“A Small Elegy”

I came across this poem, “A Small Elegy,” by the Czech writer Jiri Orten, for the first time years ago, in Ed Hirsch’s wonderful book, How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry, and it knocked the wind out of me.  I gasped at how intensely this terribly young Czech writer articulated a sense of isolation, outrage and disappointment in god’s failure to protect those we love from evil.

Czech poet Jiri Orten

Then I discovered that the translator, Lyn Coffin, lives here in Seattle. And I was delighted to find out earlier this year that after 40 years of translating Orten, with the poems in and out of print, Night Publishing has brought out a full-length collection of her emotionally resonant translations. It’s called White Picture, and this week on KUOW I feature Lyn reading  “A Small Elegy,” as well as a conversation with Lyn about the art of translation and about why she thinks Orten is such an important poet of the 20th century.

Listen to Lyn read “A Small Elegy,” then listen to our conversation.

Here’s a wonderful blog post from Lyn about her connection with Orten, and finally getting this collection in print. And here’s Ed Hirsch on “A Small Elegy.”

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