Poetry since 1945

#3 The reaction to the poetry of the concretists was extremely rich. Several distinguished poetic figures entered into a dialogue with this poetry and accepted some of its motives which were close to them, eg Ján Šimonovič, Štefan Strážay and Lýdia Vadkerti-Gavorníková. Others, such as Ján Buzássy, tried to stand apart from it. Vadkerti Gavorníková in her poetry managed to link the magic motives of folklore, personal experience and rational judgement in an excellent way. Poems in which often a lyrical pole of a song is interwoven with epic poetry are based on the confrontation of an individual with the role of man or, in the case of Gavorníková, a woman. Everyday as well as unique situations in which a woman (a mother, a daughter, a wife) is described with precise and expressive language, quite often combined with functional usage of proverbs and other phrasal expressions (the collections Pohromnice, ‘Candlemasstide’, 1965, Totožnosť, ‘Identity’, 1970, Kolovrátok, ‘The Spinning Wheel’, 1973; Piesočná pieseň, ‘The Sandy Song’, 1977 and Víno, ‘Wine’, 1982). Active usage of phrasal expressions in poetic language is also found in the poetry of J Buzássy. From his introductory collection Hra s nožmi (‘Game With Knives’, 1965), Buzássy writes poems full of inner contradictions which he tries to align. In his first book we can feel the tension between the individual and society, the search for incorporation into a greater whole (the socialist idea of collectivism), which is in following books substituted by contradictions between body and soul, between those who are and those who live (Škola kynická, ‘School of Cynics’, 1966), and between passion and chastity (Nausikaá, Nausicaa, 1970).
At the end of the 1960s another influential group of poets entered Slovak literature. The name of the group was derived from a famous story by A Sillitoe, Lonely Runners (‘Osamelí bežci’). Three authors Ivan Štrpka, Ivan Laučík and Peter Repka presented their poetry as common manifestoes in journals, where they refused poetry stripped of ethics as well as political orders in creative writing. All three of them managed to publish two books in the free atmosphere of the 1960s and after the political change in 1970 the group became unwanted (the Ivan Štrpka collections Krátke detstvo kopijníkov, ‘The Short Childhood’, 1969 and Trista tára, ‘Trista Tells Lies’, 1971; the Ivan Laučík collections Pohybliví v pohyblivom, ‘Moving in Movement’, 1968 and Sme príbuzní na začiatku, ‘We Are Relatives’, 1970; and the Peter Repka collection Sliepka v katedrále, ‘Hen In the Cathedral’, 1969 and book of reports Vstaň a choď, ‘Stand Up and Go’, 1970, which censorship banned and decided to destroy).
#4 Interest in the group revived at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s, when new directions in postcommunist Czechoslovakia (since 1993 an independent Slovakia) were being sought.
Despite new trends and the rise in the Slovak poetry during the 1960s, official literature was still represented by authors who, with more or less alterations, resumed the traditions of socialist realism. A look back at the 1950s brought certain reflection, and it was admitted that ‘in the process of seeking some mistakes were made”, but at the same time it was added that ‘for the main direction of development these were not vital in any way’ (statement from 1962). The picture of Slovak poetry in the 1960s was very rich, one pole being represented by a number of authors faithful to socialist realism, together with a group of authors who brought several innovations in this area (V Mihálik, J Kostra, P Horov). Slovak poetry was further enriched by a great number of other authors who entered poetry with a special programme. A great contribution was made by Mikuláš Kováč and his absence of conventionalism (the collectionsObrana stavebnice, ‘Defence of Building Set’, 1963, O modrej labuti, ‘The Blue Swan’, 1966), by Ivan Kupec and his anti-utopia (Mahonai, 1964 and Vyzliekanie z hnevov, ‘Taking Off Anger’, 1965), by Jozef Mokoš and his ability to describe the anxiety of an individual in the world of the atomic threat (Praskanie krvi, ‘Blood Switch’, 1962), by Štefan Moravčík and his chasing the word, creating puns, world play and ubiquitous erotic inspiration (Slávnosti baránkov, ‘The Festivals of Lambs’, 1969 and O veľkej zmyselnosti bielych ovečiek, ‘On the Great Sensuality of White Sheep’, 1970), by Štefan Strážay and his minimalist poetry with great suggestive power (Veciam na stole, ‘Things on the Table’, 1966), by Kamil Peteraj and his new objective concept of thought (Sad zimných vtákov, ‘Orchard of Winter Birds’, 1965, and Čas violy, ‘The Time of Violin’, 1966), by Marián Kováčik and his sagacity (Súradnice, ‘Co-ordinates’, 1963), and by Tomáš Janovic in his gnomic anecdotes (Epigramatika, ‘Epigrammar’, 1962).
The 1960s were also years of returning poets who were not allowed to publish because of strict party bans, or whose silence may be attributed to other reasons. Among the most prominent returns was Laco Novomeský, who he published three collections – Vila Tereza (‘Villa Theresa’, 1963), Do mesta tridsať minút (‘Thirty Minutes to Town’, also 1963) and especially the book of verse Stamodtiaľ a iné (‘From There and Others’, 1964), based on author´s personal experience of communist imprisonment in the years 1951-1955. Other leading figures of interwar literature, such as Ján Smrek, Janko Silan, Emil Boleslav Lukáč, Maša Haľamová, Pavel Bunčák and Rudolf Fabry, also made a positive return during this period.
Books of the everlasting value were written in this period by Miroslav Válek, Ján Ondruš and other concretists, and especially by Milan Rúfus, whose collections Zvony (‘The Bells’, 1968) and Triptych (1969) offered a pressing analysis of the crisis in human values. Rúfus depicts human hypocracy and often useless cruelty in an uncompromising way.