An Anthology of Czechoslovak Literature/Preface

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PREFACE

THE present volume contains English renderings from the works of Czech and Slovak authors in prose and verse, mostly modern and many of them contemporary. It does not claim to be exhaustive. The translator has selected his material mostly for its artistic qualities, but occasionally because of its documentary interest. His choice, however, has sometimes been restricted by the difficulty of producing translations which will do adequate justice to their originals, and this accounts for the absence of certain names (e.g. Sládek, Zeyer, Hlaváček) or the scanty representation of others (Neruda, Čech, Dyk). But these are deficiencies which can be remedied later.

All the extracts, with the exception of one or two of the earliest prose specimens, are complete in themselves.

As regards the verse translations, an attempt has been made to follow D. G. Rossetti’s principle: “The life-blood of rhymed translation is this—that a good poem shall not be turned into a bad one.” In all cases the form and contents of the originals have been reproduced as closely as possible.

P. S.

London

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1930.

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