Sylva Fischerová

Sylva Fischerová (born 1963) is one of the most formidable Czech poets of her generation. Daughter of a non-Marxist philosopher whose works were banished under the communist régime, she is a distinguished classicist who teaches at Charles University in Prague and writes poetry with a vivid imagination as well as an historical reach. She has published eleven volumes of poems in Czech as well as short stories, novels, books for children and essays. Her works have been translated and published in numerous languages. Three selections of her poems appeared in English: The Tremor of Racehorses (Bloodaxe Books, 1990); The Swing in the Middle of Chaos: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2010); Stomach of the Soul (Calypso Editions, 2014). From 2018 to 2020 she was the first City Poet of Prague.

Poem from The Swing in the Middle of Chaos: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2009)

Translated from the Czech by Stuart Friebert and the author

Arna aistriú ón tSeicis ag Colm Breathnach

Reproduced by kind permission of the author and publisher