Czech Books "Time for a Poem": bringing poetry to people

The Near (very near) East

Blood is spilt
Then it dries
Or you wipe it away

The pieces are put back in place
Then they fall
Or are picked up

Two different games
on the same chessboard

(Marian Hatala, Slovakia)

I apologise for my rather rough English translation of this and other poems featuring in today's programme, but I hope that they do at least give a sense of the poetry.

If you've looked around at advertising hoardings at bus and tram stops and many other places around Prague in the last few days, you might have been surprised to come across poetry. Marian Hatala's poem is one of five poems by different Central European poets that are being featured in a project called 'Time for a Poem'. The aim is to get poetry into the public domain, and you can't get much more public than the advertisement hoardings that stare out at us from every street corner. At the official launch last week I caught up with one of the organizers to find out more.

"My name is Svetlana Paunovic. I'm working for the company Multiart, which is the initiator of the project 'Time for a Poem' in cooperation with the city of Vienna. It started about 20 years ago in Vienna and now it's international."

Which countries are involved?

"This year we have Slovakia, the Czech Republic, we have Slovenia and we have Hungary.

I am an egg
an egg with a centre of gold
with a ball of yellow
light
I wait
curled up in a ball
for the light to harden
but not too much
not too much
so it will still flow
run

the golden centre
grows
I feel the beating
of another's heart
do not become too hard
being
out of light

(Barbara Korun, Slovenia)

Can you tell me what you actually do in this project? It's a fascinating idea to get poetry out into the streets with advertising hoardings around towns, where, instead of seeing advertisements for washing powder or whatever, you see poetry.

"Yes, that's right. It's difficult, you know, to bring poetry to people. It's difficult to tell people to make time for poetry, to calm down and to forget for just a second their work, their problems and so on. And it's quite difficult to reach the people. But if you put poems into the city lights, it's good to see that people - if they are going to work or if they are simply in the streets, they see there is a poem and they really take their time to read it."

How does it work? Presumably you have to find partners in the commercial sector, who are willing to finance such a campaign, because otherwise I should examine it would be extremely expensive to flood a city with poems.

"Yes, it's not such an easy thing. First of all you have to get in touch with the PEN Clubs, you have to get in touch with the responsible cities, the mayors, you have to find sponsors. Otherwise it wouldn't be possible to do the whole thing."

And this year the project 'Time for a Poem' has the theme of 'tolerance'. Can you tell me what is meant by that?

"Every year we have a different theme, so last year it was transformation, which meant the new transformation countries, the new EU member states. One year has passed and now we have the process of integration. Tolerance means that everybody should respect diversity."

This must mean quite a lot to you personally, given that you are originally from Serbia, you grew up in Austria, you studied Slovak and Russian. So you're a real Central European yourself.

"Yes, but you know, my role is not so big within this project. I'm a part of it, as you are as well, as a person who is passing by all the poems, so we're all a part of the same."

And you chose poets from all five of the countries that are involved?

"It was a suggestion by the PEN Clubs. We sent them our theme and according to this theme they chose the poems."

And which poems by which poets did they choose?

"This year, for Slovakia we have Marian Hatala, for Slovenia we have Barbara Korun, for Hungary we have Zoltan Sumonyi, for Austria we have Doris Muehringer and for Prague we have Jiri Grusa."

Homesickness
for foreign lands

a spider in autumn
bound trees together

trees with shoes
which I like
because they stay longer
than their barefoot brothers

(Jiri Grusa, Czech Republic)

Do these poets all have something in common?

"They have in common that through those poems you can see that everybody somehow is still related to their home country, but they on the other hand do feel as a part of the European Union."

Do you have a favourite poem among the ones that have been chosen?

"I like them all because they all have something to say and if you really take your time to read those poems you will see what they want to tell you."

Let's travel

But where to
I ask

Home

But where is that
I ask

Inside
the voice replies

(Doris Muhringer, Austria)

So here in Prague the five poems are on display around the city in Czech translation. Is that the case in all the other cities as well, that they're - for example - in Slovenian or Hungarian translation, so that everyone can read them?

"In Prague, in the Czech Republic, we have all the poems by all the authors translated into the Czech language, in Slovenia we have them in Slovene, in Austria in Austrian German and so on. So we translated them all into the languages."

And this isn't the first year that you've realized this project, so what sort of feedback have you had in previous years?

"The feedback is very good. Last year we had 50,000 people who really wanted to have those posters in small form for their home or their offices, just to read it over and over again."

So will it be possible for Czechs to buy the posters with the poems, or in some way to obtain them, here in Prague as well?

"It should be possible to obtain them, but those things will start after the campaign has finished. So if we have a well-organised system, then of course it will be possible for people to obtain the posters."

And are you already thinking about next year?

"Well, of course, many people have ideas and many have the wish to do something with poetry, but you have to find sponsorship. So ideas are there, but I cannot tell you more..."

Is it top secret?

"It's not top secret, but ideas are there."