Pavel Šrut (3 April 1940, in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

– 20 April 2018) 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 *Czech (surnam ...

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 (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

and writer.

Career

After graduating in 1967 from the

Charles University Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest universities in the world in conti ...

in Prague where he studied English and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

, Šrut worked as an editor in a publishing house. Since 1972, he was a freelance writer and

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 ''trans ...

. Together with poets such as

Ivan Wernisch Ivan Wernisch (born 18 June 1942) is a Czech poet, editor and a collage artist. He studied Ceramics Secondary school in Carlsbad (he left in 1959) and has since done many jobs, mostly manual. In 1961, after publishing his debut poetry book, he qui ...

and Petr Kabeš, Šrut belonged to the famous generation of Czech poets who published their first books in the 1960s. Like so many of his contemporaries, he was not allowed to publish books of his poems during the

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

occupation, except for books for children. His work was often done together with an award-winning Czech painter and illustrator Galina Miklínová (e. g. ''Verunka a kokosový dědek'' (2004) which is included on the IBBY list, as is his 1992 book ''Kočičí král'' which is a collection of English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh fairy-tales) and lyrics for Czech musicians like

Petr Skoumal Petr Skoumal (7 March 1938 – 28 September 2014) was a Czechs, Czech musician and composer. He is best known as a composer of music for films and theatre performances. Biography Petr Skoumal was born on 7 March 1938 in Prague to Aloys Skoumal a ...

, and Framus Five. Apart from his celebrated poetry and books for children, he was also a translator from English and Spanish. His translations include books of

Dylan Thomas Dylan Marlais Thomas (27 October 1914 – 9 November 1953) was a Welsh poet and writer, whose works include the poems " Do not go gentle into that good night" and " And death shall have no dominion", as well as the "play for voices" ''Un ...

Robert Graves Captain Robert von Ranke Graves (24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985) was an English poet, soldier, historical novelist and critic. His father was Alfred Perceval Graves, a celebrated Irish poet and figure in the Gaelic revival; they were b ...

D. H. Lawrence David Herbert Lawrence (11 September 1885 – 2 March 1930) was an English novelist, short story writer, poet, playwright, literary critic, travel writer, essayist, and painter. His modernist works reflect on modernity, social alienation ...

Leonard Cohen Leonard Norman Cohen (September 21, 1934November 7, 2016) was a Canadian songwriter, singer, poet, and novelist. Themes commonly explored throughout his work include faith and mortality, isolation and depression, betrayal and redemption, soc ...

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

, and others. Šrut lived in Zdice.

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a Public university, public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. B ...

offered the Pavel Šrut Poetry Fellowship in their Prague Summer program, where Šrut appeared sometimes as a guest or guest faculty member.

Bibliography

Poetry *''Noc plná křídel'' (1964) *''Přehlásky'' (1967) *''Červotočivé světlo'' (1969) *''Malá domů'' (1989) *''Přestupný duben'' (1989) *''Kolej Yesterday'' (1990) (a collection of his lyrics) *''Cadus rotundus - Sud kulatý'' (with Eugen Brikcius) (1993) *''Zlá milá'' (1997) *''Brožované básně'' (2000) - for these two books he was awarded the prestigious

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 ...

Prize in 2000 *''Papírové polobotky'' (2001) Essays *''Konzul v afrikánech'' (1998) For children (selection) *''Pavouček Pája'' (2001) *''Veliký tůdle'' (2003) *''Verunka a kokosový dědek'' (2004) *''Příšerky a příšeři'' (2005) *''Šišatý švec a myšut'' (2008) (all five with G. Miklínová)

References

External links

* 1940 births 2018 deaths Czech poets Czech male poets Czech children's writers International Writing Program alumni Writers from Prague {{CzechRepublic-poet-stub