The Destiny of a Poet

 by ZDENEK ROTREKL (born October 1, 1920 in BRNO)


The destiny of a poet, by the way, is to be
and not to be. Not to be, against all others,
and to be, with all the others.

To be and not to be.

He cannot, after all, say anything greater than
that he shall die, and that, in love, we should
have our seconds of dying. Those seconds of
non-dying between birth and death. He cannot
speak of anything greater than of death and of
apple blossoms' gentle fall. Of all things
leaving us and floating away just as he does.
Of movement and of pasing away being only
a ride in Charon's boat. Even Charon's boat
is and is not, even time is and is not.
Even life is and is not.

The destiny of a poet is just like that:

to be and not to be.


(From THE  BOOK OF APOCRYPHA, MAGIC AND INCANTTIONS/
English Translation Copyright C 1990 by
Jirina Fuchsova.

Perhaps the most erudite from among the contemporary
Czech poets, Dr. Zdenek Rotrekl spent the years
1949 through 1962 in communist prison on trumped-up
charges ( received a death sentence initially,
later reduced to life in prison. He was fully
"rehabilitated" in 1962.)
Zdenek Rotrekl lives in Brno. He received the
JAN ZAHRADNICEK PRIZE FOR CZECH POETRY in
January 1991 (only one of many honors and
prizes he was honored with since 1990.)
JF