Bloody Sonnets by Hviezdoslav
If you live in Bratislava you have probably enjoyed a stroll through Hviezdoslavovo námestie aka Hviezdoslav Square. Maybe you went to the opera, hotel Carlton or enjoyed it’s restaurants, ice cream parlours and Christmas market.
Square’s name is definitely a tongue twister for foreigners. It is named after a famous Slovak writer Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav. Who is sometimes called the Slovak Shakespeare, because he also elevated a simple peasant language into a beautiful poetic voice. His statue can be seen in the middle of the square.
There is also a theatre named after him and we had the privilege to be among the first to see the new play based on Bloody sonnets written by Hviezdoslav. He wrote them right at the beginning of the World War I and they could not be published during the war, because of their strong anti-war message.
The sonnets were translated to English and this now they were used in an English language theatre play, that will soon be introduced in New York City. The poems were a bit easier to understand in English than in Slovak for some of us. Even though they are hundred years old they sound very relevant today. They talk about human nature, pride and puffed-up arrogance that cause conflicts and wars.
After the play our students were interviewed by the National TV and Radio. You can listen to them in Slovak on this link:
https://slovensko.stvr.sk/clanky/kultura-art/389672/krvave-sonety-v-anglictine-na-divadelnej-scene
If you want to see the play you can buy your tickets here:
https://dpoh.sk/inscenacia/the-bloody-sonnets/
More about the play:
“A song of blood: – the thought is strange and wild?! – And
which?” Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav’s cycle of thirty-two Bloody
Sonnets begins with this sketch of a shocking reflection, in which
he speaks prophetically not only about the facts and consequen-
ces of the First World War, but also about the times to come,
which are incapable of learning from the horrors of the past.
It is precisely because of this inability to influence the course
of history that we must once again amplify Hviezdoslav’s appeal
to the cruelties of war, and thereby also purge it of its misuse
under socialism.
The Bloody Sonnets is an expressive stage poem about the
end of a world and a century of hope for the creation of a new one.
Through striking aesthetics, original music and John Minahan’s
unflinching English translation, the project depicts a junkyard
of ideals and utopias, a horror of biblical proportions without gods,
and the fate of the individual in the howling chaos of war.
The Bloody Sonnets is a performative memorial to the vain illu-
sions of the grandeur of nations and a silent manifesto
of conscious pacifism.
(The Bloody Sonnets is in English and Slovak,
with subtitles in both languages).
