inhuman elements of oppression and barbarous persecution of the nom- Czech, non-Slovak and non-allied population of the partially restored Czechoslovak Republic.”⁴

2.2. Dramatic works

Among the playwrights that were translated and published in the Czech Lands in the post-war period, George Bernard Shaw, the leading Irish dramatist, literary critic and essayist (he was considered “the most trenchant pamphleteer since Swift”⁵), definitely plays one of the most significant roles. It may be worth mentioning that his literary career did not develop well at first; the publishers were repelled by his works. Only after he turned his attention to drama, the situation changed. The first mention of Shaw’s name in the Czech Lands dates back to 1896, while in 1906 commentaries upon Shaw’s success appeared in print for the first time. In

3 "Human Rights for Minorities in Central Europe: Ethnic Cleansing in Post World War II Czechoslovakia: The Presidential Decrees of Edvard Beneš, 1945-1948,“ Migration Citizenship Education, 12^th December 2015 http://www.migrationeducation.org/15.1.html?&rid=14&cHash=837b8c7ccb8bac13c520fabf4be40622.

4 Migration Citizenship Education

5 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "George Bernard Shaw,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 21^st July 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Bernard-Shaw/Works-after- World-War-I.

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1908 the first translation, Motýl (originally The Philanderer⁶) was made by Karel Mušek (an actor-director affiliated with Národní divadlo) and performed at Národní divadlo, Praha. After meeting the author and exchanging a set of letters, Mušek soon became Shaw’s “exclusive agent for Czech theatres [and got a] precedence regarding translations rights of his [Shaw’s]

work.”⁷ Moreover, Shaw did not allow re-translations of his works by other translators after Mušek’s death (1924).⁸ However, Ondřej Pilný claims that

despite Mušek’s undeniable pioneering role, the arrangement was not particularly appreciated by the most practitioners and translators, since his versions of Shaw were regarded as rather laborious; later translations, by Frank Tetauer in particular, swiftly gained preference [when they were finally allowed to be made].⁹

One of the admirers of Shaw and at the same time, the opponent of Mušek’s translations, was the famous Czech writer Karel Čapek. After the translator’s death he “made suggestions as to a possible rectification […] and recommended his own agent as Mušek’s successor.”¹⁰ Shaw accepted the offer but after reading the translation, he commented upon it with disregard: “I have never yet had a translator who was not denounced as illiterate, ignorant of English, imbecile, and fatal to my reputation.”¹¹

6 George Bernard Shaw, The Philanderer, L. W. Conolly ed. (UK: Broadview Press, 2015).

7 Pilný, IDCL 204.

8 Pilný, IDCL 204.

9 Pilný, IDCL, 204.

11 See Karel Čapek to GBS, 28^th November 1924; GBS to Karel Čapek, 25^th December 1924, and also Karel Čapek to GBS, 15^th January 1930. All three letters are reprinted in Zpravodaj společnosti bratří Čapků 46 (2008), 14-17 / Pilný, IDCL 204.

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Nevertheless, Čapek and Shaw became friends on the base of their correspondence, and Karel Čapek even mentioned meeting Shaw in his work Anglické listy, “where he described his abashed self listening to Shaw and being filled with ‘bliss combined with terror.’¹²”¹³

In 1947, several of Shaw’s left-wing-oriented political pamphlets appeared in translation: a manual called Everybody’s Political What’s What?¹⁴, translated by Alfred Pflanzer as Politika pro každého, and two articles, “Jak bohatství roste a lidé upadají” and

“Aby se předešlo válkám, měli by muži mýt nádobí a ženy vydělávat na domácnost” (the translator is unknown). The first article was published in Stráž lidu, the second in Svobodný směr and Nedělní noviny.

It is vital to mention that by “bringing a bold social intelligence to his many other areas of interest, [Shaw] helped mould the political, economic and sociological thought of three generations”¹⁵ and that, along with the fact that he was a keen socialist and communist, is the reason why he was so acclaimed in the Czech Lands even in the era of the greatest censorship.

Despite the satirical note, his humour corresponded to the spirit of the era, because it mostly hit the upper-middle and upper class, which was generally appraised. At the same time, he brought deep knowledge to the public through his non-fiction writing.

Apart from the essays, one of Shaw’s plays was translated in 1948, and that was, surprisingly, Mrs. Warren’s Profession. It was translated by Frank Tetauer, one of the most fruitful writers, translators, essayists and theatre critics of the era. Tetauer was a great admirer

12 Karel Čapek, Anglické listy, 9^th edn (Prague: Aventinum, 1930), 129. Čapek’s visit is recounted in detail in Otakar Vočadlo, Anglické listy Karla Čapka, 2^nd edn (Prague: JAN, 1995) / Pilný, IDCL 205. The translation of Čapek’s quote was made by Ondřej Pilný.

14 George Bernard Shaw, Everybody’s Political What’s What – Standard edition of the works of Bernard Shaw (UK: Constable 1944).

15 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, GBS

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of Shaw and wrote “well over thirty articles on Shaw between the mid-1920s and late 1950”¹⁶ (for example, “Filozofie Shawových her a předmluv” and “Ideologie a dramatika”¹⁷). When he was censored during the occupation and his dramas were no longer positively acclaimed, he re-oriented towards prose and wrote several fictions that alluded to the political situation in Czechoslovakia, as well as to the morals of the contemporary society and their struggle for living.¹⁸ That is, probably, one of the reasons why he focused on Shaw: both used the medium of writing to express their similar socio-political ideas, and both were anti-capitalist oriented, as is visible from their writing. Daniel Samek explains Shaw’s eventual success in Czechoslovakia with the following quote: “The warped selection of authors in the 1950s focused mainly on authors with socialist or communist views (e.g. Shaw, O’Casey) […]”¹⁹ Therefore it can be said that Shaw’s political thinking was approved by the regime in Czechoslovakia. It is true that Shaw’s play Mrs. Warren’s Profession, which is often considered a controversial play, raised negative awareness and outrage rather in Great Britain than in Czechoslovakia; “the lord chamberlain, the censor of plays, refused it a license”²⁰ because of the subject of the play – organized prostitution.

Finally, it is necessary to say that George Bernard Shaw, along with Oscar Wilde, “ha[s]

enjoyed by far the greatest reputation in the Czech Lands […], particularly in the first half of the twentieth century.”²¹ He is also one of a few Irish authors whose work has become subject to extensive studies of various Czech scholars.²²

17 Milena Vojtková, "Frank Tetauer,“ Slovník české literatury po roce 1945 (Praha: ÚČL AV ČR, 1998).

18 Milena Vojtková

19 Daniel Samek, "Overview and sources,“ Ústav anglických literatur a kultur Univerzity Karlovy, 22^nd July 2015 http://ualk.ff.cuni.cz/ibibliography/preface.htm?L=1.

20 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, GBS

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John Millington Synge belongs to one of the leading figures of the 19^th and 20^th century Irish drama, because of such plays as The Playboy of the Western World (1907), Riders to the Sea (1904) or In the Shadow of the Glen (1903). Among his lesser known dramas, Deirdre of the Sorrows, “a vigorous poetic dramatization of one of the great love stories of Celtic mythology,”²³ can be named. He started writing it in 1910, but died before he could finish it. Later it was finished by William Butler Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory.

Deirdre of the Sorrows was translated by Aloys Skoumal and on 24^th January 1946 it was performed at the student theatre Disk, under the direction of Ivan Weiss.²⁴ However, the script of the play in Skoumal’s translation was never published, because it was used only for the theatrical purposes by the students of DAMU (Divadelní fakulta Akademie múzických umění). Apart from that, only a few translations of Synge were made in the first few decades of the 20^th century; mostly the interest of the translators was raised in the 1920s: in 1921 the dramas In the Shadow of the Glen, The Well of Saints and The Playboy of the Western World in translation by Marta Florianová were published, in 1922 Florianová translated Riders to the Sea and in 1929 she made the translation of the prosaic work Aran Islands.²⁵

The main themes of his plays were quite well-adjusted; since Synge usually based his narratives on fairy-tales, legends and folk-tales, there was nothing about, for example, The

23 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "John Millington Synge,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 2^nd December 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Millington-Synge.

25 "John Millington Synge,“ Databáze překladů, ˇUTRL FF UK and KA FF MU 2008–

2015 ÚTRL FF UK a KAA FF MU, 13^th December 2015 http://www.databaze-prekladu.cz/autor/jn20000701753.

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Playboy of the Western World that could be considered inappropriate by the audience in the Czech Lands. Oppositely, in Ireland this play caused rather a stir:

when [it] was first performed in Dublin in 1907, there were riots in protest. The black comedy with its tale of attempted patricide was seen as going beyond the limits of decency, and was even accused of putting the Irish nation into disrepute,²⁶

as Ondřej Pilný claims in the interview with David Vaughan. He also explains why the ambivalent reception in Ireland did not influence the Czech production (the explanation can be applied on other Synge’s plays as well): “the main issue with the original production concerned the authenticity of the representation of the nation, which obviously was not an issue here in Prague and the Czech Lands whatsoever.”²⁷

Synge’s works were first translated by Karel Mušek, who even “maintained contact […] with the author […].”²⁸ After Mušek obtained a copy of one of Synge’s plays, In the Shadow of the Glen, he translated it and the play was performed on 7^th February 1906 at Švandovo divadlo.

In 1906 he translated two more Synge’s plays, Riders to the Sea and The Well of Saints, and in the same year he visited Ireland to meet the author himself. After his return he initiated the premiere of The Shadow of the Glen at Národní divadlo, Praha in 1907, the translation and production of The Playboy of the Western World at Divadlo na Vinohradech, Praha, in 1916 (up to date 30 professional productions have been made, making Playboy the most favourite play by Synge performed in the Czech Lands), and finally, the premiere of The Well of Saints in 1921. In 1929 he translated the prosaic work The Aran Islands. The extensive publication

26 David Vaughan, "An Irish classic at home in Prague,“ Radio Praha – Český rozhlas, 14^th February 2010, 17^th November 2015 http://www.radio.cz/en/section/books/an-irish-classic-at-home-in-prague.

27 Vaughan

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of Synge’s work was mainly due to Mušek’s funding, and it enabled Synge to enter the Czech-Irish canon:

there is no doubt that Mušek provided the initial impulse for Synge to be established as a significant presence in Czech theatres, this making a vital contribution to the playwright’s rising European reputation at the time.²⁹

Mušek also provided valuable information about Irish drama in his articles (for example

“Příklad irského divadla” published in Divadlo 12, no. 1, in 1932³⁰), which were later used by Frank Tetauer to discuss the subject of Irish theatre.

Oscar Wilde, the Irish poet and dramatist, belongs to the group of well-established authors in the Czech Lands: the first translations of his poetry and prose were published in Moderní revue already in 1890. Between the years 1945 and 1948 a few translations of his works were made. The first was, quite expectably, The Picture of Dorian Gray (published as Obraz Doriana Graye in a magazine as early as in 1890 and in a book form in 1891), a combination of “the supernatural elements of the Gothic novel with the unspeakable sins of French decadent fiction.”³¹ It was translated by J. V. Pimassl in 1948. Soon a study by Z.

Vančura and R. Kmoch followed. The second work was the translation of The Happy Prince and Other Tales. It was translated as Šťastný princ a jiné příběhy by Josef Tkadlec, and it was published in Daňkovice in 1947. A few short stories from The Happy Prince were also

29 Pilný, IDCL 208

30 Pilný, IDCL 206-208.

31 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Oscar Wilde,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 24^th July 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/Oscar-Wilde.

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translated individually: for example, in 1946 “The Selfish Giant”³² was translated by Tkadlec as “Sobecký obr” and in 1948 “The Happy Prince”³³ was translated by Táňa Němcová as

“Pohádka o šťastném princi” and published in the children’s magazine Mateřídouška 4, no.

19. Among other short stories that were not a part of the collection, “My Aunt Jane’s Ball,”³⁴ translated by A. Petříková as “Zmeškaný ples” (published in Beseda naší rodiny 3, no. 5, 1947) and by an unknown translator as “Moje teta Jana” (published in Zemědělské noviny 4, no. 39, 1948) can be named. Finally, in 1946 The Ballad of Reading Gaol³⁵ was re-published by J. Podroužek, Praha, in translation by František Vrba as Balada o žaláři v Readingu (it was first published in 1800 by H. Kosterka as Ballada o žaláři v Readingu, and re-published in 1919 by Neumannová³⁶).

Finally, among early dramatics, the playwright Richard Brinsley Sheridan must be definitely mentioned. In Ireland Sheridan “was recognized as one of the most persuasive orators of his time, but never achieved greater political influence in Parliament because he was thought to be an unreliable intriguer.”³⁷ He became famous for his play The School for Scandal, which “form[ed] a link in the history of the comedy of manners between the end of the 17^th century and Oscar Wilde in the 19^th century”³⁸ and is often considered the greatest

32 Oscar Wilde, The Selfish Giant (UK: Allen & Unwin, 2012).

33 Oscar Wilde, "The Happy Prince,“ The Happy Prince and Other Stories (UK: Sheba Blake Publishing, 2015).

34 Constantin-George Sandulescu, Rediscovering Oscar Wilde (UK: C. Smythe, 1994) 408.

35 Oscar Wilde, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (UK: The Floating Press, 2013).

36 "Oscar Wilde,” Databáze překladů, ÚTRL FF UK and KAA FF MU, 13^th December 2015 http://www.databaze-prekladu.cz/autor/jn19981002409.

37 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Richard Brinsley Sheridan,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica,

Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 22^nd July 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/Richard-Brinsley- Butler-Sheridan.

38 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, RBS

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comedy of manners in English.³⁹ In 1945 it was translated by Rudolf Vaníček as Škola pomluv and published by Universum. However, this was definitely not the first translation.

The School for Scandal was first translated as early as in 1855 by Štěpán Ostrovský as Klevety, published by J. Pospíšil, Praha, and it was staged at the turn of the 20^th century.⁴⁰

2.3. Prosaic works

Let us turn the attention to prosaic works that were translated between the years 1945- 1948. It may be useful to start with Jonathan Swift, the Irish writer and satirist, whose position of an assistant to Sir William Temple enabled him to publish his own essays and memoirs, as well as various political articles (e.g. “A Modest Proposal”). He is best known for his novel Gulliver’s Travels, written the year 1726. Its “storyline points to historical events that Swift had lived through years prior, during intense political turmoil.”⁴¹ In Great Britain it was a huge success since the novel has never run out of print. Moreover, Gulliver’s Travels found its readers even in Czechoslovakia. The first translation appeared already in 1852, under the title Gulliverovy cesty (translated by Karel Pichler, published by V. Hess, Praha). Other translations followed in the years 1882 (Gulliverovy cesty, published by Pichl, Praha, the translator is unknown), 1874 (Gulliverovy cesty do Liliputu a Brobdignaku, published by Mourek, Praha, in translation by J. V. Hlouška), 1894 (Gulliverova cestování do mnohých a vzdálených končin světa, published by A. Hynek, Praha, in translation by Jan Váňa), 1895 (the second edition of the former), 1896 (Gulliverovy cesty do Liliputu a Brobdignaku, published

39 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, RBS

40 Daniel Samek, "Databáze irských překladů,“ Filozofická fakulta Univerzity Karlovy – Katedra anglistika a amerikanistiky, 17^th November 2015 http://ualk.ff.cuni.cz/ibibliography/index.htm.

41 "Jonathan Swift,“ Bio, 2015, 23^rd July 2015 http://www.biography.com/people/jonathan-swift-9500342.

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by A. Hynek, Praha, in translation by V.K.) and 1897 (the third edition of Váňa’s translation).⁴² The first post-war translation was made in 1946 by Arnošt Ondrůj and it was published by Státní nakladatelství. The second translation was made by František Marek- Müller in 1947 and it was published by F. Novák. The novel’s popularity was probably caused by the fact that it was usually not considered a political manifesto against the corrupted society – which it was – but a fairy-tale, or at most, a travelogue (which was partially true as well): for example, José Luis Chamosa Gonzáles claimed that “children enjoy the amusing plot of this charming tale without so much as suspecting the importance of its real meaning.”⁴³ However, it is necessary to say that the children’s versions differed significantly from what Swift wrote:

the reading of Gulliver’s Travels as a story of adventures, in which the amusement of a young audience is the only objective, requires a pruning of those episodes and/or passages that do not fit into the scheme.⁴⁴

It may be claimed that Gulliver’s Travels was so widely accepted because the political message was not recognized people read it rather as an adventurous story.

As to the problematics of the translations of Swift, according to Michael Düring, in the

“development of modern Czech language culture from its beginning in the nineteenth century [,] Jonathan Swift was neglected to the greatest possible extent,”⁴⁵ which may be correct, considering the date when the first translation of Swift appeared at the Czech market, but not

42 Samek, DIP

43 José Luis Chamosa Gonzáles, "Swift’s Horses in the Land of the Caballeros,“ Herman J. Real ed., The Reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe (Great Britain, A&C Black, 2005) 70.

44 Gonzáles 70.

45 Michael Düring, "Detecting Swift in the Czech Lands,“ Hermann J. Real ed., The Reception of Jonathan Swift in Europe (Great Britain, A&C Black, 2005) 214.

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with regard to the actual extent of translated works by Swift (it is true that the first translations of Swift were published in the 19^th century, while in other Slavonic countries, such as Russia or Poland, the first translations appeared already in 18^th century).

The last pre-War translation was the re-edition of Hynek’s Gullivera cestování do mnohých a vzdálených končin světa, and it was published in 1920. It was closely followed by H.

Senický’s adaptation Gulliverovy cesty do země trpaslíků a do země obrů. Both translations

like almost all children’s versions in all European languages, [were] seriously curtailed, omitting all offensive (sexual and scatological) passages and eliminating Swift’s seemingly misanthropic satire.⁴⁶

Two years later the complete version of Gulliver’s Travels (including all four books) finally came out. Since then Gulliver’s Travels has been reprinted regularly, regardless on the current regime. The political message of the text was mostly omitted, misinterpreted or regarded unimportant.

Düring furthermore claims that the neglect of Swift in the Czech Lands before the 19th century may be explained by the fact that “Czech literary traditions set in not before the beginning of the nineteenth century, at a time, that is, when Swift had already lost a great deal of his regard.”⁴⁷ In other words, the Czech-Irish canon was not yet fully established, which

46 Düring, DSCL 215.

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necessarily caused authorial omissions. Also, “critical reception did not take place before 1906.”⁴⁸ Last but not least,

since histories of English literature, which would have surveyed Swift’s life and work in Czech are not available from that time, the Dean never really stood a chance of being integrated into the national cultural context of Czechoslovakia […]”⁴⁹

Nevertheless, Düring’s claims may be questioned with regard to the amount of Swift’s work translated and published in the Czech Lands in the discussed period between 1945 and 2014;

it does not seem that the author would suffer from any neglect whatsoever.

Sean O’Faolain (the penname of John Francis Whelan), the 20^th-century Irish writer, was best known for his short story collections “about Ireland’s lower and middle classes [in which] he often examined the decline of the nationalist struggle of the failings of Irish Roman Catholicism.”⁵⁰ Around the year 1932 he started writing novels, short stories, and essays “that gave unflattering yet sympathetic and realistic portraits of modern Irish life.”⁵¹ The article that was translated and published in the Czech Lands was related to the political situation in the so called “Irish Free State” and it discussed “church-inspired censorship, the narrowness of the

49 Düring, DSCZ 223.

50 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Sean O‘Faolain,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 21^st July 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/Sean-OFaolain.

51 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, SOF

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Irish clergy, and restrictive family traditions.”⁵² The article also considered the inadequate state of the Irish literary movement, the lack of Irish literary schools, forced emigration of Irish writers with lower-class background, and finally the anathema of Irish artists. O’Faolain even provided their list, which included Kate O’Brien, Sean O’Casey or Elisabeth Connor.

The list also contained the authors that were evaded regularly. The original was published in the magazine The Observer and the translation in the magazine Obzory in 1946. The translator is unfortunately unknown.

With regard to the fact that Sean O’Faoláin was a well-known prosaic writer in Ireland, it is rather surprising that only a minimum of his works was translated into Czech, and he is yet unknown at the Czech literary market. At the time of the translation of the article, almost no- one was probably aware of his other works.

Among female Irish prose writers that were translated in the Czech Lands in the post- War period, Elizabeth Bowen, a novelist and a short-story writer can be listed. In 1946 she wrote an essay called “English Fiction at Mid-Century” (originally published in People, Places, Things: Essays, a 2008 compilation that unified Bowen’s essays published in British, Irish and American periodicals in the first half of 20^th century, and some that were never published before⁵³), which was translated by Miroslav Berka as “Anglický román mezi dvěma válkami,” and it appeared in the magazine Obzory. The original was said to be “one of her most comprehensive statements about modern fiction – its chief practitioners and its social

52 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, SOF

53 The review upon People, Places, Things – Essays by Elizabeth Bowen (Alan Hepburn ed., Edinburgh University Press, 2008) https://books.google.cz/books?id=BQSrBgAAQBAJ&dq=english+fiction+at+mid- century+bowen&hl=cs&source=gbs_navlinks_s.

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shortcomings.”⁵⁴ In 1947 another article followed, called “Panorama of the Novel,” which was translated by an unknown translator as “Panorama anglického románu” and it appeared in Britský magazín. The second part of the study was published under a different name,

“Panorama II.”⁵⁵ Both articles developed the problematic of the nature of British novel between WWI and WWII, and discussed it in considerable detail with regard to its political impact upon the public. It is also notable that in her papers Bowen “expresses her distaste for the psychological novel in 1920s and 1930s.”⁵⁶ More precisely, she claims that

for the greater part of the inter-war years, subjectivity hazed over the English novel;

there was disposition to follow the stream of consciousness ‘from caverns measureless to man down to a sunless sea.’⁵⁷⁵⁸

Among others, in her article “English Fiction at Mid-Century” Bowen mentions Dorothy Richardson and Virginia Woolf as the ambassadors of modern novel, or Graham Greene and Evelyn Waugh.⁵⁹ Her papers may serve as useful compilations of main inter-bellum authors, pointing out their significance within the genre of modern British novel, but the Czech translations possibly brought only a little to the general understanding of the problematic, which was caused by the fact that they were mostly unknown to the readership.

54 Alan Hepburn, Listening In: Broadcasts, Speeches, and Interviews by Elizabeth Bowen (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1. 5. 2010) 358.

55 The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Elizabeth Bowen,“ Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2015, 19^th July 2015 http://www.britannica.com/biography/Elizabeth-Bowen.

56 Hepburn, LIBSIEB 358.

57 Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Kubla Khan,“ The Literature Network, Jalic Inc. 2000 – 2015, 19^th July 2015 http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/640/.

58 Elizabeth Bowen, and Alan Hepburn ed., "English Fiction in Mid-Century,“ People, Places, Things: Essays (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008) 322.

59 Bowen, and Hepburn ed., EFMC 322 – 324.

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Apart from the non-fiction work, one of Bowen’s short stories, “Sunday Afternoon,”⁶⁰ was translated in 1945/1946 as “Nedělní odpoledne” by the lyrical poet and short-story writer Jan Čep, and it was published in Kvart 4.

It is interesting that Elizabeth Bowen, as well as some other authors, mentioned in this chapter, was not considered an Irish author in the Czech Lands, because there was nothing specifically Irish in her works. Similarly, the poets Cecil Day-Lewis and Louis MacNeice, the prosaic writer Jonathan Swift or the dramatists Oscar Wilde and Richard Brinsley Sheridan suffered from the same problem. With regard to George Bernard Shaw, it is true that most of his readers knew him as an Irish author, though it did not play any significant role in his works. Of a few authors that were indubitably and inevitably considered Irish, John Millington Synge or William Butler Yeats can be named.

To continue with Irish female writers, it may be useful to mention Kate O’Brien, whose writing career began when she started working for Manchester Guardian, and soon she indulged in more elaborate novel writing. Her first novel, Without my Cloak won several literary prizes. The main theme of her writing

would be constant thorough her novels, namely the struggle (particularly the struggle of Irish women) for individual freedom and love against the constricting demands of family, bourgeois society and Catholic religion.⁶¹

60 Elizabeth Bowen, "Sunday Afternoon,“ The Collected Stories of Elizabeth Bowen (UK: Anchor Books, 2006) 616.

61 "Kate O’Brien,“ Irelandseye.com 1999 – 2006, 21^st July 2015

http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/people/writers/kobrien.shtm.

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Some of her works were banned from publishing when the Irish Free State’s censorship laws were established,⁶² to which she responded by two more novels, Pray for the Wanderer (1938) and The Last of Summer (1943), “both critical of the smug puritanism of the Free State under Eamon de Valera.”⁶³ Her most famous and most critically appraised work, though, is definitely That Lady⁶⁴ from 1946. The novel was translated in 1948 by Vojtěch Gaja as Ta dáma and it was published by Vyšehrad. Surprisingly enough, the novel was never re- translated, and only two new editions were published (in 1971 by Vyšehrad and in 2000 by Aurora).⁶⁵ The translator, Vojtěch Gaja, belongs to one of the most productive multi-language translators. His range was extraordinary: apart from English, he translated also from Latvian, Lithuanian, Russian, German and French, and he was also quite skilful in line translations from Latin and Greek. Except That Lady, he also translated O’Brien’s novel Without the Cloak (Bez pláště).⁶⁶

2.4. Poetry

Within the range of poetry, the most notable poet of the era between 1945 and 1948 was definitely the Nobel Prize poet, dramatist, prose writer and one of the founders of Irish Literary Theatre (1899, in 1904 re-named Abbey Theatre) William Butler Yeats.

62 Simon Lowe, "The Ten Commandments as Our Code: Media Censorship in 20^th-century Ireland,“ Socheolas – Limerick Student Journal of Sociology, vol. 3, issue 2, February 2012

63 "Kate O’Brien,“ Databáze překladů, 13^th June 2015, 21st July 2015 http://www.databaze- prekladu.cz/preklad/000094847-.

64 Kate O’Brien, That Lady (UK: Virago, 2004).

65 "Kate O’Brien“

66 "Vojtěch Gaja,“ Obec překladatelů, 21^st July 2015

http://www.obecprekladatelu.cz/_ftp/DUP/G/GajaVojtech.htm.