Czech writer Vitezslav Nezval (1900-58) was one of the leading
Surrealist poets of the 20th century. Prague with Fingers of Rain is his
classic 1936 collection in which Prague's many-sided life - its
glamorous history, various weathers, different kinds of people - becomes
symbolic of what is contradictory and paradoxical in life itself. Mixing
real and surreal, Nezval evokes life's contradictoriness in a series of
psalm-like poems of puzzled love and generous humanity. Nezval was
perhaps the most prolific writer in Prague during the 1920s and 30s. An
original member of the avant-garde group of artists Devetsil (Butterbur,
literally: Nine Forces), he was a founding figure of the Poetist
movement. His numerous books included poetry collections, experimental
plays and novels, memoirs, essays and translations. His best work is
from the interwar period. Along with Karel Teige, Jindrich Aetyrsku, and
Toyen, Nezval frequently travelled to Paris, engaging with the French
surrealists. Forging a friendship with Andre Breton and Paul Aeluard, he
was instrumental in founding The Surrealist Group of Czechoslovakia in
1934 (the first such group outside of France), serving as editor of the
group's journal Surrealismus. His mastery of language and prosody was
unparalleled - contemporaries referred to it as wizardry. Alongside with
surrealist poetry, he wrote poems that sounded like genuine folksongs
and for some time he teased the Czech literary public by the anonymous
publication of three books attributed to a fictitious Robert David - one
of 52 Villonesque ballades, another of 100 sonnets, all in strict
classical form. His identity was guessed by the critics only because 'no
one else would be able to do that'. This selection from his seminal
collection has a specially commissioned foreword by Ivan Klima.
