Ewald Osers (13 May 1917 – 11 October 2011) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus' Places * Czech, ...

translator Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

and

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator ( thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral or w ...

born in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

Career

He translated several important Czech poetry works of the 20th century into English, including

Jaroslav Seifert Jaroslav Seifert (; 23 September 1901 – 10 January 1986) was a Czech writer, poet and journalist. Seifert was awarded the 1984 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his poetry which endowed with freshness, sensuality and rich inventiveness provides ...

Vítězslav Nezval Vítězslav Nezval (; 26 May 1900 – 6 April 1958) was a Czech poet, writer and translator. He was one of the most prolific avant-garde Czech writers in the first half of the 20th century and a co-founder of the Surrealist movement in Czechos ...

Miroslav Holub Miroslav Holub (; 13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) was a Czech poet and immunologist. Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work ...

and Jan Skácel. He also translated several German-language authors such as

Thomas Bernhard Nicolaas Thomas Bernhard (; 9 February 1931 – 12 February 1989) was an Austrian novelist, playwright and poet who explored death, social injustice, and human misery in controversial literature that was deeply pessimistic about modern civiliza ...

, as well as Macedonian-language books (

Mateja Matevski Mateja Matevski (13 March 1929 – 6 June 2018) was a Macedonian poet, literary and theater critic, essayist, and translator. Career Matevski was born on 13 March 1929 in Istanbul, Turkey to an Albanian family of the Eastern Orthodox rite. His ...

), poetry of the Silesian poet Ondra Lysohorsky, and two major Slovak poets, Miroslav Válek and

Milan Rúfus Milan Rúfus (December 10, 1928 – January 11, 2009) was a Slovak poet, essayist, translator, children's writer and academic. Rúfus is the most translated Slovak poet into other languages. Life Milan Rúfus was born to a family of brickl ...

Selected bibliography

Works * ''Arrive Where We Started'' (poems), 1995 *''Snows of Yesteryear'' (memoir), 2007 Translations * ''Modern Czech Poetry: An Anthology'', 1945 (with J.K. Montgomery) *

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

, ''A Working Friendship: The Correspondence between Richard Strauss and

Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo Laurenz August Hofmann von Hofmannsthal (; 1 February 1874 – 15 July 1929) was an Austrian novelist, librettist, poet, dramatist, narrator, and essayist. Early life Hofmannsthal was born in Landstraße, Vienna, the son of an upper-cl ...

'', 1961 (with H. Hammelmann) *

Paul Carell Paul Carell was the post-war pen name of Paul Karl Schmidt (2 November 1911 – 20 June 1997) who was a writer and German propagandist. During the Nazi era, Schmidt served as the chief press spokesman for Joachim von Ribbentrop's Foreign Ministry. ...

, ''Scorched Earth: Hitler's War on Russia, Vol. 2'', 1970 * ''Three Czech Poets:

Antonín Bartušek Antonin, Antonín, and Antoñín are masculine given names. Antonín, a Czech name in use in the Czech Republic, and Antonin, a French name in use in France, and French-speaking countries, are both considered alternate forms of Antonino. Antoñí ...

, Josef Hanzlík'', 1971 (with G. Theiner) * Óndra Łysohorsky, ''Selected Poems'', 1971 *

Reiner Kunze Reiner Kunze (born 16 August 1933 in Oelsnitz, Erzgebirge, Saxony) is a German writer and GDR dissident. He studied media and journalism at the University of Leipzig. In 1968, he left the GDR state party SED following the communist Warsaw Pact ...

, ''With the Volume Turned Down, and Other Poems'', 1973 * ''Contemporary German Poetry'', 1976 * Rose Ausländer, ''Selected Poems'', 1977 * Rudolf Langer, ''Wounded No Doubt: Selected Poems'', 1979 * Nahapet Kuchak, ''A Hundred and One Hayrens'', 1979 *

, ''The Plague Column'', 1979 *

Walter Helmut Fritz Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...

, ''Without Remission: Selected Poems'', 1981 *

Sebastian Haffner Raimund Pretzel (27 December 1907 – 2 January 1999), better known by his pseudonym Sebastian Haffner, was a German journalist and historian. As an émigré in Britain during World War II, Haffner argued that accommodation was impossible not on ...

, ''The Meaning of Hitler'', 1983 * Jaroslav Seifert, ''An Umbrella from Piccadilly'', 1983 *

, ''On the Contrary, and Other Poems'', 1984 *

Nikola Vaptsarov Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov ( bg, Никола Йонков Вапцаров; 7 December 1909 – 23 July 1942) was a Bulgarian poet, communist and revolutionary. Working most of his life as a machinist, he only wrote in his spare time. Despite the ...

, ''Nineteen Poems'', 1984 * ''Voices from across the Water: Translations from Twelve Languages'', 1985 *

Karel Čapek Karel Čapek (; 9 January 1890 – 25 December 1938) was a Czech writer, playwright and critic. He has become best known for his science fiction, including his novel '' War with the Newts'' (1936) and play '' R.U.R.'' (''Rossum's Universal ...

, ''War with the Newts'', 1985, new trans., 1990 *

Lyubomir Levchev Lyubomir is a Bulgarian masculine given name, a variant of the Slavonic Lubomir. Notable people with this name include: * Lyubomir Andreychin (born 1910), Bulgarian linguist * Lyubomir Bogdanov (born 1982), Bulgarian football midfielder * Lyubomir ...

, ''Stolen Fire: Selected Poems'', 1986 * ''The Selected Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert'', 1986 (with G. Gibian) * Miroslav Holub, ''The Fly'', 1987 (with J. Milner and G. Theiner) * Jaroslav Cejka, Michael Cernik, and Karel Sys, ''New Czech Poetry'', 1988 * Vladimír Janovic, ''The House of the Tragic Poet'', 1988 *

, ''Footprints of the Wind: Selected Poems'', 1988 *

, ''Wittgenstein's Nephew'', 1986 *Thomas Bernhard, ''Cutting Timber'', 1988 *Thomas Bernhard, ''Old Masters'', 1989 *Thomas Bernhard, ''The Cheap-Eaters'', 1990 * Miroslav Holub, ''Poems Before and After: Collected English Translations'', 1990 (with I. Milner, J. Milner, and Theiner) *

Rüdiger Safranski Rüdiger Safranski (born 1 January 1945) is a German philosopher and author. Life From 1965 to 1972, Safranski studied philosophy (among others with Theodor W. Adorno), German literature, history and history of art at Goethe University i ...

, ''Schopenhauer and the Wild Years of Philosophy'', 1990 * Thomas Bernhard, ''Yes'', 1991 * Ivan Klíma, ''Love and Garbage'', 1991 *Josef Hanzlík, ''Selected Poems'', 1992 (with I. Milner and J. Milner) * Michael Krüger, ''The End of the Novel'', 1992 * Michael Krüger, ''The Man in the Ice'', 1994 *

Heinz Piontek Heinz Piontek (15 November 1925 – 26 October 2003) was a German writer. He was born in Upper Silesia. In 1976, he was awarded the Georg Büchner Prize by the Deutsche Akademie für Sprache und Dichtung for his literary oeuvre with the words "ei ...

, ''Selected Poems'', 1994 * Miroslav Válek, ''The Ground Beneath Our Feet: Selected Poems'', 1996 *

Albrecht Fölsing Albrecht Fölsing (1940 in Bad Salzungen – 8 April 2018 in Hamburg) was a trained physicist turned into a scientific journalist. Having studied physics in Berlin, Philadelphia, and Hamburg, he worked as an academic research assistant for the Germ ...

, ''Albert Einstein: A Biography'', 1997 * Rüdiger Safranski, ''Martin Heidegger: A Master from Germany'', 1997 * Jan Skácel, ''Banned Man: Selected Poems'', 2001 *

, ''And That's the Truth! Poems in English & Slovak'', 2005

Awards

* 1971:

Schlegel-Tieck Prize The Schlegel-Tieck Prize for German Translation is a literary translation award given by the Society of Authors in London. Translations from the German original into English are considered for the prize. The value of the prize is £3,000.

, for ''Scorched Earth'' by

*1987: European Poetry Translation Prize, for ''The Selected Poetry of Jaroslav Seifert''Ewald Osers
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References

1917 births 2011 deaths Austro-Hungarian Jews Writers from Prague Translators from Czech Translators from Macedonian Translators from Slovak Translators to German German–English translators BBC World Service Czech emigrants to the United Kingdom 20th-century translators Czechoslovak emigrants to the United Kingdom {{CzechRepublic-translator-stub