RECENZE:

This beutifully produced 244-page bilingual hardcover book, accompanied (in a pocket inside the back cover) by a CD, will have a particular attraction for readers of Czech origin in the USA, whose Czech may have become a little rusty and who will therefore be able to follow Ivana Bozděchová’s sensitive translations with the aid of the English originals on the facing page. And, of course, it should appeal to the Irish and ex-Irish community in America.
At first sight, one might regard it as part of the modern trend towards multimedia works of art. But in fact, Egan’s poetry virtually cries out for multimedia treatment: it is full of visual images of the Irish landscape, while frequently referring to specific musical experiences. The editor and producer of this charming book-cum-CD, and indeed the person who conceived the whole idea, Ivana Bozděchová, commissioned special music to be written, arranged for recordings of music mentioned in the poems to be amde available, selected the photographs for the volume (both landscape pictures and snaps of Desmond Egan reading his poetry), engaged the actors for reading the poems in Czech – in short, she did everything from copyright negotiations to organizing and supervising the work in the recording studio and proof-reading the book. For this the literary public, both Czech and English speaking, owes her a great debt of gratitude. My personal opinion is that, by creating DESpectrum, she has introduced a new art form, or genre, that may well be found suitable for other poets. Her work has been justly recognized in receiving the 2002 CIBA/James Joyce Award, presented to her by the Irish ambassador in Prague.
The book opens with tributes to Egan by friends and fellow-poets, while the CD begins with a kind of "overture", so that when we hear Egan’s voice reading the first poem he is no longer a stranger to us. There are musical interludes between the individual poems, read partly in English (by Egan himself) and partly in Czech (by professional actors, though in some of the two-voice poems we can also hear the voice of the translator). After "Morning in Wind and New Sounds" with its quotation from Richard Strauss’s song "Und morgen wird die Sonne wieder scheinen," we hear this haunging song in an unforgettable rendition by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. "Listening to John McCormack" is preceded by McCormack singing "Maggie." Similarly, we hear Billie Holiday and Bill Evans before we hear Egan’s poems dedicated to them. And the long poem "Prelude", dedicated to the pianist Hans Palsson, is followed by a recording of Palsson himself playing Franz Schubert’s Impropmtu in G flat major. And the music specially composed and played by Jan Hrubý and palyed by him and his daughter (he on violin, she on a recorder), sometimes between poems and sometimes as a soft background, seems to me to fit the Celtic mood exactly. The little book also contains bibliographical data on Egan’s poetry.
On a personal note: I don’t know how often I have read "Famine," but I find it a breathtaking, shattering, poem each time I read it anew. (And not being English, I have no reason to feel any personal guilt or shame. It quite simply is a great poem.)
I suppose the ideal way to enjoy DESpectrum is to play the CD while reading the book. The CD is alternatively bilingual, whereas the book is continually bilingual on facing pages. This composite work therefore addresses itself equally to Czech and English readers. It deserves to be widely bought, listened to, and read.