PROFILE PETR HRUŠKA


Everything Indicates


TEXT Rob A Mackenzie


have long enjoyed reading poetry in translation, especially from central Europe. In post-Brexit UK, when trading with the EU can be so complicated, it feels all the more important to remain internationalist in outlook and to keep


publishing great European literature. Translation, an art in itself, opens up new worlds for adventurous readers. I took an instant liking to the work of Petr Hruška and am really pleased that people now have the opportunity to read Everything Indicates, brilliantly translated from the Czech by Jonathan Bolton. Many of Hruška’s poems present a recognisable scene—in “Mock Orange”, for example, a spill on a kitchen table. However, the narrator wipes at the table “in vain” and the spill turns out to be a shadow “cast by a malevolent bush/of mock orange in spring”. Suddenly, life has been destabilised by something outside the cosy household. We’re left reflecting on how little we can insulate ourselves from events, and on how our initial assumptions often need to be challenged. I love the fact that there is always something at stake in Hruška’s poems and, while what holds us together is fragile, it’s nevertheless present and vital. “A Room for the Night” closes with an embrace. While “big trucks” roar like “ravenous/ beasts of the night”, loud and brash enough to keep a gas station attendant awake for days, the couple in their narrow room must embrace silently even to turn around. Their eventful past, and the roar of world travel, shrink before this uneasy but emotive scene.


PETR HRUŠKA


ROB A MACKENZIE IS A POET AND FOUNDER  BLUE DIODE PRESS WHICH PUBLISHED PETR HRUŠKA’S EVERYTHING INDICATES  


A Room for the Night the big trucks roared like ravenous beasts of the night you called out the price to me a room for two people the guy from the gas station angular with lack of sleep led us up a steep staircase Berlin Krakow Trieste all of it was in the past now I had never seen such a narrow room when we wanted to turn around we had to embrace Petr Hruška (Jonathan Bolton, trans)


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Photography: Jiří Zerzoň


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