Zápisky Malta Lauridse Brigga – Rilke Rainer Maria (2022)

The notes of Malta Laurids Brigge can be described as 'the history of the soul.' The only novel by the great poet is among the most influential and enduring works of world fiction. It is built on the aesthetics of the senses – events and moments are experienced as visual, acoustic, tactile, and olfactory perceptions that awaken deeply buried experiences and give rise to new ideas. The novel is characterized by a peculiar blend of poetry and prose; it is a quiet, dreamlike prose with unforgettable scenes presented in precise, analytical descriptions, and at other times in intense lyrical portrayals. It is prose that impacts the reader with sudden revelations and an awareness of the existence of the supernatural, much like Rilke's poetry. Rilke's language is beautiful in the truest sense. The translation perfectly conveys the unsettling beauty of the original, interpreting not only the meaning into Czech but also the pearlescent sheen of certain passages, the twilight radiance of Rilke's words, and above all, the melody: the mournful waltz rhythm of sentences that sometimes resonates from the depths, at other times pulsates clearly at the very surface. Malta's fragile, indeed spoiled soul often thinks of death and the spirits of his aristocratic family, of which he is the only living descendant. The thought of his own...