Otokar Březina - Approaching the irrational passions of life with a manic rush... Brezina forsakes rational structures of thought, instead creating towers of language that often exhibit powerfully abstract imagery

Otokar Březina, Hidden History, Trans. by Carleton Bulkin, Twisted Spoon Press, 1998.
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Afterword


Otokar Brezina (1868-1929) was the most prominent Czech poet of his day. HIDDEN HISTORY, however, is not precisely poetry but a collection of "poetic essays." Brezina's creation of this entirely new genre represents the apotheosis of his work, as well as a prime example of his ablity to apply metaphorical language to an exploration of the mystical links between art and life and between the visible and invisible worlds.


he works of the Czech Symbolist Otokar Březina (1868-1929), a writer twice nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, influenced an entire generation of artists in Bohemia and Moravia. Hidden History (published posthumously in 1935) is one of the most important works of 20th century Czech prose and represents the apotheosis of Březina's endeavors in the essay form. I n this finely crafted collection, he discusses the role of art as a vanguard of developments in science and as a force for social change. These essays also contribute to an understanding of Březina's poetry, for which he is better known. They comprise the most systematic exposition of his aesthetic creed, which served to inspire the Czech writers and literary critics who followed in his footsteps.              
This edition is the first complete English translation of any complete volume of Březina's work.


Approaching the irrational passions of life with a manic rush... Brezina forsakes rational structures of thought, instead creating towers of language that often exhibit powerfully abstract imagery. - David Auerbach

Brezina was the greatest of Czech symbolists, indeed, one of the great figures in European symbolism generally. . . Bulkin has produced a fine and faithful translation which I can recommend to anyone . . . - James Partridge

Hidden History [is] a unique marriage of philosophical investigation and artistic endeavor that produced finely wrought lyrical expositions of Brezina's aesthetic and mystical beliefs. -- The Prague Post, September 8, 1998

Brezina was the greatest of Czech symbolists, indeed, one of the great figures in European symbolism generally ... Bulkin has produced a fine and faithful translation which I can recommend to anyone ...

— The New Presence Petr Holman: Nature in Otokar Březina's Work (pdf) Březina, Otokar