Czech writer Bohumir Hrabar is famous for his works such as "Too Noisy Loneliness" and "I Have Served the King of England", and he is known as the "Three Musketeers" of contemporary Czech literature along with Milan Kundera and Ivan Klima. Milan Kundera called him "the greatest writer of our time". During the Beijing International Book Fair, the Beijing Publishing Group, the Beijing October Literary and Art Publishing House, and the Czech Embassy in China jointly hosted a literary exchange event entitled "Beijing Meets Prague – Hrabar Heard in a Tavern", in which writers and critics discussed Hrabar's works and their influences.
Author: Growing
Bohumir Hrabar was born in 1914 in Zhydenice, near Brno, the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was a successful author in his lifetime, and was later assembled into a collection of 19 volumes, which sold well in the Czech Republic. His 77 books, which have been distributed in 27 languages in 33 countries around the world, have been nominated for the 1994 Nobel Prize in Literature, including "Too Noisy Loneliness", "I Have Served the King of England", "Pearls at the Bottom" and "Sweet Sorrow". Hrabar's work has been adapted into plays and films, with the film of the same name as the novel "The Watched Train" winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1966, and the film Lost Wings Sparrow, based on "House Sale: The House I Don't Want to Live In," which won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 1990 Berlin Film Festival. In 1997, he mysteriously fell to his death in the hospital, the cause of death is still unsolved.
Talking about the feeling of reading Hrabar's novels, the writer Qiu Huadong said, "His novels have a special tone, this tone, kind, casual, humorous, the first sentence can bring you into his novel, and then tell you, and then something happens." It can be said that the opening of his novel is very small, and after entering, you will find that his novel world is dense and meticulous, writing the fate of small people, but reflecting the feelings of home and country and the fate of the nation. In addition, reading Hrabar's works, you can often feel the tearful laughter and helpless sense of humor in his works. ”
"I Served the King of England" covers with a waistband
Regarding the "humorous" nature of Hrabar's works, writer Shi Yifeng said, "Hlabar's humorous presentation of suffering and absurdity is a tradition of Eastern European literature, and we can see this atmosphere from "Good Soldier Shuaike". My personal favorite is Hrabar's I Have Served the King of England, in which he writes about grand things with great ease, an ability that many writers cannot do. ”
The young critic and director of the editorial department of October magazine, Ji Yaya, who focuses on Hrabar's small characters, said, "Hrabar writes all about Czech little people, and we often talk about the pearls at the bottom of his, and compare them with our low-level writing, intellectuals and folk issues." But the bottom layer of Hrabar is not exactly the bottom of the Chinese writer's context, he is the flower that grows out of the Central European intellectual tradition, the bottom layer associated with the bohemian spirit, a bottom layer that is closely related to artistic creation, and even the art of living, and finds energy and explosive power from it. The self-design of the dr. RIAB's low-level travels constitutes a distant dialogue and ghosting with the Chinese writers' going to the folk. ”
Speaking about Czech literature and Hrabar, Han Jingqun, editor-in-chief of Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House, said, "The Czech Republic may be a small country in geography, but it is definitely a first-class big country on the international map of literature. Hašek, Kafka, Milan Kundera, Seiffert, Ivan Klima and, of course, Hrabar, are names that place Czech literature at the pinnacle of world literature. The charm of Hrabar lies not only in the sad and arrogant lyrical temperament of his works, not only in the pearl-like luster of the suffering and pure happiness of the little people at the bottom of society in his works, nor only in the stubborn tenacity of his art and poetry, with a witty and mocking posture against the mediocrity of life, and his way of life as an artist is a charming existence, which reminds us, an artist, how his life is integrated with his creation, and grows with each other. For Hrabar, falling in love with him and falling in love with his work is simply one thing. ”
"Too Noisy Loneliness"
Beijing October Literature and Art Publishing House has published 8 works by Hrabar, including "Too Noisy Loneliness", "I Once Served the King of England", "A Strand of Hair", "Sweet Sorrow", "A Small Town Where Time Stands Still", "Wedding Banquet", "New Life", and "Cabin in the Forest". In order to promote "Chinese literature going out", Beijing Publishing Group set up the "'October' Writers' Residence Prague" project in 2015 to encourage Chinese writers to go to Prague to experience, communicate and write, and at present, Yu Hua, Su Tong, Ye Guangqian, Wu Yuchu, Ma Yuan and other famous Chinese writers have gone to Prague to live and write, creating a living platform for cultural exchanges between China and the Czech Republic.
(Original title: Herabal heard in the tavern)
Source: Beijing Evening News
Edit: tf2046