Čihadlo vzpomínek – Hons Václav (2023)

The collection Čihadlo of memories represents a certain turning point in the poet's work, as it is already the twentieth poetry collection, published after his several-year hiatus at the turn of the millennium. At the same time, it is the twentieth collection published since 2015 by the Radix publishing house. Václav Hons has been dedicated to poetry for over 60 years; his first collection, Co je před očima, which includes verses from 1959-1960, was published in 1962. However, since the late 1950s, he has contributed to various cultural and literary periodicals (Literární noviny, Tvář, Plamen, Host do domu, etc.). In his work, he does not hide his relationship with the Czech language and history, which he studied at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, but also with music – his collections Malá noční hudba (1976) and Vodní hudba (2015) are dedicated to the life and work of W. A. Mozart and G. F. Händel. In addition to poems, he has also written several hundred song lyrics – the most famous are probably his Neposlušné tenisky for Lucie Bílá, but also other lyrics for H. Zagorová, V. Špinarová, K. Gott, etc. In the last seven years, Václav Hons has published twenty collections, mostly of a lyrical nature, in quick succession. All his poems are characterized by the use of fresh phrases and combinations, sometimes even neologisms, unexpected connotations or associations, etc. The common denominator is his...