Remembering Ewald Osers and Prague; A Poetic Film Project

From Radio Praha - EWALD OSERS AND THE CHEMISTRY OF TRANSLATION, David Vaughan


Poems by Jaroslav Seifert, translated by Ewald Osers, Masaryk University (pdf) includes Views from Charles Bridge.


I had hoped to make a documentary film (with the help of Bob Jones) when I was working in Prague in the mid-1980's.

Ewald Osers had kindly agreed (November, 1986) that I could use some of his own poems (and some of his translations of Seifert and other Czech poets) on the soundtrack. Sadly, the film was never made.

My brand-new Russian Krasnogorsk 16mm film camera had a fault at the time.

I still have my notes for the shooting script, as well as Ewald's letters and his own typed copies of his evocative Prague poems, including the following:

Prague 1971
Prague Revisited I
Prague Revisited II

"And still this city grips me by the throat...
What tears are these that jerk into my eyes?" (E. Osers, 1984)

Prague was not so well-known in those days. I wish I could have captured its atmosphere on film around 1986-1988, when we were discussing the film project.

We had also talked of including some of Rilke's early poems, and others by Nezval. I would have wanted to include several of Edwin Muir's Prague poems, and one by Tony Harrison.

I still have the film and the locations in my head - and I still have the unused Krasnogorsk camera.

I often read the poems and translations of Ewald Osers. I can see Prague through his eyes, and through the eyes of Seifert: I don't need a film.

Cover design, Bob Jones, 1986

Related:

THE VERBAL ACROBATICS OF VITEZSLAV NEZVAL, Radio Praha

I wish I'd had an Arriflex in Prague

From my library, translations by Ewald Osers: