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Praga in flagranti
"Magiczna, złota, bolesna, turystyczna mekka pod czapą piwnej piany, stop wielu kultur, miasto artystów, nowoczesna metropolia, przestrzeń do życia. Każdy z nas ma swoją Pragę. Zbigniew Machej opowiada nam o tej własnej – miejscu, które kiedyś, na przełomie tysiącleci, było jego domem. Mieście, w którym czas się zatrzymał, świecie, którego już nie ma, ale którego znaki wciąż możemy odnaleźć, jeśli jako prascy przechodnie wybierzemy się w podróż śladami autora. To opowieść osobista i nostalgiczna, utkana z miejsc, ludzi i skrawków codzienności, w której jest miejsce dla galerii sztuki i cuchnących knajp, Blake'a i Szwejka, Kafki, Różewicza i Bruce'a Willisa, gwiazd nad Zizkovem, salcesonu i piwa. Opowieść pełna poezji (nie tylko tej czeskiej) i prozy życia – jak sama Praga".
Anna Maślanka
Anna Maślanka
390 pages, Hardcover
First published February 15, 2023
9 people want to read
About the author
Zbigniew Machej
31 books2 followersA poet and translator of Czech, Slovak, British and American poetry; diplomat.
One of the "three most important debutants of the 1980s" (according to Marian Stala), he continues to confirm this high status. He made his debut as a fully-fledged poet, for whom the strong influence of surrealism (not French, but Czech) has not blunted a sharp view of the world or the precision of his intellectual approach. Machej is superb at taking advantage of the links between a joke and a metaphor, thanks to which even his most serious poems never fall into a bottomless pit of pathos, and nor do the funniest ones end up as nothing but light entertainment. With the exception of Boguslaw Kierc, no other contemporary Polish poet uses such a variety of metrical patterns with such elegant fluency (as well as, curiously, the short lyric form in prose). Machej is also a poet with lively reactions to current affairs and the events of public life (for example, he might be inspired to write a poem by interviews with Madonna, the murder of Versace, or a film about Basquiat). At the same time his biting irony and independent views often make him enemies (as in the case of his poem about the publishers of Czeslaw Milosz). Eroticism has an important place in his work; he serves it up in Baroque splendour, in all its metaphysical shades, while also making it highly suggestive and at times stunningly bold.
One of the "three most important debutants of the 1980s" (according to Marian Stala), he continues to confirm this high status. He made his debut as a fully-fledged poet, for whom the strong influence of surrealism (not French, but Czech) has not blunted a sharp view of the world or the precision of his intellectual approach. Machej is superb at taking advantage of the links between a joke and a metaphor, thanks to which even his most serious poems never fall into a bottomless pit of pathos, and nor do the funniest ones end up as nothing but light entertainment. With the exception of Boguslaw Kierc, no other contemporary Polish poet uses such a variety of metrical patterns with such elegant fluency (as well as, curiously, the short lyric form in prose). Machej is also a poet with lively reactions to current affairs and the events of public life (for example, he might be inspired to write a poem by interviews with Madonna, the murder of Versace, or a film about Basquiat). At the same time his biting irony and independent views often make him enemies (as in the case of his poem about the publishers of Czeslaw Milosz). Eroticism has an important place in his work; he serves it up in Baroque splendour, in all its metaphysical shades, while also making it highly suggestive and at times stunningly bold.
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