Miroslav Holub (; 13 September 1923 – 14 July 1998) 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, ...

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 wri ...

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 is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to

translation 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 ''transla ...

. It has been translated into more than 30 languages and is especially popular in the

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-speaking world. Although one of the most internationally well-known Czech poets, his reputation continues to languish at home. Holub was born in Plzeň. His first book in Czech was ''Denní služba'' (1958), which abandoned the somewhat Stalinist bent of poems earlier in the decade (published in magazines). In English, he was first published in the ''

Observer An observer is one who engages in observation or in watching an experiment. Observer may also refer to: Computer science and information theory * In information theory, any system which receives information from an object * State observer in co ...

'' in 1962, and five years later a ''Selected Poems'' appeared in the Penguin Modern European Poets imprint, with an introduction by

Al Alvarez Alfred Alvarez (5 August 1929 – 23 September 2019) was an English poet, novelist, essayist and critic who published under the name A. Alvarez and Al Alvarez. Background Alfred Alvarez was born in London, to an Ashkenazic Jewish mother and a ...

and translations by

Ian Milner Ian Frank George Milner (6 June 1911 – 31 May 1991) was a New Zealand Rhodes Scholar at New College, Oxford who had attended Waitaki Boys' High School. He was then a political scientist, a civil servant with the Australian Department of External ...

and George Theiner. Holub's work was lauded by many, including

Ted Hughes Edward James "Ted" Hughes (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation and one of the twentieth century's greatest wri ...

and

Seamus Heaney Seamus Justin Heaney (; 13 April 1939 – 30 August 2013) was an Irish poet, playwright and translator. He received the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature.

(eg there are five poems by Holub in their 1982 anthology ''The Rattle Bag''), and his influence is visible in Hughes' collection ''

Crow A crow is a bird of the genus '' Corvus'', or more broadly a synonym for all of ''Corvus''. Crows are generally black in colour. The word "crow" is used as part of the common name of many species. The related term "raven" is not pinned scientifica ...

'' (1970). In addition to poetry, Holub wrote many short essays on various aspects of science, particularly biology and medicine (specifically immunology) and life. A collection of these, titled ''The Dimension of the Present Moment,'' is still in print. In the 1960s, he published two books of what he called 'semi-reportage' about extended visits to the United States. Under the fictitious name "Jaromil," Holub figures prominently in Patricia Hampl's memoir of her Czech heritage, ''A Romantic Education,'' first published in 1981 and reissued in 1999 with an Afterword revealing his real name. The

minor planet According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU), a minor planet is an astronomical object in direct orbit around the Sun that is exclusively classified as neither a planet nor a comet. Before 2006, the IAU officially used the term ''mino ...

7496 Miroslavholub, an

outer main belt asteroid The asteroid belt is a torus-shaped region in the Solar System, located roughly between the orbits of the planets Jupiter and Mars. It contains a great many solid, irregularly shaped bodies, of many sizes, but much smaller than planets, called ...

, is named in his honour.

Works in translation

* ''Vanishing Lung Syndrome,'' trans. David Young and Dana Habova (Oberlin College Press, 1990). ; (Faber and Faber, 1990). * ''Intensive Care: Selected and New Poems,'' ed. David Young (Oberlin College Press, 1996). * ''The Rampage,'' trans. David Young, Dana Hábová, Rebekah Bloyd and the author (Faber and Faber 1997) * ''Poems Before and After: Collected English Translations'' (Bloodaxe Books; 2nd ed. 2006). * ''Shedding Life: Disease, Politics and Other Human Conditions'' trans. David Young, with assistance by Dana Habova, Todd Morath, Vera Orac, Catarina Vocadlova, and the author (Milkweed Editions, 1997). * ''Supposed to Fly'' trans. Ewald Osers (Bloodaxe Books; 1996). * ''The Fly'' trans. Ewald Osers, George Theiner, Ian & Jarmila Milner (Bloodaxe Books; 1987). *''The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry'', edited by

J. D. McClatchy J. D. "Sandy" McClatchy (August 12, 1945 – April 10, 2018) was an American poet, opera librettist and literary critic. He was editor of the ''Yale Review'' and president of The American Academy of Arts and Letters. Life McClatchy was born ...

, Vintage Books, 1996. , 9780679741152.

References

External links

New York Times obituary
* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090210044636/http://dogmatika.com/dm/features_more.php?id=3281_0_5_0_M Dogmatika profile of Holub – Darran Andersonbr>Miroslav Holub
at the '' complete review'' – many further links
Brief talk quoting his poem ''Ode to joy''Biography in CzechMichal Bauer, 'The Portrayal of the United States of Miroslav Holub’s Writing From the 1960s'
{{DEFAULTSORT:Holub, Miroslav 1923 births 1998 deaths 20th-century Czech poets 20th-century male writers Czech immunologists Czech male poets Czech medical writers Czechoslovak physicians Physicians from Plzeň Writers from Plzeň